Top 10 Gardening Books for Beginners, Experts, and Everyone in Between

Gardening books are a great resource for beginners and an amazing way to expand your knowledge even if you are a seasoned pro. There is always something new to learn and the great thing about a book is that you can go at your own pace. You can look up specific details and research plant types and growing methods that will help you best accomplish your goals! We have put together a list of some of our favorite gardening books just for you.

Gardening Books For Kids – Big and Small:

Roots, Shoots, Buckets, and Boots by Sharon Lovejoy

A beautifully illustrated gardening book with bunches of garden designs, recommended plantings, care tips, and activities.

Harlem Grown by Tony Hillery

A children’s book illustrating the transformation of a vacant city lot into a thriving community garden.

The Basics:

The Organic Gardener by Catharine Osgood Foster

40 years of gardening experience compiled into one easy digest book. A great reference guide for beginners!

The Complete Gardener by Monty Don

Organic gardening practices and secrets to success for everything from flowers to fruits and veggies with beautiful pictures to bring everything to life.

Carrots Love Tomatoes by Louise Riotte

A companion planting guide that demonstrates how to use plants’ natural partnerships to increase yield and ward off pests.

Great Green Book of Garden Secrets by Jerry Baker

300 pages of homemade tonics and elixirs. If you have a gardening question, this book has the answer.

Specialized Gardening Books:

The Rodale Herb Book: How to Use, Grow, and Buy Nature’s Miracle Plants by The Rodale Press

A complete guide to herbs from antiseptic properties to culinary treats.

Greenhouse Gardener’s Companion by Shane Smith

20 years of experience simmered down to cover everything you need to know to establish a productive greenhouse.

The Water Gardener’s Bible: A Step-by-Step Guide to Building, Planting, Stocking, and Maintaining a Backyard Water Garden by Ben Helm

Everything from choosing the right site and selecting aquatic plants and fish to pond management and problem solving.

The Forest Garden Greenhouse: How to Design and Manage an Indoor Permaculture Oasis by Jerome Osentowski

A guide to designing the ultimate greenhouse ecosystem with a special feature on Growing Domes!

Additional Resources

In addition to these literary resources, Growing Spaces has created a few documents to help you in your year-round gardening journey. Check out our Four Season Planting Planner, Greenhouse Pests and How to Get Rid of Them, and our Greenhouse Guidebook. Sign up for our monthly newsletter below for even more gardening resources sent straight to your inbox!