Every spring, I pull out a pile of gardening books and dump them on the coffee table. It’s part of the ritual. The stack changes a bit every year — some books are old standbys, others are new finds — but if they’re on the table, it means I’m flipping through them regularly, checking something, and eating potato chips.
Like most hobbies, getting good at gardening, whether it's flowers or vegetables, takes practice. Trying, crying, and periodically contemplating a less stressful hobby — like competitive trampoline — are all part of the experience.
These are the books that are on my coffee table right now, as I gear up for the season with a perfectly natural and non psychotic smile on my face. A mix of vegetable gardening, flowers, layout, and problem-solving books. If you’re looking for solid, practical books that actually help, not just look pretty — these are it.
The Gardening Books
The New Seed-Starters Handbook – Nancy Bubel
I bought this book in the early ‘90s and I still use it. It's the book that really pulled me into gardening — not just planting, but understanding what the hell I was doing. You could save your own seeds or grow new plants from a breaking a stem off and sticking it right back in the soil?
That kind of information was magical witchcraft.
One of the first things I highlighted? That seedlings need 16 hours of artificial light. I immediately went out and bought a giant light stand on clearance at Home Depot. I used it for 25 years before upgrading to my new LED light setup.
This is the book that triggered my switch from person who plants things to gardener. And it's done the same for thousands of other people. A lot of hard core gardeners will reference this as one of the most important gardening books to own.
Growing Under Cover – Niki Jabbour
Niki’s a Nova Scotian gardener, so she knows cold, and how to work around it. This book is about extending your season with row covers, cold frames, tunnels — all the tricks.
Tip worth remembering: wash your row covers in the spring. Dirt blocks light. Hose them off or throw them in the washing machine.
I use this book every year, especially when I’m trying to push things early or keep them going late. Super practical.
The French Garden – C.D. McKay
Published in 1908, this book is over a hundred years old and still smarter than most modern gardening advice. I found it at an antique sale and bought it just because the cover looked good. Turns out, it’s a foundational book on intensive growing and season extension — written after England tried to copy the success of French market gardens.
Would I follow the instructions for forcing asparagus with a 3-foot pile of manure? No. But I love that someone did. This book is packed with methods that were revolutionary back then and still work now.
The Art of French Vegetable Gardening – Louisa Jones
This book is garden porn. It’s half inspiration, half design guide. French potagers that make you want to rip everything out and start over.
If I need motivation, I flip through this.
The Kitchen Garden – Lucy Coney Friedman
It’s less about growing and more about planning — beds, layouts, seasonality. It’s got that balance between design and function that I appreciate when I’m figuring out what goes where.
It’s helping me rethink how I organize my vegetable beds.
The Complete Gardener – Monty Don
It’s Monty. If you know, you know. The guy is a walking garden encyclopedia wrapped in a corduroy jacket.
This book covers everything. Not flashy, just solid advice from someone who’s been doing it forever. It’s the kind of book you keep nearby because you know there’s always something useful inside.
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The Cottage Garden – Claus Dalby
I use it mostly for visual planning. When I want to shift out of winter thinking and start imagining borders and colour again, and classic old English working gardens (that happen to be in Denmark) this is what I look at.
A Year Full of Pots – Sarah Raven
The book that inspired 2025's potted bulb experiment. I used this book for tips on bulb depth, soil, pot size and everything else I needed to know about fertilizing and watering them.
This is one of my most highlighted books.
If you want to up your container game, this one actually helps.
Cut Flower Garden – Erin Benzakein
If you want to grow flowers and actually understand what to do with them — this is the one book to get. I come back to it constantly.
Best tip I learned? When to pinch the tip off of plants and when not to. If you want those huge, super-tall snapdragon stems like you see in a florist shop, don't pinch. If you want shorter stems, a bushier plant and many shorter snapdragon stems, pinch. Stuff like that.
Erin’s the real deal. This book is not fluff — it’s legit flower-growing advice that actually makes a difference.
The Gardener’s Bug Book – Cynthia Westcott
Bugs. They’re going to show up. This book helps me figure out whether I should panic or just leave them alone. It’s also good for identifying the good bugs — the ones doing the work.
I don’t use this every day, but when I need it, I need it.
Guide to Judging Dahlias – American Dahlia Society
It’s all about what makes a dahlia "show-worthy." Even if you’re not entering a show, the info helps you grow better flowers. Shape, size, form — it’s technical, but interesting.
I'm referencing the dahlia judging book because this year I will be volunteering with the Hamilton Dahlia Society for their fall show. I will be making dahlia bouquets for the society to sell and photographing the event for them.
I do not, under any stretch of the imagination, need to know dahlia judging rules.
Espalier Fruit Trees for Wall, Hedge & Pergola – Keri Pieber
I’ve got espaliered apple trees framing my porch. I buy every book I can find on pruning them and growing them because when I first planted my espaliers I had no idea at all what I was doing.
This book has good photographs, but my other espalier reference book called Grow a Little Fruit Tree has much better information on pruning.
Now after a decade or so of pruning I have a much better idea of what I'm doing, why and how to do it so I don't reference them quite as much.
So that’s the stack. These books have been on my coffee table for months, gathering dirt, seed husks, and the occasional not-so-mysterious stain. We all know it's potato chip grease.
They’ve survived coffee spills, late-night flipping, and me yelling “WHERE’S THAT CHART ABOUT ROW COVERS?” at no one in particular. If you’re gearing up for the season and want actual advice from people who know what they’re talking about (and me), grab one of these.
If you’re getting ready to dig in, these are the books that won’t steer you wrong — or at least won’t suggest planting tomatoes in the shade next to a trampoline.
Hettie
The idea of forcing the asparagus with three feet of manure reminded me of a story: This year, I found an asparagus spear growing through a woven polypropylene bag filled with 60 pounds of manure. I'd tossed the bag in my veggie garden last autumn, not realizing it was atop an asparagus crown. The asparagus spear I discovered this spring had the circumference of a child's wrist! What really shocked me was that it penetrated that bag. Those polypropylene bags are tough! I can't imagine how big that spear would've been if the bag hadn't been there. I might pile the manure three feet deep on some asparagus crowns this autumn to see what I get in Spring 2026. :D
I love your book selection and share your appreciation for them all, but especially Monty Don. Do you watch Gardener's World on YouTube?
Karen
I've tried to watch Gardener's World (or maybe just a random Monty Don show) but I only want it to be him at his house and there's always some specialists. I just want Monty and dogs. ~ karen!
Linda
How fun, I have several of those books too! Feels like I could be in the market for have several more.
Thanks for the review.
Dan Stoudt
My favorite is still Crockett's Victory Garden by James Underwood Crockett
Randy P
I dunno - I think your pose and facial expression are 100% normal and fine... he says whilst slowly backing towards the exit trying not to make direct eye contact. Yep - 100% normal and fine.
Karen
Don't make me growl. ~ karen!
Cherie
Hi Karen
I have some of these, but as a West Coast gardener, these are the ones that I can't live without, Linda Gilkeson's "Backyard Bounty", Sunset's "Western Garden Book", Carolyn Herriot's "The Zero-Mile Diet: a year round guide to growing organic food", Linda Gilkeson's "Resilient Gardens: climate change, stress disorders, pest update". Of course, there are lots of others on the shelves and many others that have done bye bye over the years; the gardening magazines; the little specialty books like "The Concise to Clematis in North America" from Clearview Horticultural Products who specialize in clematis, and so on. Linda Gilkeson is from Salt Spring and is an entymologist and a renowned gardener.
Genevieve dee Gonsor
My favorite gardening book is The Scented Garden/a NW favorite.it is why I started gardening
Karen
I have always wanted to do a scented garden! That's partly why I let alyssum run wild around here. And why I love my honeysuckle vine over my arbour. And heliotrope is a favourite ... SO many good smelling things ~karen!
Jackie Turbot
Thank you for the list, will keep it handy next time we hit Nashville's used bookstores. And thanks to the recommendations in the comments as well...very useful stuff!!! 😃
Kirsten
I am not able to find any mention of "The Kitchen Garden – Lucy Coney Friedman". Might the title or name be different? There is also not a picture of the book in your article, are you sure you have not just dreamt it up? Lol
Karen
LOL. I'm sure. It's a book I found at a thrift store. A lot of the books I find that are useful are old and some of them are out of print but sometimes show up on Amazon as a used book or other used book sites like Abe. ~ karen!
Mary W
Great blog today - as usual. But a lot of time and knowledge went into making this and I appreciate that so much. Waiting for the mail to insure I get my social security check this month - as much as I hate to take money away from Elon Musk. If I have enough, I'll certainly get the Bug Book first thing. I HATE pill bugs, and they love my garden - within 15 minutes of a plum dropping, they devour it. The worst it's ever been in many years. So I'm looking for their predator and how to entice them into my pill bug garden.
Karen
Thanks Mary W. :) Predators and pests tend to come in cycles. SUDDENLY it'll be a bad year or two for cucumber beetles, or pill bugs or garlic virus. I'm not sure what likes to eat pill bugs other than toddlers. ~ karen!
Sandra Blackwell
I love your cottage garden. In dry Eastern Washington State my word is "drought tolerant" ( ok-two words). I am working on the local equivalent...I paid a guy with his backhoe to dig up about 8 inches of sod and sand across the front of my yard...about 25 feet by 75 feet. I had a shopping accident at the master gardeners plant sale ..native, drought tolerant pollinators. It looks pretty barren right now, with a dump truck of mulch dotted with sticks marking where I put plants. In two years I am hoping for fabulous. And I don't have to mow that area.
Karen
Sorry about your accident Sandra. I'm even sorrier that your front yard is about the same size as my entire lot. (Sorry for me that is).😆 ~ karen!
Sandra Blackwell
We have an acre lot. I will be putting raised beds in the front yard. Our neighbors to the south have a large garden and are generous. Out neighbor to the north raises emu and peacocks, and other various birds.
Chris W.
Your dedication is overwhelming! I so admire what you do to make your garden beautiful as well as functional. And you don't seem to waste stuff which is wonderful. One of the people who owns the 5 acres behind our property has an organic garden - mostly she grows weeds and a ton of dandelions! We've never seen such a jumbled up mess - it never seems that she does any great amount of harvesting because in the fall, things just lay there and die. Maybe I'm just missing something because I remember picking things from the garden as they ripened and actually eating them or processing them for future use. We pretty much think this person is kind of strange and wasteful - wasting her time. And none of the neighbors appreciate the mess. Your garden is a true work of art!
Karen
Thanks Chris W. My garden is currently half cleaned up and half enter at your own risk. At the moment none of it is a work of art. ~ karen!
Jo-Ann Pieber
Well, I will certainly go and find a few of these - but I Really want to promote a book that has been a bit of a mainstay for me these past 20 years or so? It's not vegetable gardening - it's more Shrubs, Trees and Perennials - it's Four Season Gardening by Marjorie Harris - (formerly the Canadian Gardener's Guide to Foliage and Garden Design).
I love this book because it Is Canadian - and it has Lots of advice for us - no matter our 'zone'. But she is so expert that she can and does recommend specific plants for specific situations, specific cultivars and so on. All because she has Direct experience growing the things she recommends.
My praise will never be enough. I refer to it often.
Karen
Good to know! Thanks, I'll have a look. ~ karen!
Terry Rutherford
Lovely list! I have a few (Monty Don, Cut Flowers) and I consulted them this year and last, but my ride or die in The New Victory Garden by Bob Thomson. Written 1987 but I still follow completely and I think we’ve built every structure in that chapter. Not about flowers so I look elsewhere for that but simply great for vegetables and their timing.
Karen
Thanks Terry, I'll look at The New Victory Garden. Eliot Coleman is normally on my list as well, but didn't make the coffee table this year for some reason. ~ karen!