Gardening This Spring? Check out These Books First
Spring is here. Now is the perfect time to pull out your trowel and gloves and start planning your garden. Whether you’re a novice gardener or a serious green thumb, let some of these gardening books take root in your imagination as you plan your garden this spring.
“The book is both beautiful and useful, offering advice for growing in containers, practical planting tips, suggested bulb-planting tools and even a list of bulbs that are pollinator favorites.” ―The Seattle Times
From the earliest snowdrops and tulips to late autumn crocuses, bulbs bring interest and color to the garden throughout the year. Learn how to add them to your garden with Growing Bulbs in the Natural Garden, a four-season guide to combining bulbs with perennials and grasses in a loose, naturalistic style. Renowned garden designer Jacqueline van der Kloet shares her years of insight and inspiration, explaining her magical technique where bulbs emerge playfully among other plants.
In this friendly guide you will find:
- The basics of growing bulbs in every season
- Tips on naturalizing bulbs so they come back every year
- Techniques for layering bulbs in smaller spaces
- Companion plants for constant bloom
- Lists of bulbs for every season
- Case studies from amazing gardens around the world
A comprehensive guide to the most common weeds of the Pacific Northwest, with essential information on their management and eradication
Winner of the 2025 Award of Excellence: Horticulture from The Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries
Winner of the 2025 Award of Excellence: Horticulture from The Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries
Weeds are everywhere. They crowd out valuable agricultural crops, compete with the tomatoes and beans in your vegetable garden, spread rampantly along roadsides, and pop up from the tiniest cracks in sidewalks. In order to manage them, we must first learn how to identify them.
Weeds of the Pacific Northwest is a guide to identifying, controlling, and eradicating over 300 species of weeds that gardeners and homeowners are likely to encounter in Northern California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Though they can all cause trouble, each weed is different. The hundreds of user-friendly photographs and detailed descriptions of each species here ensure that you can spot and treat any weed in your path. As the experts behind this book demonstrate, some plants can be killed by eating them, some by digging, some by smothering, and some only by the judicious application of chemical herbicides—and it is very important for you and your neighbors to know and understand the differences.
Discover how to get more out of your growing space with succession planting—carefully planned, continuous seed sowing—and provide a steady stream of fresh food from early spring through late fall.
Drawing inspiration from succession in natural landscapes, Meg McAndrews Cowden teaches you how to implement lessons from these dynamic systems in your home garden. You’ll learn how to layer succession across your perennial and annual crops; maximize the early growing season; determine the sequence to plant and replant in summer; and incorporate annual and perennial flowers to benefit wildlife and ensure efficient pollination. You’ll also find detailed, seasonal sowing charts to inform your garden planning, so you can grow more anywhere, regardless of your climate.
Plant Grow Harvest Repeat will inspire you to create an even more productive, beautiful, and enjoyable garden across the seasons—every vegetable gardener’s dream.
You can grow beautiful, healthy, delicious veggies and herbs right from the start—just follow the trustworthy advice found in The Beginner’s Guide to Growing Great Vegetables. Expert gardener Lorene Edwards Forkner shares all the information you need to create a thriving garden, from facts about soil and sun to tips on fertilizing, mulching, and watering. Regional planting charts show what to plant when, and a month-by-month planner takes you from January through December. Profiles of popular edibles explain exactly how to plant, care for, and harvest your bounty. Whether your garden grows in the ground, on a balcony, or in containers on a sunny patio, this is your guide to grow-your-own success. Your backyard bounty awaits!
One complete season in the garden–sharing the author’s experiences and discussing a variety of vegetables, flowers, and gardening techniques
“Glory be! A gardening book stuffed with regional advice and real first-hand experience. The mix of personal opinion and horticultural insight has created a most useful almanac. Read it and grow wise.”–Roger B. Swain, Host, PBS Television’s “Victory Garden”
“Lee Reich is exactly the sort of guide to gardening I wish I’d had when I started out–he’s a fount of information and he’s good company. A Northeast Gardener’s Year brings together the authority of an experienced horticulturalist and the grace of a fine writer. A rare, and welcome, combination.”–Michael Pollan, Author of Second Nature
Combining a vast understanding of horticulture with witty and stylish storytelling, these vignettes form — season by season — a rich reflection on the lessons, challenges, and joys of life with a green thumb.
Eating locally and growing one’s own food is a rapidly evolving movement in urban settings – Hantz Farms in Detroit has transformed 70 acres of abandoned properties into energy-efficient gardens, and Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, a 6,000-foot vegetable farm in Brooklyn, New York, yields 30 different kinds of produce, while private square-foot farms are cropping up in cities all over the country.
Created by Lisa Taylor and the gardeners of Seattle Tilth, Your Farm in the City covers all of the essential information specific to gardening and farming in a city or town. Clear, easy-to-follow instructions guide and inspire even the most inexperienced urbanite in how to grow and harvest all types of produce, flowers, herbs, and trees, as well as how to raise livestock like chickens, ducks, rabbits, goats, and honeybees. Important information particular to gardening in a city or town is included, such as planning and maximizing limited space, building healthy soil, managing irrigation, understanding zoning laws, outwitting urban pests, and being a considerate farming neighbor.
With 100 two-color instructional illustrations throughout and dozens of vital resources, Your Farm in the City is the most practical, comprehensive, and easy-to-follow guide to the burgeoning trend of urban farming.
- 3 Mini Hardcover Books: Box is 2-7/8 x 3-1/4 inches and includes 3 mini books in the set: Indoor Plants (a practical guide to 100 indoor plants), Outdoor Plants (a practical guide to 100 outdoor plants), and Plant Care (a practical guide to plant–growing success)
- Unique Gift for Plant Lovers: An adorable miniature size with accessible content, this boxed set is perfect for gift-giving to plant enthusiasts
- Simple Instructions: The easy-to-read guides and instructions are perfect for beginners and seasoned plant parents alike
- Portable: Small size allows for plant care anytime, anywhere, from your kitchen to your outdoor garden
From houseplants and succulents to container gardens and vegetable patches, track your gardening progress and plot your growing dreams in this charming, cheeky plant journal.
Container gardeners, newly-minted homesteaders, and eager plant parents rejoice! Full of informative sidebars, guided growth charts, recommended varietals, and adorable illustrations, I Love My Plants is a unique and useful journal for keeping up with your green thumb. This concealed spiral-bound journal is as practical as it is beautiful, with three notched sections for easy reference, fresh tips for keeping plants thriving, and a durable, matte-laminated cover. With room to track progress for both indoor and outdoor plants, as well as sections for free-form writing and planning, I Love My Plants is the perfect addition to any indoor, or outdoor, gardener’s toolkit.
When Spring Warren told her husband and two teenage boys that she wanted to grow 75 percent of all the food they consumed for one year, and that she wanted to do it in their yard, they told her she was crazy.
She did it anyway. The Quarter-Acre Farm is Warren’s account of deciding, despite all resistance, to take control of her family’s food choices, get her hands dirty, and create a garden in her suburban yard. It’s a story of bugs, worms, rot, and failure; of learning, replanting, harvesting, and eating. The road is long and riddled with mistakes, but by the end of her yearlong experiment, Warren’s sons and husband have become her biggest fans, in fact, they’re even eager to help harvest (and eat) the beautiful bounty she brings in.
Full of tips and recipes to help anyone interested in growing and preparing at least a small part of their diet at home, The Quarter-Acre Farm is a warm, witty tale about family, food, and the incredible gratification that accompanies self-sufficiency.
Erin Roll is a freelance writer, editor, and proofreader. Her favorite genres to read are mystery, science fiction, and fantasy, and her TBR pile is likely to be visible on Google Maps. Before becoming an editor, Erin worked as a journalist and photographer, and she has won far too many awards from the New Jersey Press Association. Erin lives at the top floor of a haunted house in Montclair, NJ. She enjoys reading (of course), writing, hiking, kayaking, music, and video games.