I promised in my first post to share my ten favorite great books for beginner (or ALL) gardeners. Woohoo! Books are always helpful for gardeners, and any garden-related gift is timely, because a garden (for gardeners and everyone else) are gifts that keep. on. giving!!!

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“Garden Crafts for Kids” by Diane Rhodes

This book has it all: great pictures, interesting projects, engaging writing. It’s the first book that made me write fan mail to its author. My children and their cousins used to pore over the photos as they helped me in the garden. The kids seem to be having fun in the photos. Warning: the scarecrow is straight out of a Mulholland Drive scene, and likely will scare people as well. It is definitely enough to scare more than crows. (In case you don’t want a Stephen King-type garden tutorial.) The rest of the projects are more cheerful and do not carry a PG-13 rating.

In “Garden Crafts for Kids”, you’ll find science, things to make and bake, and very clear how-to instructions, for people of all ages. This for anyone who REALLY wants to learn “how-to” garden. I realize many books are called “beginner” books but are written with language and lack of photos and assume one already knows “how to”. Not Rhode’s book, I promise! I even recommended it to college students, and all kids-at-heart.

“How to Grow More Vegetables” by John Jeavons

This book teaches growing things and building soil, and the economics and ethics behind it all. I read it when I began composting, double-digging and planting seeds. I now am reading it again, 25 years later. Though it’s been through many printings, it’s all still relevant, with much-needed information.

There are helpful charts and the language is easy to read. Jeavons breaks down scientific concepts for people who just want to grow carrots for that carrot cake at the party five months from now. Instilled with a “You can do this!” attitude which we all need at the beginning of learning any new skill.

“New Organic Grower” by Eliot Coleman

Eliot Coleman reinvented the gardening season for people living in places with very cold winter temperatures. He also invented tools to help people do it, and wrote a book (actually many books) to help you take advantage of things it took him many, many seasons of trowels and errors to master. (sorry, couldn’t help myself).

For people who want to vacation mid-summer but don’t want to miss out on gardening, he gives them a great reason to garden in the cold season: less weeds, and (for market gardeners) less competition.

Coleman spent much of his adult life studying and living on the same homestead as his esteemed mentors, the late Helen and Scott Nearing. I think he’d make them proud if they could see him now.

In “New Organic Grower”, he teaches the basics of techniques that has keep many, many people fed. Too far or cold to drive to Maine and learn from a master? Avail yourself of this book and thank me later.

“The Encyclopedia of Country Living” by Carla Emery

At the time the book was published, it was “listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the “largest mimeographed volume in general circulation” (700 pages). It was also listed as having sold the most copies of a self-published guide: 45,000 mimeographed copies as of 1977″.(source: en.wikipedia.org). Additionally (and more important to me when I first began reading the Encyclopedia), Carla wrote it while also farming and raising many children. At the time, I was a new homesteader with three small children and little income at the time, so this made her seem like a bona-fide rock star.

I met Ms. Emery through a contact in Countryside Magazine in the mid 1990s. The person asked me if I could find a venue in my hometown (then Virginia Beach) for Carla to speak and sell her books. Ultimately, she set up a table during a festival at the old Farmers market off Dam Neck Road. I may have been the only person to actually purchase a book (I had borrowed it several times a year at that point from our local library, so finally made the investment). I still have my dog-eared, stained, and signed copy, and it is a treasured possession at this point.

In the mid-1990s, my backyard chickens, mushroom logs and other unconventional growing methods seemed like quirks almost no one I ran across in real life shared an interest in. But just a few years later, in 1999, there was very real (at the time) concern of Y2K and the havoc it was predicted to cause.

Computers, the supply chain, shipping (and many things we experienced during the Covid-19 Pandemic), were expected to turn the world upside down at the stroke of midnight January 1, 2000. Millions began preparing by attempting to be more self- sufficient. Carla’s book shot to the top of the bestselling book lists almost thirty years after it was first published.

I felt happiness for her, thankfulness I already owned the book (and had absorbed and practiced many of its lessons), and relief on January 1, 2000 when almost none of our fears about the new year, decade, century and millennium came to pass.

These days, those concerns periodically return. Thankfully the recipes and information in this substantial publication are all still very helpful. Looking for some of the best ways to use or store green tomatoes, raise chickens, or hang laundry? Carla’s got you!

“Worms Eat My Garbage” by Mary Appelhof

Its estimated thirty to forty percent of food produced in the United States is wasted. That is a current fact, but not a stagnant one. We could lament this waste. OR…we can do something about it.

For the past 25 years, I have chosen to compost. Sometimes successfully, sometimes not.

This little book provides a fun collection of instructions for different kinds of worm bins. It makes using “waste” to grow food fun. I’ve learned that kids under age eight are generally more excited about worms in the bins, regardless of results.

Young adults and college-age students appreciate the eco-friendly aspect of using worm bins to compost but are not as thrilled with actually touching the redworms. (In case you’re in charge of planning a fun bridal shower activity or are hosting a garden club at your local college).

Anyway, you can compost coffee grounds and banana peels up on floor number thirty-seven. Or, on a couple acres three streets off a rural highway. This book will show you how to set up the bin, where to get the worms, how often to feed them, and where to use them (clue: houseplants and rows of kale equally appreciated worm “castings” (aka: “poop”).

It is a great companion for your seventh grader’s science project, or a way to be quiet rebel, if you live somewhere that doesn’t allow “pets”. (Worms are the quietest and easiest pets I have ever had. You don’t even need to feed them every week!) Travelers, take note-this could be a fun and educational way to offset your carbon footprint. Have fun!

“Carrots Love Tomatoes”

Aside from the obvious romance of a garden, this book encourages gardeners not only to enjoy vegetables, fruit, or flowers produced, but to revel in the complex web of relationships within; insects, birds, soil microorganisms.

Soap operas seem boring after you witness the balance established when tomato hornworm caterpillars first appear on your vines: Surprise, followed shortly by eggs of parasitic paper wasps laid right on their backs. They hatch, then devour the worm till it is just is a shriveled sack of its former self.

If a trip to an art gallery is not possible, the web of a Garden Orb Weaver spider can inspire as much as any Degas or Dali. Bonus points if you catch the insect-artist weaving on-site. It is especially lucky enough to catch the installation early morning: seeing dew drops on a well-crafted web are one of the best things about getting up early!

Of all the books on this list, this book is possibly the best for someone with a couple years’ of gardening experience. I’m imagining someone that is looking forward to planning their garden in the winter months. Riotte has written other helpful books about planting by the moon, and interplanting flowers in the garden, called “Roses love Garlic”.

This book (and her other titles) kickstart the establishment of balance in a new garden. They’ll set you up for a more enjoyable experience with better production, less loss to disease and predators. Additionally, there are endless experiments you can conduct on your own to test them: Do roses actually grow better when planted with garlic at their feet? Try it, I dare you!

“Introduction to Permaculture: by Bill Mollison and Reny Mia Slay

I’d been gardening for several years before I was acquainted with this book, or permaculture in general. It literally changed my outlook: what I planted, where and WHY. It also changed my outlook on life.

This book, and permaculture, gave me a way to synthesize things I did. It provided a way to truly “work smarter, not harder”. I’d heard my eighth-grade math teacher used that adage many times, but in the garden, it took this book by Mollison and Slay’s to help me put it all into practice.

There are disagreements about who should be able to use the trademarked term “permaculture”, but ism/schisms aside, the approach to garden and home planning here will save you money and hard work many times over its purchase price.

I am so thankful this book came into my life when it did, and I hope you are able to find it as helpful as I have thru the past two decades.

“Back to Eden” by Jethro Kloss

As the title suggests, this book has definite Biblical references. It was published in 1939, so some of the language and advice may be dated. I’d refer to it as a historical non-fiction source, rather than a first reference. However, even if you are not religious or spiritual, this book still is pretty groundbreaking. There are common-sense methods of herbal preparations and use, and a wise approach to health in general.

There is not too much in this veritable reference book about actual gardening. The appreciation come from the fact that it provides instructions for using the herbs within it to promote your own health. These plant remedies are easily grown, and it is one of the best advertisements for herb gardening around.

“Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden/Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians” by Maxi’diwiac and Gilbert L. Wilson

So much of the landscape of the United States was gardened and farmed in a very sustainable way, until the past century.

The beauty of this book is you can learn the songs the original inhabitants of this land once used while planting corn. You can feel the importance of what still surrounds us. This is one of the original “sustainable/eco-friendly” how-to farm books, recorded and written before those terms were used, or even needed yet.

The language makes it a historical living document, and a pure delight to read. (Fyi: it also makes a very good case to have a companion dog in the garden! For kids reading this that are trying to convince their avid-gardener parents that yes, they really REALLY need a puppy:)

“Edible Landscaping” by Rosalind Creasy

I have worked at a renowned nursery with the same name as this book. (Edible Landscaping) and I assure you that aspiring to have “a garden you can eat”” for your front (or back) yard is worthwhile endeavor.

There are helpful charts for soil indicator plants (clues growing to tell you what your soil can already support without amendment), and inspiring photos and lists of the type of place you can create right out your door.

The photos are especially transportive, especially in the middle of January in Virginia, (when you aren’t sure that winter will ever actually end).

“Trees and Shrubs” by George A. Petrides

Good field guides aren’t in use these days as much as apps (short for “applications”). Things like Picture This, Flora of Virginia, Seek, inaturalist, or even Google Lens all have their value. But don’t be dissuaded by purchasing a few for the areas you live in, for trees, birds, insects and mushrooms.

Many times I hike is beyond the reach of cell phone reception. I could take a photo and identify it later, but sometimes I NEED to know in the moment. It is like a treasure hunt to track things down in a little field guide- that surprising flower, bright mushroom or huge leaves WANT to be known.

Better than that, each field guide is a great primer and re-hash of all those things you forgot from 8th and 9th grade earth science classes. This comes in handy when describing a plant or animal to others or for identification purposes. Is your tree evergreen or deciduous? Are its leaves opposing or alternating? Deeply veined, fine toothed, compound, or elliptic?

Learning how to describe in the proper terms is still relevant and deeply helpful. Also, these field guides are great help in choosing a plant at the nursery.

Generally, if you like the plant in the picture, you can read the description and learn which exact conditions will help it will grow best. If the field guide is for your area, there is a good bet the plants within it are native or naturalized.

Additionally, this information determines future successful planting areas, and lets you know which plants belong in your local ecosystem. A field guide for Trees and Shrubs of the area you live may as well be subtitled “What to plant for your area”. Happy hiking! and reading!

Do you have favorite books you have referred to over and over in your garden? Feel free to share in them in the comments.