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In this list for the best gardening books for beginners, I thought back to the books that helped me the most when I first started gardening. I also looked for highly-anticipated new releases from plant experts.
There are so many gardening books out there, it can be overwhelming to know which books will teach you the essential skills you need to know for your first garden. These books will give you the gardening tips you need to grow your first garden with success.
While these garden books are for beginners, they are also books that you will reference for years into your gardening journey. You'll learn how and when to plant the essential crops in your backyard, and tips to provide you with those early wins in the garden that will motivate you to keep at it.
The Timber Press Guides to Vegetable Gardening
Highlights:
There’s a lot of nuance to gardening from region to region. From weather patterns to soil conditions, precipitation patterns to sunlight hours, it’s good to take advice from someone who has experience in a similar growing zone to where you garden.
This is why I really love the Timber Press Vegetable Gardening Guides. They offer specific growing advice for where you live, written by expert gardeners from your region.
This was one of the first books that I got when I started my own garden, and it’s probably the one that I reference the most. I'd say it's one of the best gardening books on my bookshelf.
I really like that they focus on organic gardening methods and offer helpful tips for dealing with pests naturally.
What makes these books so helpful is that they are like a garden planner for your region. They are set up by month. Whatever month it is, you can dive right in and see what can be planted, as well as other tasks around the garden that should get done.
This is a great book that will give you a foundation as a beginner gardener, and also serve as a check-in point as you gain experience. If you're looking for a single gardening book to add to your bookshelf, let it be this one!
The Vegetable Gardening Book by Joe Lamp’l
Highlights:
This well-organized book offers something that many new gardeners will benefit from: comprehensive guides to growing 40 common vegetable crops in a way that is sustainable, organic, and resilient.
The information he shares is really helpful for those who have never gardened before, as he offers lots of tips for how to deal with common issues and offers a wealth of best practices for vegetable growing.
Joe offers lots of information in this book that new gardeners will find themselves referring to year after year, such as crop rotation, garden design plans, and ways to expand your garden no matter where you live.
The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book by Ruth Stout and Richard Clemence
Highlights:
Things to note:
First off, I think this is one of the funniest gardening books that you can read. Ruth writes in a no-nonsense way and she makes you feel like you’re sitting with her having a cup of tea while she tells you her method of gardening, with a sense of ornery humor throughout the whole thing.
This is a great book for beginner gardeners who might feel overwhelmed at the thought of how to start a garden when you have some fresh, previously uncultivated land to work with.
Ruth Stout's method of gardening offers tips for starting a regenerative no-till garden. If you're looking to start a sustainable garden, this book is essential for learning how to start a fresh garden without tilling.
Keep in mind that while Ruth talks about getting hay from anywhere, you should make sure that the hay (or straw) that you get is NOT treated with ANY herbicides, as those chemicals can hinder your crops’ growth for years to come.
While this book doesn’t offer specific tips on when to plant certain crops or for how to grow certain crops, it is a great choice for those who want to garden in a different way, or who might not have a lot of time to garden.
Four Season Food Gardening by Misilla Dela Llana
Highlights:
If you're looking for books on gardening year-round, this is my top recommendation.
I love Misilla’s style of teaching. She shares information in a way that is approachable and encouraging. This book shares the essentials for someone who wants to grow food throughout the year, even if you live in a cold climate.
If you follow the monthly plans in this guide, you’ll be able to harvest food even in February!
There are lots of guides for how to work with problems that arise in the garden in a natural and regenerative way, along with projects for maximizing your space and extending your growing season.
Misilla focuses on vegetables, but also has loads of great gardening tips for growing herbs, flowers, and even fruit trees in this thorough and well-thought out book.
The Vegetable Grower’s Handbook by Huw Richards
Highlights:
Huw’s book has lots of great ideas for someone who wants to maximize their vegetable yield, but who doesn’t have acres of land to work with. I'd recommend this book for anyone who is starting a garden in a small backyard.
Huw will teach you how to garden in a sustainable and organic way. He focuses on building soil health, bringing pollinators into your garden, and other crucial eco-friendly techniques for overcoming obstacles in the garden.
Huw promotes no-dig gardening, and focuses on techniques for gardening in raised beds.
I like how he looks at ways to get the most out of the space that you have, and offers tips for gardening in a way where you can start to supplement your diet with home grown produce quickly.
How to Become a Gardener by Ashlie Thomas
Highlights:
What really stands out about How to Become a Gardener is that it focuses on self-sufficiency and building resiliency into your life through gardening. It’s a really empowering book for anyone who has dealt with food insecurity or for anyone looking for more stability in their lives.
If you don’t know where to start or what to focus on, this book will help you to find your “why” for gardening, and let that lead you to building an abundant garden that supports your diet.
Ashlie’s perspective on gardening as a tool for self-understanding and development is one that I really resonate with personally.
The Beginner’s Guide to Growing Great Vegetables by Lorene Edwards Forkner
Highlights:
If you’re like me and love having a month-by-month guide for what to do in the vegetable garden, this book is for you.
Lorene is also the author of the Timber Press Gardening Book for the Pacific Northwest region, and I love how she focuses on growing abundant crops of vegetables in a way that is kind to the environment.
In this book, she has detailed guides for how to plant any and every vegetable you could ever want to grow in your garden, and tells you how to tend to them from month to month.
Starting seeds indoors may be more expensive in your first year as you get the supplies necessary. But, you'll make all that money back in the amount of money you save year after year compared to buying all of your starts from a nursery.
As the title states, this book is a must for beginners in the vegetable garden.
Field Guide to Urban Gardening by Kevin Espiritu
Highlights:
What I love about this book is how it offers a plethora of ideas for those who live in the city and don’t have access to acres of land, but who still want to start to grow their own food.
This book will take you from zero to an abundant garden in no time - whether you are growing indoors, on a balcony, or in a couple of raised beds in the backyard. This is an excellent resource for anyone looking to get started with container gardening as well.
Kevin looks at different plans that will help you to maximize your space, and offers lots of tips along the way to build efficiency and fertility into your growing space.
If you're gardening in the city, this book shares the essentials and is one of the best vegetable gardening books out there.
Rebel Gardening: A beginner’s handbook to organic urban gardening by Alessandro Vitale
Highlights:
When an author is known as “Spicy Moustache,” you know that the book is going to be a little bit unique.
What makes this book a must-have - even for those who don’t think of themselves as spicy - is that is has a huge emphasis on gardening where you are, and doing it in a sustainable and eco friendly way.
I think it's important for folks to want a garden not to get discouraged if they don't live on acres in the country. This book is great for beginning gardeners who want to make the most of the space they have.
If you know that you want to garden in a way that is organic, connected to nature, and fun at the same time, this is the book for you. It is full of information, tips, and methods of practice for how to get the most out of your first year gardening.
Alessandro has a deep ancestral connection to gardening and soil that resonates with me, and his passion for gardening comes through in this book, which is perfect for new gardeners but also has lots of great information for more seasoned growers as well.
Highlights:
This book is a must-have if you’re thinking about putting in a large garden or expanding an existing garden area on your property. It's one of the best books out there for beginners who have big plans for their growing space.
What stands out about this book is its focus on the environmental benefits of no-till, paired with affordable techniques for those who do not want to spend loads of money buying lumber for raised beds. This is especially pertinent now, with the cost of lumber being so high!
In this essential book, you’ll learn step by step how to build on top of existing soil or lawn with natural materials to build fertile raised beds in an ecological and economical way.
They also have excellent information on how to grow a variety of garden vegetables from seed to harvest, which adds to the value of this gardening book for beginners.
Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew
Highlights:
If you're someone who likes a garden plan not only for what to plant but for how and where to plant it, this book is for you. This is a tried-and-true top gardening book that has been inspiring gardeners for decades.
The Square Foot Gardening book will show you how to grow the maximum amount of food in the least amount of space, all while giving you a grid for how to plant your seeds in your beds.
This book shares essential information for plant spacing when growing vegetables. This helps you to get the most out of your garden space. The tips in this book offer critical information to prevent overcrowding in our garden.
Square Foot Gardening is a fantastic resource that you'll reference for years to come. While this book focuses on raised bed gardening, I also recommend it as a resource for container gardening.
Get out your excel spreadsheet and get growing!
Growveg: The Beginner's Guide to Easy Vegetable Gardening by Benedict Vanheems
Highlights:
Perhaps one of the most encouraging, supportive, and enthusiastic gardeners out there is Benedict Vanheems. If you're the type of person who needs both detailed guides sprinkled with positivity, this is the book I'd recommend.
It's the kind of book that will inspire you to get out there and get started with your garden.
This wonderful book is geared towards beginners, so everything is explained really clearly. It is also written with the home gardener in mind, so you don't need acres of land to implement his practices. Plus, there are some tips from Benedict as a seasoned gardener, that will help you to have success faster.
A Gardener's Guide to Botany by Scott Zona
Highlights:
Usually gardeners start planting first, and then understand the botany second. Then, they apply what they've learned to help their garden thrive.
I think it's key to learn how plants work as early in your gardening journey as possible, so that you are aware of what your plants need to thrive from the get-go.
If you're just starting out and are keen to dive into the fascinating world of botany, I'd highly recommend this book, which won an award from the American Horticultural Society in 2023.
The illustrations are great for visual learners, and the book is written for all levels of both science knowledge and gardening experience. If you never took biology or botany and have never grown a garden before, this book was written with pure beginners in mind.
This book is not only informative, but it's inspirational as well. If you're just starting your garden journey, this will give you some knowledge and wonder around the plant world.
Highlights:
If you're yearning to get started with gardening but don't have an outdoor space, this book is for you. Kamili Bell Hill offers a wide variety of tips for how to start a house plant collection, tend to your plants, and tend to yourself.
With today's fast-paced high-stress society, this book is a breath of fresh air that will guide you towards a healthier mental and emotional state while also creating a thriving plant oasis inside your home.
If you want to transform your home into a sanctuary where you can unwind, and if you know that you need to carve out time and space for self-care, this book will guide you through both of those goals.
This book is also great for someone itching to get started taking care of plants, but as we're going into fall and winter, can't really start a garden outside yet.
The Preserving Garden by Jo Turner
Highlights:
If your dream is to grow a garden that will help you to build food security and get started with canning, fermenting, and building a pantry, this is the book for you.
I really like that this book has a unique approach of looking at both preserving and gardening at the same time - usually these topics are covered separately, so you have to do the planning to coordinate having the right ingredients for the recipes you want to make.
This book solves that dilemma with providing you with detailed instructions for how to grow each key ingredient in a recipe, and then goes on to share different ways of preserving that key ingredient.
You'll be able to enjoy the benefits of gardening year-round from your pantry - a great option for anyone looking to dive into homesteading skills.
If this is your first time revving up a canner or burping your ferments, this book will be a great companion as you dive into your preserving journey.
Grow a Little Fruit Tree by Ann Ralph
Highlights:
If you dream of having a fruit tree or two in your yard, you need to read this book. Even with a small property, this book will show you how to grow a fruit tree (or two!).
Ann Ralph will show you different tips and techniques for growing a fruit tree in a way that gives you maximum yield in a small space. With detailed instruction on how and when to prune your tree, you will be able to shape your tree to fit into your landscape.
If you've never planted a fruit tree before or never pruned a tree, this book is a great place to begin. A tree provides perennial harvests year after year, and is a great investment in your home landscape.
If you currently have a lawn or bare backyard and dream of making an edible garden oasis, this is the book to order now for winter dreaming and planning. I am so excited to read this book curled up by the fire this winter.
Essentially, this book gets you started on the idea of growing a food forest, even in the smallest of yards.
Implementing permaculture strategies combined with Christina's expert tips, you'll be able to utilize vertial and horizontal space to maximize production and create a beautiful ecosystem at the same time.
This book goes deep into concepts that most other books only skim the surface on, so it would be a great book for anyone new to the idea of food forests who is unclear as to where to begin.
If you're new to the idea of regenerative gardening, you might be interested in our full guide on this eco friendly gardening practice where we outline the full scope of the benefits of regenerative planting and how you can apply this technique to your own garden.
