Spring gardening book recommendations
Book recommendations are my love language. I get such a thrill from matching the right book with the person that will benefit from it. It’s like watching magic happen before my eyes! Today’s roundup includes 8 of my top gardening book recommendations to get you ready to grow this spring, no matter your experience level or vision for your garden space.
**Note: the products linked in this article are affiliate links on Amazon and I will earn a teeny tiny commission if you choose to purchase those products **
The world of gardening is vast and can break down into some pretty niche topics. With that in mind, I’m sorting these gardening book recommendations into 4 categories: garden design and skills, landscape design, vegetable gardening, and cut flower gardening.
GENERAL GARDEN DESIGN AND SKILLS:
Every gardener should have at least one of these books in their library to refer to as they start their garden, troubleshoot any potential pest or disease problems that arise, and plan each gardening season.
GARDENING FOR EVERYONE: Growing Vegetables, Herbs, and More at Home, by Julia Watkins.
This is an excellent general gardening book that belongs on every gardener’s bookshelf. The topics are split into 7 categories: Planning, Building, Planting, Tending, Harvesting, Playing, and Plant Profiles. Watkins prioritizes raised bed gardening and gives helpful building information while also acknowledging the value of in-ground beds, containers, etc. The Tending section is exceptionally helpful, featuring valuable information about different types of garden pests, pest management, and beneficial insects. The Playing section is another unique feature of this book, highlighting 24 creative garden-related projects for adults and children alike. I’ll be honest, I’ve read several books that hihghlight artistic projects that are garish and won’t be coming anywhere near my garden space—this isn’t one of them. I plan to try the Gardener’s Hand Scrub (page 225) and the Herbal Soup Wreaths (page 222) this spring, and may end up making the Homemade Scarecrow (page 196) just for the vibes. And speaking of vibes, this book presents a charming, natural, lived-in, slightly weathered garden style that is hitting right where I want to be with our Brick Street garden this year. If that’s your vibe, this is the book for you.
KITCHEN GARDEN REVIVAL: A Modern Guide to Creating a Stylish Small-Scale, Low-Maintenance Edible Garden, by Nicole Johnsey Burke.
I love Gardenary, Nicole Burke’s company. In fact, I am an (inactive for now) certified Gardenary Consultant and overall big fan of the way Burke has championed kitchen gardens over the past several years. If you want to build a gorgeous, elegant raised bed garden in the style of Shea McGee or Megan Markle, this is the book for you. The first half of Kitchen Garden Revival has great information on creating your raised bed garden, going more in-depth than many other books on topics like site mapping, layout, and foundational elements like pathways and support structures. The second half of the book dives into the concept of “plant families” and how to plan what will grow best in each season in your specific geographical location. If you want to learn more about planting in the Gardenary style, you can also check out Burke’s second book LEAVES, ROOTS, FRUIT.
Side note: I recorded a cut flower gardening class for Gardenary in 2022 that you can access through a membership account on their website.
LANDSCAPE DESIGN BOOKS:
Because you need a garden plan! Planting without a plan is setting yourself up for failure, and taking the time to create a thoughtful plan, whether for your front landscape, your backyard, or your entire property, will yield long term benefits as you work to beautify your property a little bit at a time.
TAKE IT OUTSIDE: A Guide to Designing Beautiful Spaces Just Beyond Your Door, by Mel Brasier, Garrett Magee, James Desantis.
Read this book if you are looking for design inspiration. These authors approach landscape design in an aesthetic and practical way, considering form and function in the same way a designer might develop a plan for an interior space. This book is full of rich visual inspiration and places heavy focus on developing garden concepts based on your own personal style, which is a really fun way to create an outdoor space that feels uniquely yours. Most of the projects featured are in urban or suburban contexts, so if you are looking to plan a sweeping, open space this might not be the book for you.
THE ESSENTIAL GARDEN DESIGN WORKBOOK, by Rosemary Alexander and Rachel Myers
I came across this book as I was beginning my foray into landscape design with Brick Street Flowers, and it was the most valuable design resource in my arsenal during those years. This book is for the person who is ready to tackle a big project and needs to make a plan before jumping into action. I would recommend this for anyone who has a big landscape project coming up this spring, new construction homeowners with a blank canvas, or those who like to get the technical side of a project just right so they don’t end up redoing it down the road. Chapter 1 deals with setting up a landscape design business, which may not be relevant to the average homeowner, but the subsequent chapters are easily applied in a DIY landscaping context.
VEGETABLE GARDENING:
When most people think of gardening, they’re imagining themselves enjoying a fresh, ripe tomato at the height of summer. These are the books to get you there.
VEG IN ONE BED: How to Grow an Abundance of Food in One Raised Bed, Month by Month, by Huw Richards.
This book has such a unique concept, and is perfect for beginner vegetable gardeners who want to try their hand at something manageable before committing to a whole big garden. Richards advocates building a single 4ft x 10 ft raised bed, 1 ft deep, and then guides you through a month-by-month process to keep that raised bed full of produce all year long. This book is highly practical and full of illustrations and photos that make it great for visual learners. If your goal is to grow vegetables for your family and you are just getting started in the gardening world - start here.
HOME GROWN PANTRY: A Gardener’s Guide to Selecting the Best Varieties & Planting the Perfect Amounts for What You Want to Eat Year-Round, by Barbara Pleasant.
I got into canning in a big way last spring, but didn’t have nearly enough produce in my own garden to use in my canning. Enter HOME GROWN PANTRY. This is the most helpful resource I’ve seen about growing for the purpose of preserving your food for future seasons. It addresses canning, pickling, root cellaring (I wish!), fermenting, and dehydrating. My favorite part, though, are the 55 plant profiles that address the most popular fruits, vegetables, and herbs for preserving. In addition to your basic plant profile information, this book lays out how much you should plant per person in order to preserve enough for a year, outlines the best varieties to grow for preservation, what your preservation options are, and even recommends specific Harvest Day Recipes that you can use to eat your produce right away. This book has guided my 2025 garden planning and I’m so happy to have come across it!
CUT FLOWER GARDENING:
If you’ve been with me for a while, you know cut flowers are my number one gardening passion. I’ve read so many cut flower books over the years, but it was easy to select my top two. These authors are must-follows in this category, and I wouldn’t hesitate to buy anything they create.
FLORET FARM’S CUT FLOWER GARDEN: Grow, Harvest & Arrange Stunning Seasonal Blooms, by Erin Benzakein with Julie Chai.
I can remember the exact morning that I came across this book. It was featured in a Spring 2017 edition of Better Homes & Gardens magazine, and as soon as I saw the photos I grabbed my phone and ordered my copy. This book reignited my passion for gardening as a tired young mom in a builder grade house with a basic patch of grass in the backyard, and has remained a source of inspiration ever since. This is a book to inspire. It is beautiful and full of rich images of what you can create when you grow flowers each season. The book progresses through each season, featuring seasonal tasks, flowers that bloom during that time, and Benzakein’s gorgeous arrangements and designs using that season’s blooms. This should not be the only cut flower gardening book you own, but it's ok if you have it just to look at it.
THE CUT FLOWER HANDBOOK: Select, Plant, Grow, and Harvest Gorgeous Blooms, by Lisa Mason Ziegler with Jessica Graven
Guys, I saved the best for last. If there was a Lisa Mason Ziegler fan club, I’d be the president. This book, along with Lisa’s other titles VEGETABLES LOVE FLOWERS and COOL FLOWERS are the top shelf selections when it comes to practical cut flower gardening advice. Ziegler is an incredibly gifted teacher and it shows all over her books. Her tone is approachable, helpful, and down to earth in a way that really instills confidence in her readers. There are no greenhouse or indoor growing requirements here—Ziegler models a three season cut flower garden system that is grown entirely outdoors, with the use of light row cover for frost and pest protection but no additional weather precautions needed. This makes this book fully useful for the home gardener that does not have access to a high tunnel. Knowing how to grow pretty flowers is not enough for a successful cut flower garden—you must also know when and how to harvest them for the longest vase life. The tips here are some of the most comprehensive I have seeen, and I follow all of her recommended pratices when I harvest from my own garden. Simply put, I would never have built my cut flower microfarm without the work of Lisa Mason Ziegler.
