Develop a Green Thumb with These Gardening Books

To grow the most beautiful flowers for any season, take the advice of Floret Farm’s Cut Flower Garden by Erin Benzakein and Julie Chai. Gorgeous photography alternates with useful practical tips on how to grow and maintain a wide variety of flowers in any season and any region. It’s not just about growing the flowers, though: The book also provides plenty of tips for cutting, arranging, and displaying the blooms you’ve grown.

Raised-bed gardening is increasingly popular, so if you want to hop on this space-saving trend, take a peek at Raised Bed Gardening for Beginners by Tammy Wylie. It’s a complete guide to help you every step of the way, from choosing a space to constructing a box to choosing and caring for just the right combination of plants, including info on crop rotation and ideas for partner planting.

Jessica Sowards’s The First-Time Gardener: Growing Vegetables is exactly what it says it is: a comprehensive guide to introduce even total novices into the wonderful world of vegetable gardening. Every question you have, from garden location to soil questions to picking plants and keeping them healthy, is answered in this handy straightforward guide, which emphasizes eco-friendly gardening and growing with the seasons.

If you’ve always wanted to try your hand at growing your own fruit, then Orin Martin and Manjula Martin’s Fruit Trees for Every Garden is the book for you. Gorgeous photography accompanies a guide about what to grow, when to grow it, what works in your region, and more—all organic and focused as much as understanding the “why” of gardening as the “how to.”

Dozens of unique, beautiful, and vintage rose varieties take the spotlight in Vintage Roses by Jane Eastoe. Flower aficionados can learn more about these roses, both true “vintage” varieties and newer specimens inspired by old-fashioned blooms, with information about their histories, significance, and how to grow them in your own home gardens.

In Kitchen Garden Revival by Nicole Johnsey Burke, anyone can learn to garden with a purpose. The focus is onhow to use small spaces to create a low-maintenance, beautiful, and genuinely useful garden full of veggies and herbs that you can take right into your kitchen and cook beautiful meals with. Not only will you learn about what crops to grow and when, but the book also guides readers through the process of building a garden and its benefits.

Gardening doesn’t have to require a huge outdoor space—that’s the premise of Kevin Espiritu’s Field Guide to Urban Gardening. The book is perfect for anyone looking to garden in an unconventional, small, or urban space, focusing on container gardens, hydroponics, raised beds, and other space-saving solutions.

Another solution to small-space gardening? Vertical gardens! That’s what Derek Fell describes in Vertical Gardening, a complete guide to maximizing the garden output in every square foot of space. Fell breaks down the advantages to vertical growing (it’s not just about saving space!) and how to successfully grow your own

Propagation is very trendy right now, but it takes a little skill to get right. Propagating Plants: How to Create New Plants for Free by Alan Toogood is the perfect guide for someone looking to try propagation for the first time. The book uses straightforward, scientifically sound instructions along with helpful photos and diagrams to give you all the info you need to fill out your garden with cuttings of your favorite plants

If growing your own veggies feels a little intimidating, start with Jilly McSheehy’s Vegetable Gardening for Beginners. Just as the title suggests, the book is a complete and easy-to-read compendium of everything you need to know about choosing and growing delicious vegetables right in your own yard

Mel Bartholomew’s All New Square Foot Gardening is the latest edition of a gardening classic. The book is specifically geared at how to maximize garden outpu,t while minimizing the space and resources you need to put into it. Plus, it includes design tips that make your garden both attractive and functional!