Book Picks: 15 Books About Gardening

'Grow Fruit & Vegetables in Pots: Planting Advice & Recipes from Great Dixters,' by Aaron Bertelsen

Expert planting advice for growing fruit and vegetables in pots from the acclaimed English garden - with 50 delicious recipes.

Beautifully illustrated, Grow Fruit & Vegetables in Potsprovides clear, practical information on growing fruit and vegetables in containers, whether that be a window box or a terracotta pot on a balcony. Aaron Bertelsen of the acclaimed English garden at Great Dixter will guide you through what to grow, which pots to use, give personal tips on varieties to choose, and advice on cultivation and care. Featuring more than 50 delicious recipes, Bertelsen shows that lack of space is no barrier to growing what you want to eat, and proves that harvesting and cooking food you have grown yourself is a total pleasure, with dishes that showcase a few perfectly chosen - and personally grown - ingredients.

'No-Waste Organic Gardening: Eco-Friendly Solutions to Improve Any Garden,' by Shawna Coronado

Covering dozens of ways to recycle and re-purpose your way to a successful organic garden, No-Waste Organic Gardening shows you how to be a smart, responsible gardener.

'Beginner Gardening Step-by-Step: A Visual Guide to Yard and Garden Basics'

New to gardening? Start with the essentials for beginners.

Beginner Gardening Step By Step shows you the basics to get your green space under control and keep it that way. In this expert text, you'll find simple step-by-step instructions, with clear images to help you create your dream garden, no matter the size and scale.

From planting decorative climbers to growing your own fruits and vegetables, these easy steps will make a big difference in how your garden and landscape look and feel. Take the anxiety out of planting, potting, and pruning and enjoy your lush lawn, beautiful landscape, and bountiful garden.

Grow tomatoes, make a hanging basket, cut back your bushes and prune your roses - simply, practically and efficiently. The perfect way to kickstart a new outdoor hobby - this refreshingly accessible book will help the gardening novice master and enjoy their precious patch of land.

'Grow Something Different to Eat: Weird and Wonderful Heirloom Fruits and Vegetables for Your Garden,' by Matthew Biggs

Discover more than 50 out-of-the-ordinary edibles, from cucamelons to strawberry popcorn, in this seed-to-plate guide that inspires you to cultivate amazing new fruit and vegetable crops.

Whether you're a beginner and determined to make the most of limited space with a truly unique and heirloom harvest, or a seasoned grower looking to spice up your cooking with gourmet flavors, the step-by-step instructions give you the confidence to grow some unusually tasty crops. Choose from fruiting vegetables such as orange eggplants and hyacinth beans, salad greens such as fiddlehead ferns and sushi hostas, grains such as quinoa and chia, and luscious fruits such as honeyberries and white strawberries. All plants can be started indoors and transplanted, grown outdoors in the garden, or kept as houseplants. With versatile gardening advice for growing in a variety of spaces and situations, plus cooking suggestions and preserving options, a weird and wonderful harvest is guaranteed.

'The Flower-Powered Garden: Supercharge Your Borders and Containers with Bold, Colourful Plant Combinations,' by Andy Vernon

"Vernon's gorgeously illustrated guide...is an indispensable resource for anyone looking to add a powerful punch of color to their garden." --Library Journal

The Flower-Powered Garden urges home gardeners to embrace one of the most joyful and important parts of the garden--color! Andy Vernon, a self-professed flower fanatic, highlights perennials and annuals that pack a punch, and shares 15 color combinations that can be used in containers and gardens. The boisterous combinations are inspired by some of Vernon's favorite things--like sherbet, birds, and candy. A floripedia of 50 marvelous plants includes colorful favorites like dahlias, petunias, hollyhocks, fuchsias, and more. Vernon also shares basic gardening tips, with helpful advice on planting, watering, soil, and growing in containers. This colorful guide has everything you need to supercharge your garden with the power of flowers!

'Martha's Flowers: A Practical Guide to Growing, Gathering, and Enjoying,' by Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart's lifelong love of flowers began at a young age, as she dug in and planted alongside her father in their family garden, growing healthy, beautiful blooms, every year. The indispensable lessons she learned then--and those she has since picked up from master gardeners--form the best practices she applies to her voluminous flower gardens today. For the first time, she compiles the wisdom of a lifetime spent gardening into a practical yet inspired book. Learn how and when to plant, nurture, and at the perfect time, cut from your garden. With lush blooms in hand, discover how to build stunning arrangements. Accompanied by beautiful photographs of displays in Martha's home, bursting with ideas, and covering every step from seed to vase, Martha's Flowers is a must-have handbook for flower gardeners and enthusiasts of all skill levels.

'The Homesteader's Herbal Companion: The Ultimate Guide to Growing, Preserving, and Using Herbs,' by Amy K. Fewell

The Homesteader's Herbal Companion is a beautiful guide for the modern day homesteader. From learning how to incorporate herbs and essential oils around your home, to learning how to enhance your family's health and well-being, this book is the go-to resource for those wishing to live a more natural homesteading lifestyle. This book takes readers through the basics of herbalism, including the different types of herbs and their uses. It also breaks down how herbs are used in tinctures, salves, essential oils, and infused oils. You'll learn how to efficiently incorporate herbs into your lifestyle, creating your own herbal remedy cabinet for yourself and for your livestock as well. And through encouragement and evidence-based information, you'll be confident using herbs, cooking with herbs, and sharing your herbal products with your friends and family. With an array of beautiful photos and easy to read terminology, just about any homesteader, new or seasoned, can learn from The Homesteader's Herbal Companion, and finally feel comfortable incorporating the many wonderful qualities of herbs around their homes and homesteads.

'The Beginner's Guide to Starting a Garden: 326 Fast, Easy, Affordable Ways to Transform Your Yard One Project at a Time,' by Sally Roth

"Learn how to spend fewer hours and less money on revamping the garden." --The English Garden
 
The prospect of revamping your yard can be daunting. Where do you start? How do all the areas come together in a beautiful, cohesive way? In The Beginner's Guide to Starting a Garden, Sally Roth simplifies the process by showing you how to spend fewer hours (and a minimal amount of money) in the garden by tackling one small area at a time. You'll find garden plans for ten unique areas--the entryway, the shady areas under trees, and more--that can be linked together over time to create a unified yard, and plants that are dependable, easy to find, and look good year after year. You'll also learn the basics of good design, which plants offer the most bloom for your buck, and how to avoid the most common planting mistakes.

'Urban Flowers: Creating Abundance in a Small City Garden,' by Carolyn Dunster

Creating colour and interest in a small urban garden by growing a range of flowers and other decorative plants brings with it many rewards. Carolyn Dunster shows you what to grow and how to use your own blooms, leaves and berries in a range of indoor displays and hand-tied bouquets. Locally-grown flowers in season is a significant and welcome trend in floristry, and just as eating a tasteless strawberry in December pricks our consciences, so too does purchasing a bouquet of tulips in September, however stunning they may be to look at. The most local, seasonal flowers, which are the most satisfying to give and to display, are the ones you have grown yourself. Carolyn Dunster shows you how to do this in the smallest of spaces.

'101 Organic Gardening Hacks: Eco-Friendly Solutions to Improve Any Garden,' by Shawna Coronado

Shawna Coronado, one of America's most creative gardeners, gives you her library of clever gardening tricks in 101 Organic Gardening Hacks.

In 101 Organic Garden Hacks you'll find the top tips, tricks, and solutions Shawna has dreamed up in her career as one of America's most creative gardeners. Some are practical timesavers; others offer clever ways to upcycle everyday items in your garden.
 

'Seedswap: The Gardener's Guide to Saving and Swapping Seeds,' by Josie Jeffery

In an exciting introduction to the global seed-swapping movement, passionate seed activist Josie Jeffery explores why we should care about our plant heritage and, most importantly, explains how to do it. With an invaluable directory of all the best seeds to swap and save, Seedswap provides all the tools you need to start your very own growing revolution.

This book covers the what, who, and whys of seed swapping and seed saving. It advises where to start and how to get involved with the worldwide horticultural campaign to "save our seeds." The work of seed activist individuals and groups is highlighted with inspirational tips and tales, and there is insight into the practices of major seed companies and how this has affected seed diversity, as well as how "seed breeding" affects the future of plants. The work of seed collections and seed banks is explored, and advice is given on how to collect, clean, store, preserve, and raise seeds. The second part of the book contains an extensive plant directory, which is full of advice on how to grow plants from "seed to seed."

'The Complete Guide to Saving Seeds: 322 Vegetables, Herbs, Flowers, Fruits, Trees, and Shrubs,' by Robert E. Gough

Enjoy your favorite varieties of garden plants year after year with this comprehensive guide to gathering, preparing, and planting seeds. Authors Robert Gough and Cheryl Moore-Gough provide simple instructions that clearly explain the whole process, from basic plant biology to proper seed storage and successful propagation. Gardeners of any experience level will find all the information they need to preserve genetic diversity, cut costs, and extend the life of their favorite plants to the next generation and beyond.

'The Complete Idiot's Guide to Seed Saving and Starting,' by Sheri Ann Richerson

Reap richer results with plants grown from your own seeds!

Mouthwatering heirlooms, exciting hybrids, sensational herbs, colorful flowers-you dream of a garden overflowing with vibrant, healthy plants. Turn your dream garden into reality with seeds you save and start yourself!

With easy ideas on harvesting, storing, sowing, and nurturing your seeds into flourishing plants, this helpful guide gives you a sure path from start to success. In it, you get-

• A look at seed and plant anatomy and how pollination works.
• Simple suggestions for identifying seeds to save, and for gathering and prepping seeds for next year's garden.
• Guidance on germinating seeds, indoors or out, using scarification or stratification.
• Tips for transplanting, thinning, hardening off, and protecting seedlings from weather, pests, and disease.
• Easy ideas for cross-breeding plants and creating hybrids suited to your garden and climate.
• A comprehensive directory of botanical names and harvesting, germination, and sowing data for hundreds of plants.

'Seasonal Flower Arranging: Fill Your Home with Blooms, Branches, and Foraged Materials All Year Round,' by Ariella Chezar

Just as fruits and vegetables taste best when they are harvested locally and seasonally, flowers that are picked close to home and at their peak reflect a true connection to time and place. Nature does not deliver its harvest all at once--each season has its stars and Ariella Chezar, author of The Flower Workshop, shows you how to make the most of them. Seasonal Flower Arranging follows Mother Nature's lead to create dazzling arrangements from the distinctive gifts of the changing seasons, from a bounteous Thanksgiving table to a wintery wreath, and from a charming spring bouquet to a bold summer garland for outdoor entertaining. There are arrangements for seasonal holidays, special occasions, or just everyday life featuring tulips, roses, peonies, dahlias, and other flowers that are easily found at farmers' markets, local shops, or grown in one's own backyard. The book includes detailed instructions on how to re-create 40 floral designs, plus the inspiration and techniques to allow you to create your own original art out of nature.

'Old Farmer's Almanac Vegetable Gardener's Handbook'

This book is the perfect companion for every vegetable gardener--even those who have never touched a trowel and wouldn't know mulch from mud! The practical advice presented in the Vegetable Gardener's Handbook  demystifies gardening by providing the best, most proven methods for sowing, growing, and harvesting.
 
Highlights include ...

• Step-by-step advice for success with more than 30 vegetables in any zone
• The dirt on soil: why testing is so important--and how to do it
• Easy techniques for growing in-ground, plus alternatives to traditional raised beds
• Seed-starting and -saving methods simplified
• Gardeners' friends and foes: which plants help (or hinder) vegetables
• Enlightening (and humorous!) anecdotes from fellow gardeners
• Space for noting observations and experiences
• More than 150 full-color photos
• Essential reference tables and charts
• Much, much more!