Gardening Books Gift Guide

Whenever the holidays or special events are coming, you might often find yourself asking: What’s the best gift for a friend or loved one who is into gardening?

Is there something that they would love to get their hands on or maybe a new tool that they’ve been dreaming about?

Instead of thinking about the next pruning shears or shovel set to give to your gardener friend, why don’t you try giving them some gardening books which can last for years? Gardening information never gets old, so gardening books are good forever.

Whether planning to escape into plans and inspirations of what to be planting next or simply wanting to recreate things and create a new kind of garden next year, a gardening book will surely inspire.

There are tons of different topics to choose from: From floral gardening to herbs, and creating miniature gardens to fruits and vegetables, there is always something that will interest someone so make sure you add a few books to the gift list.

Gardening Books Gift Guide

If you’re not sure which titles to choose, here are a few of our favorites that would make great gifts:

Raising Ducks for Beginners and Beyond

Raising ducks may seem like all fun and games thanks to the adorable and silly birds, but what most people don’t realize is just how much work it takes to successfully keep them healthy and happy. The truth is that it’s not difficult, but it does require time, effort, and knowledge. Through her social media channels, Kristine shares many different aspects of her experience with raising ducks. She shows the good, the bad, and everything in between. In Raising Ducks for Beginners and Beyond, Kristine takes the same honest approach and covers it all:

• When and how to start: When is the best time to start raising your ducks? What are the pros and cons? Are there any specific requirements in your state regarding keeping ducks? How should you set up when bringing your ducks home? And everything you should know before welcoming your ducks.
• How to choose your ducks: Different types of ducks, male-to-female ratio, size of the ducks, and more. There are many considerations when it comes to picking which ducks you want to raise.
• …and what about chickens? Kristine covers the key differences between raising ducks and chickens. 
• Ducklings to ducks: Learn how to raise ducklings, let your ducks hatch their own eggs, transition your ducklings to the outdoors, and more.
• Nutrition and feeding: Make sure they’re receiving the right nutrient ratios and that they’re surrounded by duck-safe plants, flowers, and more. 
• Keeping your ducks healthy (and happy!): What is the right bedding to keep your ducks comfortable? What about coop and/or pen size? What are common illnesses among ducks? And more on how to keep your ducks in good shape and content.
• Pools and ponds: One of the key differences from chicken-keeping, ponds are absolutely vital for ducks. This chapter helps you make sure your ducks’ pools and/or ponds are the correct size and that they are kept nice and clean. 
• Ducks through the seasons: Learn how to treat your ducks according to season. What seasons affect ducks, and why?
• Predators: One of the most important parts of keeping ducks is keeping them safe. Know what their predators are and how to keep them at bay. 
• Duck eggs: What’s the difference between a duck egg and a chicken egg? Is one better than the other? What can you use duck eggs for? Learn all you need to know about the nutritional value of duck eggs and how you can use them.

Your Outdoor Room: How to design a garden you can live in

TV presenter and garden design expert Manoj Malde shows you how to create your own personal outdoor haven.

In this easy-to-follow guide, Manoj shows you how to design a garden you will want to live in. Whether you have a small or large garden, or a new-build ‘blank canvas’ – every space is unique, and this book explains how to get the most out of your garden for you and your family.

With examples and designs from real life, low-maintenance spaces and gardens for plants-people; whether you want a garden for entertaining, playing or practicing yoga, Manoj takes you on a step-by-step journey to creating your dream space. 

Find answers to the questions you always wanted to ask, like ‘How do I design social spaces?’ and ‘Can I make my garden feel bigger?’ with this practical and easy-to-follow planning tool.

Learn how to develop a style and introduce zones; use pathways and screens; choose water features, colors, and materials to transform the way your garden looks and feels. This comprehensive guide includes advice on:

• Using budget-friendly, beautiful materials
• Encouraging wildlife to come into your garden
• Making your space effortlessly sustainable
• Choosing the perfect plants to complement your style and space

Discover how to design a space for entertaining, a place to relax and drink a cocktail, or an area where the family can eat, play, and spend time together. But most importantly, design a garden you can live in, one your family will love. Unlock the potential of Your Outdoor Room, no matter your experience or budget. It’s never been this easy to create a space that works for you. 

The Old Farmer’s Almanac Container Gardener’s Handbook

• Many gardeners will agree that there’s nothing as rewarding as enjoying produce that they’ve grown themselves. Fortunately, growing crops in containers enables just about anyone to experience this joy—with no garden plot needed! Find out how to care for and harvest flavor-packed miniature tomatoes, salad greens, peppers, basil, chives, blueberries, citruses, cantaloupes, and other favorites to serve at your next meal!
• Looking for eye-catching displays to perk up a space? Discover sure-to-please ornamental plants for any situation, plus ideal ways to arrange them in decorative containers for the special look that you want. Let the mantra “thriller, filler, spiller” help you to design pots with a stunning focal point surrounded by complementary plants that fill in around it and trail over the edge!
• Learn about plant care, including how to identify and control diseases and pests, select the best potting mix, apply water and fertilizer—and overcome “FOOF” (fear of overfertilizing)!
• Wondering how big a container your plant needs? Don’t know whether to use terra-cotta or plastic pots? Find out how to choose the proper container by size, type, purpose, and more.
• Some plants, like geraniums, have lots of varieties from which to choose. If you’re overwhelmed by the many options available, just check out the recommended selections for 38 specially profiled plants.
• For added enjoyment, browse—and learn from—the insightful and entertaining anecdotes from experienced gardeners included in this helpful guide.

Simple Country Living

Answer the calling deep within for a simpler life: plant bountiful gardens, preserve fresh seasonal produce, make your own natural cleaning products, and more. 

Join homesteader and founder of Azure Farm, Annette Thurmon, to connect with nature on a deeper level. In Simple Country Living, you’ll find a sampler covering homesteading techniques that can be put to work no matter where you live. Recipes, tips, tricks, and family activities will help you reduce waste, save money, and harness new skills:

• The Natural- and Nature-Inspired Home: Create family traditions around nature, including strawberry and apple picking, natural egg dye, salt dough ornament making, and decorating your home with natural elements, plus some recipes too! Make DIY cleaning sprays, reduce food waste, learn self-sufficient laundry and bathroom tips, and share the bounty with nature-inspired gifts and gatherings.
• Cultivating a Garden: Master the essentials for a healthy garden, including soil health, garden layout, raised beds, choosing your seeds, frost dates, crop rotation, companion planting, compost essentials, and ways to involve the whole family in the garden.
• What to Plant in Your Garden: Decide what to grow based on your climate and preferences, figure out how much to plant, and garden through the seasons. Go further with home orchards or berry patches, and explore the benefits of natural pest control, greenhouses, and animals in the garden. There are also activities for the family inspired by the garden.
• Preserving the Harvest: Learn everything you need to can, freeze, dehydrate, and save seeds—including plenty of recipes, from salsa to fruit spreads. Have the whole family join in and create memories together.
• Mastering the Home Kitchen: Embrace garden-to-table eating with seasonal recipes. Learn how to stock a resilient homestead pantry and find a selection of tried-and-true recipes the whole family will love (and love to cook!).

No matter where you live or what skills you already have, the simple country life can be more than a state of mind. Start growing more, cooking more, and living in rhythm with nature.

The Layered Edible Garden

Say goodbye to long, straight rows of vegetable plants lined up and waiting for attacks from pests and diseases, and say hello to an interplanted polyculture paradise, filled with layers of edible plants that outcompete weeds, share resources, and grow beautifully together.

In The Layered Edible Garden, author and food gardening pro Christina Chung of @fluent.garden introduces a modern approach to home food gardening that follows nature’s lead by growing plants in mixed communities, instead of in agriculture-centric monocultures.

By intentionally including edible plants from 8 different layers (trees, sub-canopy trees, shrubs, vines, perennials, annuals, ground covers, and edible roots) in your home garden, you’ll be building a mini “food forest” that will produce food for years to come and require less work and fewer resources. 

With the insight found in The Layered Edible Garden, you’ll:

• Learn how to transform your home’s landscape into an edible plant community  
• Meet dozens of plants in each of the 8 layers
• Discover the many perks of growing perennial food crops that return to the garden year after year 
• Find design and planting advice to make your layered edible garden as attractive as it is productive
• Be introduced to intensive planting strategies to organize plant layers in a functional and beautiful way 
• Acquire info on how to establish new planting areas and how to utilize the existing garden features already present

Simplify Vegetable Gardening

If you are an intermediate or advanced gardener looking to level-up your growing skills, Simplify Vegetable Gardening is the ideal reference for meeting your goal. Your garden will flourish with the help of Tony’s growing prowess and eye-opening approach to enhancing plant health and yields that relies on a clear understanding of the interconnectedness of Earth’s many systems and how they each affect plant growth.

From the soil food web’s impact on plant nutrition and the atmosphere’s connection to photosynthesis to the effects of the water cycle on plant transpiration, Tony offers a deep dive into the science of growing a robust and sustainable home garden. You will learn how to:

• Optimize plant health by understanding mineral nutrition 
• Enhance soil tilth by fostering the right microorganisms
• Maximize plant breeding and propagation techniques to grow more and better-adapted plants
• Boost production through the understanding of essential plant functions
• Improve biodiversity and plant resilience by adopting a mixed planting strategy
• Be a crucial part of your regional food system and enhance community food security

Plus, diversify your garden’s offerings through profiles of 16 plant families that encompass 81 different food crops. Each family profile provides information on how to cultivate these plants based on the commonalities of the plant family in which they belong.

The Cut Flower Handbook

Whether you’re wanting fresh-cut flowers for yourself, family, friends, or for others, you can rest assured when you plant seeds you’ll be cutting armloads of colorful, long-lasting blooms.

Lisa’s easy-to-follow advice on planting and harvesting flowers maximizes cut flower production.

This logical and nature-driven method is also a signature hallmark of her super-successful online flower-farming courses, and it’s one that translates equally well to both small urban backyards and large rural flower farms.

Growing your own cut flowers means you can avoid bouquets laden with pesticides (who wants that on their wedding day?) and you can skip the trips to your local flower shop or grocery store to pay big bucks for a bouquet that has racked up more airline miles than you could ever hope to. 

Included in this essential cut flower growing handbook are:

• 50 extensive flower profiles divided into their preferred season of growth. Cool-weather favorites include poppies, snapdragons, and bells of Ireland. Warm-season beauties include zinnias, sunflowers, and celosia. 
• Planting tips for a succession of blooms that carry over from one growing season to the next without any additional work from you.
• Illustrations showing how to pinch plants for more blooms, how to make your cuts, how to erect support netting to keep your flowers straight and upright, how to dig a planting bed, and more.
• Over 200 photographs of the best cut flowers for home gardeners to grow, the most effective methods for their care, and the most productive ways to organize them in the garden.
• Advice on caring for a cutting garden, locating the best planting site, starting plants from seed, making the harvest, prolonging the life of your cut flowers, and so much more!

The Complete Guide to Vegetable Gardening: Create, Cultivate, and Care for Your Perfect Edible Garden

An extensive and info-packed bible of home vegetable growing from the editors of the world’s most-visited gardening resource, Garden Know How. 

With the experts from Gardening Know How at your side, cultivating loads of fresh, homegrown food has never been simpler. This indispensable handbook for vegetable gardeners includes not only the essential information you need to succeed, but also a wealth of expert tips and real-world advice to smooth the many inevitable bumps on the road to a productive edible garden. 

Gardening Know How – The Complete Guide to Vegetable Gardening is here to answer your every veggie-growing question, from asparagus planting to zucchini pest control—and everything in between. Detailed plant profiles offer specific cultivation information and unique growing tips for each vegetable crop, allowing you to pick and choose which crops to grow based on your climate and personal preference.

Other highlights:  

• Planting plans for maximizing succession planting
• Soil-building expertise from the pros
• Budget-friendly garden design ideas and inspiration
• Seed starting and transplanting information
• Know-how on filling raised beds and containers
• Tips for companion planting
• Guidance on feeding, watering, and mulching your veggie plants
• Recommendations on the best varieties to grow
• Harvesting advice for dozens of different vegetables 

QR codes throughout the book guide you to even more available resources on the Gardening Know How website. Plus, lush, full-color photos highlight the beauty and value of homegrown harvests from backyard gardens, both large and small. Welcome to the garden!

¡Verdura! – Living a Garden Life: 30 Projects to Nurture Your Passion for Plants and Find Your Bliss

¡Verdura! – Living a Garden Life celebrates the power of adding more green to your life with 30 simple and budget-friendly gardening projects that promote well-being through plants. 

From Puerto Rican author and gardening celebrity, Perla Sofía Curbelo Santiago of Agrochic.com, a Spanish-language gardening lifestyle platform, comes this guide to forming a lifelong love of nature, plants, and gardening. Verdura means “greenery” in Spanish, but also refers to any edible plant from the garden. Throughout this book, verdura is used as both a description and an aspiration—it’s all about adding more verdura to your daily life!

Perfect for beginners and expert gardeners alike, turning the practice of tending plants into a healthy lifestyle has never been easier. It takes many repetitions to form a habit, and the goal is to use the 30 projects found here to transform the initial spark of joy plants create into a healthy habit that enhances your life in many ways. Indoor and outdoor projects are included, many of which are perfect for small spaces and urban environments. 

In addition to offering plant-related wellness tips, personal stories of her own garden evolution, and advice on how tending plants can improve both physical and mental health, Perla offers clear step-by-step guidance on project creation. 

Some of the projects you’ll find inside include: 

• Creating a container planting that appeals to a 13-year-old version of yourself
• Making a meditation garden or a private healing nook
• Planting a barefoot garden 
• Performing a quick and easy garden makeover 
• Compiling a garden-tainment kit
• Upcycling common discards to create a propagation station, a swinging planter, and a birdbath 
• Organizing your garden legacy using a basic guide

Also included are alternative plant charts if you’re the kind of gardener who likes lots of plant choices, and section openers that offer a small glimpse of gardening life on the island of Puerto Rico.

Green-up your life to reduce stress and add joy with help from ¡Verdura!

Growing An Edible Landscape

Convert your unproductive lawn and landscape areas into fruitful edible gardens with this practical guide overflowing with ideas, plans, designs, and know-how.

Out with the lawn and in with the food! That’s the battle cry of millions of modern gardeners who are not only looking to reduce the amount of time and energy they have to spend tending a lawn, but they’re also looking to improve the lives of their family, friends, and neighbors by supplying them with fresh, homegrown food. In the United States alone, 46 million acres of land are covered in turfgrass (that’s more acreage than corn and soybeans combined!). Imagine all the good that would come if that land were dedicated to growing food instead! 

Converting unused areas of the landscape into food gardens helps mitigate the effects of climate change, reduces food miles, improves food security, and allows us to be a better steward of our little slice of the planet. But how do you get started? Which plants do you choose? Is there a series of best practices to follow to successfully convert your yard into an edible oasis so that it’s not just high-yielding, but it’s also attractive? Growing an Edible Landscape is here to help answer all of these questions and many more.

Setting up an edible landscape is much more than just placing a few tomato-filled raised beds in the middle of the lawn, though for some gardeners, this might be a logical place to start. The eventual goal, however, is to have a landscape filled with layers of fruitful plants combined together to produce edible harvests for as many months of the year as possible. To reach that end, there’s much to plan and do to ensure your success.

Authors Gary Pilarchik of @therustedgarden and Dr. Chiara D’Amore have devised the perfect guidebook to take you from “turfgrass overwhelm” to consistent harvests of a huge diversity of homegrown edible plants. And the best part is—you can create an edible paradise whether your yard is large or small, sunny or shaded, urban or rural, or level or sloped. 

A few highlights of the systems and techniques outlined in these pages include: 

• The phases of the transformation process and how they are different for everyone
• Real-world, sensible garden design options for edible yards 
• Step-by-step projects to get growing today
• How to choose the edible plants that are best for your conditions 
• Practical plant-care tips for everything from seed starting to fertilizing and watering
• Pick-and-choose menus to help you combine productive plants in an attractive way 
• Ways in which your edible landscape can cultivate community 

Also included are 25 profiles of common and uncommon plants for an edible yard. From raspberries and asparagus to fruit trees and dandelions, these food plants are great additions to any edible landscape plan.

Start small or go big—it’s your choice! By saying goodbye to lawn and hello to an edible landscape, you’ll soon be starting on a deeply personal journey toward a more self-sufficient and flavorful life.

What Makes A Garden

A thoughtful second book by Jinny Blom (author of The Thoughtful Garden), one of the world’s leading garden designers.

What Makes a Garden builds upon the work of The Thoughtful Garden, giving a broader idea of how she thinks about garden design. In particular it emphasizes her multi-disciplinary approach, which embraces architecture, conservation and art, coupled with a strong holistic thread.

This fascinating and insightful book looks at how a garden should please all five senses; how it is an alchemical mix of the inanimate and the living; and also how it has to accommodate both the effects of time and the influences of culture.

This is not intended as a book of rules but rather a way of thinking about garden design and making sure it responds to the particularities of place, the culture and the demands of the client. Drawing on her work and experience over the last 20 years or so, the book gets to the heart of what people want and need from a garden and what makes it different from a natural landscape.

Reflecting Jinny‘s highly individual approach to garden design, the book is filled with warmth and character alongside her expert knowledge. With a broad appeal, this beautiful book is for all garden lovers: thoughtful yet practical and informative, it marries artistry with functionality.

Happy Plants, Happy You: A Plant-Care & Self-Care Guide for the Modern Houseplant Parent

Easy houseplant-care tips to help build your confidence in growing, combined with wise and witty words on everything from managing “devil-spawn fungus gnats” to making your houseplant leaves shine like the top of the Chrysler Building, Happy Plants, Happy You is part self-exploration, part houseplant handbook. In a nutshell, it’s a plant-based roadmap to a happier you. 

You’ll get the lowdown on:

• How to choose the right plants for you as a person, not just for your growing conditions
• Advice on avoiding “vampire relationships” with plants (and people!) that suck you dry
• A wish list of the best tools for houseplant parents 
• How to date several plants before settling on the best ones for you
• The art of letting go of things that aren’t thriving
• Giving up on the illusion of control—and being totally okay with it

As your plants grow, you will too. Houseplants are a guilt-free path to peace, and the result of stepping into an intentional plant-care/self-care routine will be happy plants and a happy you.

Sown in the Stars: Planting by the Signs

“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.”

―Ecclesiastes 3:1–2

The Appalachian region is deeply rooted in customs that have been handed down for generations. “Planting by the signs,” a practice predicated on the belief that moon phases and astrological signs exert a powerful influence on the growth and well-being of crops, is deemed superstitious by some but has been considered essential to gardeners and farmers for centuries and is still in use today.

Sown in the Stars brings together the collective knowledge of farmers in central and eastern Kentucky about the custom of planting by the signs. Sarah Hall interviews nearly two dozen contemporary Kentuckians who still follow the signs of the moon and stars to guide planting, harvesting, canning and food preservation, butchering, and general farmwork. Hall explores the roots of this system in both astrology and astronomy and the profound connections felt to the stars, moon, planets, and the earth. Revealed in the personal narratives are the diverse interpretations of the practice. Some farmers and gardeners believe that the moon’s impact on crop behavior is purely scientific, while others favor a much wider interpretation of the signs and their impact on our lives. Featuring photographs by Meg Wilson, this timely book bridges the past, present, and future by broadening our understanding of this practice and revealing its potential to increase the resiliency of our current agricultural food systems.

A Gardener’s Guide to Botany

A Gardener’s Guide to Botany is not just another book on how to grow plants. Instead, it’s a lushly illustrated botanical journey into what makes plants tick, delivered in layman’s terms that are easily understood and appreciated by both advanced gardeners and first-timers. It’s the chlorophyll-infused science behind the plants you know and love, whether you grow them indoors or out.

You’ll learn how different plant parts function (do you know what stomata are and why every leaf has hundreds of them?), the traits that separate plants from animals, and how through eons of evolution the plants we grow in our gardens and homes have developed a million different fascinating adaptations that allow them to survive and thrive. From their leaf shape and growth habit to how they have sex and metabolize the nutrients they absorb, A Gardener’s Guide to Botany covers it all in an accessible and thought-provoking way.

Divided into chapters based on what plants need to survive, some of the topics you’ll discover include:

• How plants convert water, air, and sunshine into roots, stems, leaves, and flowers through photosynthesis
• How plants react to their environment and  “know” when it’s right for supporting growth and reproduction
• How light can inhibit or facilitate chemical reactions in a plant 
• How plants access and use water and different nutrients, including through lifelong partnerships with other living organisms 
• How plants reproduce in some pretty ingenious ways, both with and without sex
• How plant genes are dispersed via seeds spread by wind, water, animals, or by the mechanics of the plant or the seed itself

How to Become a Gardener: Find empowerment in creating your own food security

Food insecurity affects millions of people worldwide. Without access to well-stocked stores or nutritious, fresh foods, those living in “food deserts” face more hunger and health issues than communities where a diversity of food is plentiful. With the inspiration and knowledge found in How to Become a Gardener, self-reliance and food autonomy are within reach for anyone willing to get a little dirt under their nails and dig in.

Author, health coach, and food security advocate Ashlie Thomas of The Mocha Gardener (@the.mocha.gardener) serves as an experienced and encouraging guide on your journey toward self-empowerment through the cultivation of your own homegrown harvests. With a spirit of respect for others, for nature, and for community, Ashlie walks you step by step through not only the practical ins and outs of gardening—from seed starting to making the harvest—but also through the personal challenges and lessons found within the act of gardening itself. Regardless of whether you only have space to grow in a few pots or you have enough room for multiple raised beds or an in-ground garden, you’ll find freedom and wellnessthrough the food you grow, along with patience, compassion, and perspective.

How to Become a Gardener focuses on:

• What makes a space a garden and how to get one started 
• How gardens can be a symbol of resilience in challenging times 
• Finding what motivates you to grow and using it to cultivate nutrient-dense, homegrown harvests 
• Why reclaiming your food authority is one of the most empowering things you can do for you and your family 
• The importance of finding personal freedom by growing your own garden-to-table food
• How the garden grows you just as much as you grow the garden

Field Guide to Outside Style: Design and Plant Your Perfect Outdoor Space

The word “gardening” can be intimidating if you aren’t used to digging in the dirt, yet you want a gorgeous outdoor living area you feel proud of. Author and outdoor living pro Ryan McEnaney helps you make it happen by meeting you where you are. He cuts out the intimidating stuff, doesn’t use scary terms, and supports you through the entire process.

• Start with what you already love. Learn how to translate your choices in clothing, colors, furniture, and architecture into an understanding of how to design your outdoor areas.
• Next, set parameters and expectations. Learn how to plan smartly so you don’t get in over your head. 
• Then, select your aesthetic. Decide which of three primary outdoor design styles—the classic, the modernist, and the naturalist—suit you best and use easy-to-digest, mix-and-match design suggestions and recipes to create an outdoor living area of your dreams.
• Plus, see your options in action. Through case studies accompanied by before-and-after illustrations of outdoor rehab projects, you’ll walk away with a clear understanding of the options for you and your space.

The Vegetable Gardening Book: Your complete guide to growing an edible organic garden from seed to harvest

Just when you think you have a secure grip on what it takes to grow a vegetable garden, a pro like Joe comes along to surprise you with a wheelbarrow full of new-to-you information to knock your gardening socks right off. In The Vegetable Gardening Book, Joe distills insight from years interviewing highly experienced growers for public television’s Growing a Greener World and The joe gardener® Show Podcast along with his own extensive, hands-on knowledge of the craft to present practical and useful info on everything from starting seeds and selecting varieties to building the perfect tomato cage, encouraging pollinators, and creating biodiversity-rich soil in a 100% organic food garden. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in growing the best edible garden their backyard (or balcony!) has ever seen.

Inside you’ll find:

• Ideas for designing and laying out your garden for the greatest yields in the smallest amount of space
• A sure-fire plan for reducing maintenance and trimming down the traditional workload of a garden
• Detailed growing profiles of 40 of Joe’s favorite crops
• A handy reference chart with an easy-to-follow crop rotation plan
• Advice and tips for extending the growing season, building raised beds, setting up a potting station, and deciding which garden tools are worth your time and money
• Strategies to grow anywhere and everywhere—from in-ground garden beds and containers to grow bags and raised-bed planters

The First-Time Homesteader: A complete beginner’s guide to starting and loving your new homestead

Homesteading is a mindset and a lifestyle aimed at living lightly on the land, being more resourceful, appreciating the value of hard work, and understanding the diverse and amazing connections between humans and the planet we live on. Homesteaders constantly strive for a more sustainable life and a greater connection to the cycles of nature and the foods and goods we consume. Starting your very first homestead is a journey of discovery and passion that’s also likely filled with questions and what-ifs. In The First-Time Homesteader, Jessica fills in all the blanks with honesty, humor, and charm.

Now you can take those first and most valuable steps toward establishing your own homestead with a seasoned homesteader at your side. Jessica warmly guides you through the process of setting up your property (no matter how small or large), establishing a garden, welcoming animals into the fold, living more resourcefully, and expanding your homestead kitchen tools and skills with grace and confidence.

Start your first homestead with lessons on:

• Raising chickens for meat and eggs
• Starting and operating a home dairy
• Housing, fencing, and processing advice for meat animals
• Planning and planting your homestead vegetable garden
• Keeping bees for honey, pollination, and beeswax
• Stocking your medicine cabinet with useful herbs and home remedies
• Living a resourceful existence by reusing and repurposing
• Stocking the kitchen with all the tools and techniques you need for success

Bloom: The secrets of growing flowering houseplants year-round

f you’ve ever struggled to get an orchid or African violet to rebloom, or if you’ve hesitated to add plants like hoya, anthurium, Madagascar jasmine, or clivia to your windowsill for fear you may never see their gorgeous flowers, Lisa reveals the insider strategies you need to encourage these plants to strut their stuff. In her signature warm and beginner-friendly tone, she introduces simple techniques you can use to encourage bloom alongside all the ins and outs of caring for these beautiful plants. Lush, full-color photography accompanies each in-depth plant profile. 

Upping your houseplant game doesn’t have to involve spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars on the next trendy leafy-green foliage plant. If you want to expand both your growing skills and the number of specimens in your houseplant family, dive into the world of flowering houseplants instead. New cultivars of old favorites are taking the houseplant world by storm, and other, more unusual, species are now making their way into the limelight, thanks to the interest of millions of new houseplant parents around the world.

Inside the pages of Bloom, you’ll meet:

• The best flowering houseplants to cascade from window ledges, hanging pots, and plant shelves
• A collection of small blooming houseplants perfect for tabletops, desks, and windowsills
• Houseplants with colorful blooms for the living room, dining room, and bedroom

Fill your home with foliage and flowers, and enjoy all the color and calm they’ll add to your living space. 

Succulent Style: A Gardener’s Guide to Growing and Crafting with Succulents

A go-to reference for anyone trying to grow and maintain succulents. The ultimate guide to propagating, growing, and styling succulents and cacti both indoors and out, Succulent Style is as informative as it is gorgeous. Designed for millennials who want to stop killing their plants and for DIY types who want to learn about designing with succulents, Succulent Style is full of succulent growing techniques for beginners as well as for knowledgeable gardeners looking to expand their gardening skills. This beautifully photographed compendium makes the perfect addition to any coffee table or bookshelf.

Succulent ideas for your home and garden. Whether you want to learn how to care for a cactus indoor or how to style plants, you’ll find tons of tips and tricks inside. Start designing succulents with fun projects like succulent garlands, wall art, wreaths, succulent bouquets, potted arrangements as well as many other cool things.

Inside, you’ll also find:

• A detailed compilation of succulent varieties
• Instructions on how to propagate and plant cacti and succulents
• Tips to integrate succulents into outdoor and indoor design

Gardening Hacks: 300+ Time and Money Saving Hacks

Gardening Hacks is perfect for all gardening skill levels whether you’re starting your first garden, looking to expand your crop, or simply searching for ways to make it easier to care for your extensive plant collection. With more than 300 time- and money-saving tips, you’ll find everything you need to know to make your garden grow – indoors or out!

Gardening Hacks includes helpful tips like:

• Saving your eggshells, which can serve as everything from an organic seed starter to a natural snail and slug repellent.
• Adding a pinch of cinnamon to help prevent fungal diseases that might prevent your plants from maturing.
• Using the newspaper to help deter weeds from sprouting.
• Creating your own DIY seed packet catalog to help keep your seeds organized as your garden grows.
• And many more!

The Herbal Healing Handbook

Heal the natural way. In her latest work, bestselling author Cerridwen Greenleaf shares the healing power of plants, roots, herbs, essential oils, aromatherapy, and all things natural remedies. If you are tired of automatically turning to chemical treatments, or just want to have more plant-based care options, The Herbal Healing Handbook is the book for you.

Draw upon ancient knowledge. While health care debates rage all around us, one way to take good care of yourself and your loved ones is with the “kitchen cabinet cures” in this book. When our great grandmothers needed to attend to the cuts, bruises, colds, flu’s fevers and other illnesses their family suffered, they didn’t have a corner drugstore. Instead, these wise women relied on simple wisdom, common sense, and pantries well stocked with herbal remedies. These preparations were made from plants that grew in the kitchen garden or wild weeds gathered outside. The Herbal Healing Handbook combines the wisdom of our elders with a modern kitchen herbalist’s sensibility.

In The Herbal Healing Handbook you will:

• Learn about natural remedies you can DIY
• Treat inflammation and pain
• Build energy
• Improve your attitude and mindset
• Gain key knowledge about plants, roots, essential oils and aromatherapy

The Cannabinoid Cookbook: Transform Your Health Using Herbs and Spices from Your Kitchen

Discover wonderful uses of turmeric, basil, rosemary, flax, oregano, cloves, cinnamon, cacao, and more. It is perfectly understandable to be wary about holistic foods and their healing properties. However, when used and prepared correctly these rich foods are full of natural healing remedies that can help you ease pain, sleep better, de-stress, and so much more. Jam-packed with healing ingredients, making easy and healthy dinner ideas has never been easier.

The Cannabinoid Cookbook provides a ton of healthy recipes using healing herbs and spices that can kick-start your ECS and help you feel better each day! Learn about:

• Common herbs and spices that can create an endocannabinoid response
• How to use these recipes to heal pain, inflammation, and other bodily issues
• Easy and delicious recipes that heal you, inside and out

Natural Remedies for Your Home & Health

Revamp your entire home with natural, safer products. Natural Remedies for Your Home & Health contains a wealth of information about essential oils, what they are, how they work, and how to use them safely. In this book, find several simple recipes for clean beauty products, and even everyday cleaning products. All of these practical recipes can be used on a regular basis. Plus, discover natural health tips and learn how to make some swaps in the laundry room that will save you time and money!

100 DIY all-natural recipes, numerous natural living tips, and valuable essential oil education—this book has it all. In Natural Remedies for Your Home & Health, author Laura Ascher, the wellness advocate and essential oils expert behind the blog and YouTube channel Our Oily House, teaches you how to:

• Use essential oils safely and effectively to create a more natural lifestyle for your family
• Feel empowered to put together homemade skincare products, haircare products, and DIY cleaners
• Use essential oils for natural remedies for common ailments, and more!

The Crafty Gardener

Awakening the gardener in all of us: Gardening allows us to live in a much more human way, grounded in nature and connected to Mother Earth and all she provides. Even if your garden is just a hanging basket of cherry tomatoes or a windowsill filled with herb pots, you will still reap the benefits of gardening.

DIY crafting and gardening: Gardening adds pleasure to your life and gives you a sense of calm. With your garden, you are quite literally growing a bounty of blessings. Lifelong gardener and bestselling author Becca Anderson has put her love of crafting and of gardening together in this book of inspired DIY ideas.

More than a gardening book: Along with gardening tips and secrets for growing flowers, herbs and veggies, Anderson shares dozens of how-to’s in this delightful guide on making candles, potpourri, bath salts, essential oils, floral waters, tinctures, liquors, pickles jams and even fountains, birdhouses and fairy doors. The perfect gift for any gardener!

Readers will learn:

• Time-tested gardening secrets
• How to garden in big and small spaces
• Recipes for home-grown vegetables and fruits
• How to preserve and ferment
• How to make DIY garden decorations and fixtures
• Anderson’s own gardening stories that will inspire, motivate, and lift the spirit

A gardening book filled with DIY projects, wisdom, and joy

Olaf Hajek’s Fantastic Fruits

As in his previous books, Flower Power and Veggie Power, Hajek’s whimsical, imaginative paintings—inspired by a variety of artistic traditions—situate each fruit in a fascinating cultural context. Each “portrait” features delightful pictorial clues about how the fruits are grown and consumed. Opposite the illustrations, Annette Roeder’s engaging texts offer illuminating and often surprising facts from throughout history and contemporary life. As mouthwatering as a summer peach, and as surprising as a pomegranate’s seeds, this book serves up page after page of delicious, nutritious, but most of all fun portions of fruity knowledge from all over the world.

The Urban Garden: 101 Ways to Grow Food and Beauty in the City

Whether you want to grow on a balcony, rooftop, front stoop, or a tiny urban patio, turn your growing dreams into reality and build a gorgeous and unique garden that showcases your personal style while still being functional and productive. With the ingenious ideas and resourceful tactics found here, you’ll be maximizing yields and beauty from every square inch of your space, while also making a lush outdoor living area you’ll crave spending time in.

Take inspiration from urban gardeners around the world and learn to:

• Install planting pockets on fences and walls
• Grow a rooftop garden in lightweight grow bags
• Tips for designing small spaces that feel BIG
• Build a salad table for growing lettuce and greens
• Utilize garden structures and plants for decorative screening
• Support pollinators by creating a small-scale habitat
• Design a pet-friendly urban yard
• Employ climbing plants and vines to add privacy and reduce noise
• Plant in layers to maximize yields and add beauty

Whether you’re growing edible plants or beautiful flowers, the 101 amazing growing ideas found in The Urban Garden will turn your tiny urban yard into a treasure trove of green you’ll be proud to share with family and friends.

The Modern Homestead Garden: Growing Self-sufficiency in Any Size Backyard

Modern Homesteading is a lifestyle focused on living lightly on the land and increasing self-sufficiency. It doesn’t matter whether “home” is 50 acres in the country, a suburban corner lot, or an apartment in the city. All you need is a desire to reduce your footprint on the earth and live a more sustainable life. To be a modern homesteader, you don’t have to live off-grid and you don’t have to give up contemporary conveniences.

For most modern homesteaders, it all starts with making the conscious decision to reduce your reliance on the commercial food supply chain. In The Modern Homestead Garden, author and YouTube gardening star Gary Pilarchik of The Rusted Garden walks you step-by-step through the process of building a homestead garden. From laying out the planting beds, nurturing the soil, and starting seeds, straight through to cooking and preserving the harvest, Gary serves as your warm and accessible guide, no matter how large or how small your homestead is. With the guidance found here, you’ll move at your own pace, learn, share, and enjoy the journey as you slowly transform your home into an edible landscape.

• Practical advice to site and build your very first homestead garden
• Crop profiles to get you growing quickly 
• Cost-effective ways to source seeds and plants 
• The low-down on feeding plants in an earth-friendly way
• Methods for preparing planting beds and containers
• Soil prep advice every homesteader can use 
• All natural trouble-shooting solutions 
• How to include berries, cane fruits, vine crops, and fruit trees in your homestead plans
• Food preservation advice that’s easy and delicious

Backyard Farming

Grow, raise, and store your own food with this simple and easy guide to creating a self-sustaining farm right in your backyard!

These days we are all looking for ways to become more self-sufficient. Now with Backyard Farming, you can create your very own micro farm right in your backyard — no matter where you live! Now you can discover ways to grow, raise, and store your own food year round whether you live in an urban environment, in the suburbs, or out in the country. From raising chickens and beekeeping to growing vegetables and planting fruit trees, this guide to homesteading will help you become more self-reliant in no time!

Four-Season Food Gardening

Unlike most other vegetable gardening books on the market, this one approaches the subject through the lens of what you can grow during each of the four seasons, even if you live in a cold climate. Using season-extension techniques, such as cold frames, mini hoop houses, and thick mulches, combined with a thoughtful mixture of annual and perennial crops, you’ll discover that eating from your backyard through all 12 months is possible.

With a hearty dose of enthusiasm and expertise, author Misilla dela Llana of YouTube’s Learn to Grow channel presents this season-by-season guide to growing edible plants, covering everything from what tasks and what crops are best for each harvesting season to step-by-step DIY projects for structures and methods to temper weather extremes. With Four-Season Food Gardening you can keep on growing, no matter what challenges Mother Nature presents.

Inside, you’ll find info on:

• Veggies you can harvest in the dead of winter
• Foods that come from perennial plants you harvest from for many years
• How to build and use cold frames and other season extenders to prolong your harvest
• Tips for incorporating layers of edible plants to maximize space
• Pruning, planting, and maintenance advice for dozens of crops
• Seasonal maintenance and harvesting know-how from a pro

The First-Time Gardener

In The First-Time Gardener: Raised Bed Gardening, you’ll learn how to select the best-raised bed for your space, what to fill it with, and tips for staking and trellising plants to save space and improve yields.

Additional advice found inside includes:

• DIY plans for building quick-and-simple beds
• Info on the best soil mixes for filling raised beds
• How to mulch, water, and fertilize your new garden
• Illustrated planting plans to help you determine how many plants fit in each bed
• Step-by-step project plans for unique raised bed trellising systems
• The best beginner-friendly crops to get you started
• How to maximize production from a small raised bed garden
• Tips to get growing in a way that won’t leave you feeling overwhelmed halfway through the season

Raised bed gardening is perfect for beginners, as long as you have a pro like CaliKim sharing her essential know-how and cheering you on to veggie-growing victory.

The Regenerative Garden: 80 Practical Projects for Creating a Self-sustaining Garden Ecosystem

Discover how to work with nature, instead of against it, by employing permaculture techniques to create a garden that is not just more beautiful and productive, but also more resilient.

While the word permaculture might sound intimidating, the principals behind it are not. The main goal of permaculture is to turn your space into a functioning ecosystem that’s less reliant on external resources and better able to sustain itself through many seasons of growth and change as it resists pests, diseases, and climate extremes. Whatever the size of your space, from a tiny patio garden to a big backyard, and whether you grow food, flowers, shrubs, trees, or a combination of all, The Regenerative Garden is here to help you become a better, more eco-conscious gardener.

Through 80 DIY projects, author Stephanie Rose of the popular website Garden Therapy introduces you to basic backyard permaculture concepts in an easy-to-follow, logical way. Each of the six chapters represents a living element of the garden, capable of playing a valuable role in its constant regeneration, including soil, water, plants, climate, ethics, and community. As you check these projects off your to-do list, you’ll find you’ve reduced your long-term work load, conserved water and other resources, turned your yard into a habitat for wildlife, and learned to grow perennial foods in creative ways

The 80 featured projects include step-by-step instructions on how to:

• Employ intensive planting to reduce weeding and watering chores
• Use living mulches to amend the soil
• Build self-watering planters and wicking beds to reduce water use
• Install a rain garden to catch runoff
• Plant a wildlife hedge to support creatures and create a windbreak and noise buffer
• Compost projects and systems to repurpose waste on-site
• Make a butterfly migration station to support pollinators of all sorts

The Urban Garden: 101 Ways to Grow Food and Beauty in the City

Whether you want to grow on a balcony, rooftop, front stoop, or a tiny urban patio, turn your growing dreams into reality and build a gorgeous and unique garden that showcases your personal style while still being functional and productive. With the ingenious ideas and resourceful tactics found here, you’ll be maximizing yields and beauty from every square inch of your space, while also making a lush outdoor living area you’ll crave spending time in.

Take inspiration from urban gardeners around the world and learn to:

• Install planting pockets on fences and walls
• Grow a rooftop garden in lightweight grow bags
• Tips for designing small spaces that feel BIG
• Build a salad table for growing lettuce and greens
• Utilize garden structures and plants for decorative screening
• Support pollinators by creating a small-scale habitat
• Design a pet-friendly urban yard
• Employ climbing plants and vines to add privacy and reduce noise
• Plant in layers to maximize yields and add beauty

Freestyle Bonsai: How to pot, grow, prune, and shape

Learn the tools and techniques of bonsai to get started potting, shaping, and caring for your own collection of tiny trees, all while learning it’s okay to bend the rules along the way.

Though bonsai is steeped in ancient traditions and techniques, it doesn’t have to be intimidating and difficult. A new generation of bonsai enthusiasts are discovering the joys of growing these miniaturized works of living art, and in Freestyle Bonsai, bonsai artists and growers Jerome and Mari Kellerhals of The Bonsai Supply show you how you, too, can grow beautiful bonsai trees without judgment or the stress of perfection.

You’ll learn:

• Which tree species are the best for beginners
• A breakdown of bonsai tools and how to use them
• How to successfully pot a bonsai tree
• Easy bonsai styling, including clipping, training, and wiring techniques
• Care and maintenance tips for your bonsai collection
• Step-by-step shaping instructions to create ten different bonsai styles

The Elegant and Edible Garden

Stylish and celebratory, The Elegant and Edible Garden takes food growing to a higher plane. Host of The Potager Blog (@potagerblog), author and garden stylist Linda Vater, shares her vision for creating a garden space where food and flowers grow side by side.

Inside you’ll learn:

• How to grow flowers, fruits, veggies, and herbs together en masse
• The function of symmetry in a potager garden
• Ways to create visual harmony and match the style of the garden to its surroundings
• Tips for blending your family’s needs and lifestyle into the garden
• Advice on how to utilize focal points and garden ornaments in your garden’s layout
• The importance of rhythm, repetition, and harmony in potager design
• How to position garden structures with practicality and purpose in mind
• Where to put your potager for not just convenience but also to create a destination
• Best practices for growing your beautiful new garden organically

Create a garden that rejoices in seasonality while still allowing your style and personality to shine. The Elegant and Edible Garden is a vision of the very best things a garden can offer: food, beauty, connection, and a place to breathe.

What’s Cooking in Flowerville?: Recipes from Garden, Balcony or Window Box

Young cooks will learn about the edible gifts that each season brings in this warm and inviting collection of recipes from the author of What’s Cooking at 10 Garden Street. In lush double-page spreads featuring Sala’s gorgeous watercolor illustrations, we visit the yards, balconies, and rooftops where the citizens of Flowerville grow their vegetables. Each month features a different member of the town, and a delicious recipe inspired by a fruit or vegetable.

The recipes, which include savory and sweet pies, soups, sauces, pancakes and croquettes, embrace a wide array of cultures, and feature fresh flavors and easy-to-source ingredients. Kids will learn not only how to incorporate fruits and vegetables into meals, but also how they grow and when they ripen. The book also includes charmingly illustrated tips and tools for growing your own food. 

Audubon Birdhouse Book

The Audubon Birdhouse Book is the most authoritative book available for creating safe, sturdy, and easy-to-build homes for many of North America’s favorite birds. This updated second edition includes important new and timely topics including impacts of climate change on birds, nestbox monitoring for citizen science, native plants for native birds, and how birders can help birds.

A visit to almost any home or garden center presents birders with numerous cute and colorful contraptions that are sold as bird homes. But the fact is, many of these products provide anything but a safe refuge for your feathered friends. Produced in association with the National Audubon Society, Audubon Birdhouse Book explains how to build and place functional DIY bird homes that are safe and appropriate for more than 20 classic North American species, from wrens to raptors. Each of the easy-to-build boxes and shelves within is accompanied by cut lists, specially created line diagrams, and step-by-step photography, making the projects accessible to those with even the most rudimentary woodworking skills.

In addition, this practical and beautifully presented guide is packed with color photography and information about the bird species covered:  Wrens, Warblers, Bluebirds, Flycatchers, Swallows, Titmice, Owls, Flickers, Kestrels, Chickadees, Ducks, Mergansers, Swallows, Doves, Swallows, Robins, Finches, Phoebes, Loons, Swifts, Herons, and Ospreys.

Grow Your Own Mini Fruit Garden

Even beginners become successful fruit “farmers” with the techniques and advice offered by author Christy Wilhelmi, the force behind the popular gardening website, Gardenerd. Selecting the best small-scale fruit trees, bushes, vines, and plants for your climate, siting them properly, and pruning your compact trees for health and productivity are some of the many topics covered in the pages of this bible of small-space fruit growing.

You’ll also discover how to:

• Turn your urban, suburban, or rural garden into a fruit factory, no matter its size
• Maximize production from edible container fruit gardens
• Grow more food in less space
• Limit your family’s synthetic pesticide consumption
• Choose varieties with increased disease resistance
• Select plants that grow well in your climate
• Maintain your fruiting plants correctly to encourage years of prolific harvests

The Vegetable Garden Pest Handbook

Climate change and newly introduced insect pests are changing the world of gardening. Pests that once produced a single generation per year are now producing two or even three, and accidentally imported pest insects have no natural predators to keep them in check. These leaf-munching critters can cause significant damage in short order, reducing your yields and costing you time and money, especially if your garden is out of balance or your plants are stressed and vulnerable.

Whether you’re a new or seasoned gardener, author and garden pro Susan Mulvihill shows you how to handle pest issues by growing healthier plants, properly identifying the culprit, and nurturing the overall ecosystem of the garden. With easy-to-use charts, you’ll learn how to identify common vegetable garden pests based on both the damage they cause and their physical appearance.

DIY pest-control projects, coupled with up-to-date info on the best natural products, physical pest-control tricks, and tips for managing pests with the use of traps and barriers, all lead to a garden where beneficial insects and pollinators are preserved while pest populations are kept in check.

Learn how to:

• Get rid of squash bugs with minimal effort
• Screen out root maggots 
• Keep cutworms at bay
• Nurture the good bugs that help control tomato hornworms
• Tackle an infestation of mites, thrips, or whiteflies
• Send cucumber beetles packing
• Limit cabbage worms with a simple, inexpensive trick
• Learn about the best earth-friendly product controls for home vegetable gardeners

Tropical Plants and How to Love Them

Tropical plants are energizing. They awaken a tired summer garden with lush, sensuous foliage and fascinating flowers and turn a suburban patio into a sophisticated, late-night paradise. But if you garden in a temperate climate and have been reluctant to commit to what you’re sure will be too much work, it’s time to let Tropical Plants and How to Love Them author Marianne Willburn act as your tropical matchmaker.

Using five relationship types to help you understand the different levels of care required for many common (and uncommon!) tropicals, Marianne introduces you to an impressive array of outstanding tropical plants by providing care instructions, easy tips for seeing these tropical beauties safely through the winter, and advice for designing a tropical paradise of your own.

Tropical Plants and How to Love Them gives you permission to jump headfirst into:

• A summer romance that ends with the first frost.
• A long-term commitment to beautify indoor and outdoor spaces.
• A friends-with-benefits relationship that yields exotic flavors and fragrances.
• A breakup with that high-maintenance beauty.
• A best friend relationship that lasts a lifetime.

A Woman’s Garden

Gardens grow more than just pretty flowers. They grow well-being and a deeper connection with nature. Gardens can also produce plant material for creating homemade skincare, natural dyes, artisan crafts, delicious foods and beverages, and medicines—homegrown ways to create a wholesome lifestyle.

Making things with your hands and heart, and then sharing the fruits of your labors with friends and family, is both satisfying and soul-stirring. Learn how to grow dozens of plants and then transform them into gorgeous items to nurture yourself or gift to others, including:

• Using onion skins to dye wool
• Alkanet root and lavender soap
• Soapwort multipurpose cleaner
• Rose petal facial mist
• Edible flower frittata
• Healing calendula skin salve
• Paper mache leaf lanterns
• Chamomile tincture 
• Gardening projects, including a herb spiral, strawberry pallet planter, and more

Grow Bag Gardening

Grow bags are perfect for urban, container, rooftop, balcony, and patio gardeners—but those with lots of property will find them useful, too. Grow bags fold flat for easy storage and are 100% frost-proof, so there’s no lugging heavy pots indoors for the winter. They can be used for many seasons and their mobility means you can easily move these pots around to maximize sunlight. Fabric grow bags offer gardeners a great way to grow that’s cost effective, simple, and beneficial to plants.

In the pages of Grow Bag Gardening you’ll learn:

• Why gardening in these special fabric planter bags results in big yields 
• How this no-weed, no-mess method of gardening is a real game changer 
• What makes this method so good for your plants (hint: no root circling!) 
• Where and how to set up your grow bag garden to reap the biggest rewards 
• Step-by-step instructions for continual harvests, sewing your own grow bags, building a specialized trellising system, caring for your grow bag garden, and more.

How to Grow Your Own Food

Take your love of plants to the next level and start growing some food with this modern, easy-to-follow guidebook that shows you everything you need to know to grow edible plants all year round!

Did you know you could grow vegetables, fruits, and herbs in containers? Well, now you can take your houseplants to the next level by growing home-grown produce and seasoning that will taste delicious in all of your favorite dishes.

How to Grow Your Own Food identifies 50 common, easy-to-grow edible plants from herbs to vegetables, along with detailed care instructions and beautiful illustrations of each plant. You’ll find everything you need to know about building your container garden including:How to choose the right size container for each plant.

• How to water (and feed!) your plants for optimal growth
• When to harvest your crops for the best flavor
• And much more!

No-Waste Composting

In No-Waste Composting, you’ll discover the hows and whys of composting and find over a dozen practical step-by-step plans for building both indoor and outdoor composting systems that require a minimal amount of space. 

If any of these is your excuse for not composting, then this is the book for you!  Small-space composting has never been easier, more efficient, and more eco-friendly.  Composting keeps millions of tons of waste out of landfills and creates carbon-sequestering, nutrient-dense compost that can be used to help fuel plant growth (including houseplants!) and build soil health. 

• Build a DIY worm-composting system for a cupboard or garage
• Craft a layered, under-the-sink composting system from terra cotta pots
• Construct a simple outdoor compost bin from repurposed wooden pallets 
• Use upcycled wire fencing to build a mobile composting system on the driveway
• Learn how to compost larger sticks and branches to build new food and flower gardens
• Upcycle a plastic bucket to make an indoor compost fermenting system

Sustainable Gardening

Take practical steps to protect the Earth for future generations by creating a sustainable home landscape that is also beautiful, budget-friendly, and low-maintenance.

In this updated edition of Grow More With Less, author and horticulturist Vincent Simeone shows us that gardens are living laboratories where we can experiment, grow, and connect with other living things.  There are tens of millions of gardeners across the globe. Together, we can create a huge and lasting positive impact on the planet and all the creatures who share it with us.

With the well-researched plan found in the pages of Sustainable Gardening, gardeners and homeowners are taught how to: 

• Grow more plants while using fewer resources
• Conserve water through plant choice and proper landscape care
• Stop the disposable mindset
• Mitigate the effects of climate change through intelligent landscaping
• Plan and plant with low-maintenance in mind
• Build healthy soil to sequester carbon and grow healthier plants 
• Create a garden that supports wildlife and soil life
• Design your garden for resiliency and a long, healthy life
• Banish synthetic pesticides and herbicides for more eco-friendly choices
• Reduce plastic waste in the garden and the landfill
• Set your garden on a schedule to reduce maintenance needs
• Harvest rainwater for future use
• Adopt a sustainable lawn care program that requires less work and fewer resources

Stanley Jr. Gardening is Awesome!: Projects, Advice, and Insight for Young Gardeners

Kids can jump right in with an introduction to gardening. A complete basics section on vegetables, fruits, flowers, trees, and shrubs kicks things off. You’ll also learn how to make super soil and keep plants happy with the right amount of sunlight and water. A complete garden gear guide gets you ready for growing. The rest of the book is all about things to do.

Chapters and projects include:

• Gardening How-Tos shows you how to test soil drainage and start plants in an egg carton.
• Great Bed Gardens sets you up for success when planting a row garden, a colorful summer flower garden, and more. 
• Container Gardening shows you how to grow strawberries in a 5-Gallon bucket and create a beautiful bulb box.
• Raised Bed Plots feature a square foot garden, uplifted herb garden, and even a vertical garden!

Woodland Journal

Whether you’re in the forest or just dreaming of woodland wonderlands, immerse yourself in the little miracles of nature with the Woodland Journal.

Charming original watercolor illustrations of mushrooms and wildflowers, frogs and ferns, and butterflies and rabbits fill the pages of this lined journal.

The foil-stamped cloth cover complements the whimsical endpapers, and a ribbon marker keeps your place.

The Woodland Journal is a sanctuary for writers, poets, and journal keepers who wish to enter the magical forest world to escape the everyday in their own imagination.

Growing Flowers

Revel in flowering plants.  This beautifully photographed book features simple, and engaging know-how enabling you to grow, harvest, and arrange a cutting garden of flowers. An instructional guide to gardening for beginners or if you’re looking to hone your botanical skills, Growing Flowers teaches everything from caring for a cut flower garden to making simple-yet-gorgeous flower arrangements and botanical bouquets.

An indispensable gardening guide for homebody horticulturists and floral foragers.  A flower book with a whimsical twist, Growing Flowers is a go-to reference for those new to herb and flower gardening. Discover flower arranging techniques using blooms, greenery, and even artichokes, vines and berries. Learn about tools of the trade. Get down and dirty with dirt, seasonal rotation, starting from seeds and/or seedlings, and more.

Inside find:

• Explanations of soil types and soil preparations
• A list of seasonal flowers such as peonies or garden roses for the spring and sunflowers and dahlias for the summer and fall
• Basic knowledge to create flower bouquets that include things like sprigs of greenery and even attractive weeds

Tiny Plants: Discover the Joys of Growing and Collecting Itty-Bitty Houseplants

Longing to nurture your houseplant addiction without cramping your space or style? If you can’t squeeze another giant leafy friend onto your plant shelf, author Leslie Halleck is here to inform you that tiny is the new BIG! In Tiny Plants, you’ll discover a fascinating array of perfectly petite houseplants you can collect and grow—in a minimal amount of space.

Yes, Tiny Plants is the ideal solution for plant keepers who don’t have much space, but even if you’ve got all the room in the world, their adorableness is reason alone to grow these mini wonders. These are the eternal puppies, kittens, and babies of the plant world — they never grow out of their cuteness because their genetics keep them itty-bitty for their entire lives.

Beyond a few small succulents, most houseplant parents aren’t aware of the extensive array of tiny plants they can collect and display on windowsills, on tables and desks, and in terrariums.

Prepare for cuteness overload with: 

• Profiles of dozens of miniature houseplants, including aquatic, carnivorous, flowering, succulent, and tropical varieties
• Detailed growing information and tips for success
• A fascinating look at the botany of miniature houseplant varieties
• Advice on how to stylishly display your tiny plant collection
• How-to lessons on the basics of propagating mini houseplants to share with friends
• Details on the best tiny houseplants for terrarium growing

Cocktails, Mocktails, and Garnishes from the Garden

Step inside a bartender’s apothecary, forage for garnishes, and craft some of the most popular cocktails, mocktails, and beverages. This beautifully photographed compendium of craft cocktails includes examples of garnishes and interesting ingredients to give any drink a botanical twist.

The go-to reference for classic and modern cocktail recipes.  Whether it’s adding a basil sprig or infusing gin with peaches;  Cocktails, Mocktails and Garnishes from the Garden gives you the ability to make classic cocktails and the confidence to craft innovative concoctions. Alongside recipes of some of the most popular cocktails come new-fangled libations, non-alcoholic equivalents, and instructions to create gorgeous garnishes.

Creating your very own herb bar and garnish garden for craft cocktails.  A cocktail recipe book from the wild; Cocktails, Mocktails and Garnishes from the Garden features examples of garnishes and general know-how. With a reference guide of herbal and floral flavors that complement different spirits, and details about what to plant and how to grow your very own herb bar, you can craft cocktail recipes alongside nature.

Inside, learn about herbs and their uses as well as:

• General instructions on creating a garnish garden
• The difference between a high ball and a coupe glass
• Which bar tools are “must haves” for a home cocktail set-up

The Vegetable Garden Problem Solver Handbook

The Tiny But Mighty Farm: Cultivating high yields, community, and self-sufficiency from a home farm

The First-Time Gardener: Container Food Gardening

What’s holding you back from growing your own food? Are you nervous about having enough space? Do you question whether or not you have the time to make it happen? Are the growing conditions you have a little questionable? Is your budget at a bare-bones minimum? Then container gardening is the answer to all of your concerns! With a minimal investment in time, money, and space, and The First-Time Gardener: Container Food Gardening at your side, start your very first garden in containers, instead of in the ground. You just may find you’re capable of growing fantastic yields in spite of all your initial hesitations.

Container gardens can take up as much or as little room as you’d like. They’re portable, so you can locate them wherever conditions are optimal for plant growth. And, you can grow just about any veggie in pots, as long as you have the right container, the right soil blend, and the right care tips. In these pages, author Pam Farley of BrownThumbMama.com lines the path to container food gardening success in clear, simple steps.

Not only will you learn how to get started, you’ll also discover: 

• What size container you need for each different veggie 
• Why filling the pot with the perfect soil blend matters so much
• When to fertilize and how often to water 
• Where to locate your container food garden for optimum production 
• What to do if problems arise and how to fix them 
• Tips for everything from staking and pruning your veggie plants to knowing when it’s time to harvest

If you are not sure what to give, a gardening book could be a great choice.

So grab a book from this list and watch your gardening friend or loved one’s face as they enjoy your gift.

Do you garden, too? If so, what is your favorite gardening book? Leave a comment below so we can all take a look.