One of the best ways to keep the gardening spirit alive during during the cold winter months, is to read gardening books. I created a list of my favorite gardening books from my personal library.
It’s January. For most states in the U.S., there is very little to no gardening happening outside. And for those of us in the northern U.S., like me in Michigan, we have a good four months to go before the soil starts to warm up. I have a number of beautifully written and photographed gardening books that I turn to again and again in the winter. Hopefully you will find something to add to your library!
One of my requests when we built our house, was a library with a rolling ladder. We were able to build this in one corner of the living room and I absolutely love it! The majority of these books are mine, and yes, I have read nearly all of them. With one notable exception. I think my son put his university Calculus text book on the top shelf just to see if I’d notice. I left it there. I have never read it, nor do I intend to.
I love to read, and, with the exception of calculus, these are the books that I liked enough to keep. The library is organized by subject, such as cooking, mystery’s, fiction and non-fiction, and, of course, gardening. I adore beautifully photographed coffee table style books, as I find these inspire and feed the imagination far more than instructional books filled with text. So, here we go, beginning with my number one treasured gardening book.
French Garden Design
As I wrote about in my first blog post, “What is a Potager“, the book that started my passion in creating a French style kitchen garden is, “The Art of French Vegetable Gardening” by Louisa Jones. It is a gorgeous coffee table quality book, with beautiful photographs of public and private gardens in France. Jones includes an informative history of the kitchen garden and how it has evolved over time. On the photo, below left, you can just see my sticky notes protruding from the top of the book, marking pages I return to again and again. Ranking number two on my list, is another gardening book by the same author, “Kitchen Gardens of France“.
This book is also full of beautiful French gardens, from grand chateau’s to small farmers that sell their produce at local markets. I have gleaned many ideas from these books for my own potagers, especially creating garden beds with companion plants. Taking inspiration from Jones’ books, I am mindful of the height and color of the plants and flowers as they mature through the season, taking care to plant beds with variety, color and textural interest.
English Cut Flower Farming
Coming in at number three, is “The Land Gardeners Cut Flowers” by Bridget Elworthy and Henrietta Courtauld. This is a hefty, oversized, absolutely stunning coffee table book, focusing on the authors’ journies to gardening on a stately English manor, the importance of soil health, and growing cut flowers.
This book is hugely inspiring to me when it comes to growing cut flowers and, even if you are an armchair gardener, the photographs of classic English styling of cut flowers in vases are stunning, and fill my gardening dreams of visions of cut flowers spilling out of their vintage containers!
English Flower Farming
Close on the heels of the Land Gardeners, is another English gardener, Arthur Parkinson, with two books on my top eight list. His first book “The Pottery Gardener” chronicles his journey into gardening professionally for Emma Bridgewater at her ceramics factory, and his love for chickens. The writing and photography are all by Parkinson, and the book is lovely to read, as well as, look at.
My favorite of Parkinson’s two books is “The Flower Yard“. The book’s subtitle, “growing flamboyant flowers in containers”, sums up the book perfectly. The entire book, also photographed and written by Parkinson, documents the possibilities of gardening in the very small space, which, in this book, is the entry garden to his former family home. The abundance of flowers grown in such a small space is impressive and highlights how containers can really maximize what you can do in small spaces. If you also garden in a very small space, I recommend you read this book. Parkinson is passionate about encouraging others to grow flowers in whatever space one has, as it not only provides beauty, but helps pollinators as they go about their business.
Heirloom Vegetables
Coming in at number six and seven, are a pair of well worn coffee table style books, “The Heirloom Tomato” and “The Compleat Squash“, both by Amy Godman. Goldman is a well known advocate for the perpetuity of heirloom seeds, and has served as chair of Seed Savers Exchange. I have been a member of Seed Savers Exchange, and purchased some of my early tomato seeds from members of the Exchange. It was Goldman’s tomato book that really got me going on growing my own heirloom tomato plants, which I have done now for nearly twenty years. I now grow enough tomato plants to have a roadside stand in late May!
I love to grow the strange and unusual. Goldman’s books have opened my eyes to the vast variety of heirloom vegetables that are available. By starting your own seeds, you can grown so many wild and unusual things that are not available on the mass market grower shelves. I’ve never grown an Early Girl or Better Boy tomato from seed. I find them boring and uninspiring. To be sure, they are solid, reliable producers in the garden. In fact, they are the only tomato plants my father in law grows. I offer him free heirloom plants every season, and he politely turns them away. To each their own!
Besides tomatoes, my favorite vegetables to grow are pumpkins and squash. Once again, inspired by Goldman’s squash book, I grow mostly heirloom varieties; the stranger, the better. I love the squat shape of Rouge Vif d’Etampes, and Galeuse d’Eysines have, what look like, the old fashioned foam candy in the shape of peanut shells, stuck to the outside of the squash. I have also tried my hand at growing giant pumpkins, however, with not much success. Only one season was I able to grow one pumpkin that we estimated weighed over 200 pounds. Maybe this year will be more successful!
Flower Farming
My final recommendation for my most treasured gardening books, is “Floret Farm’s Cut Flower Garden” by Erin Benzakein, with Julie Chai. Benzakein has seemingly revived the popularity of cut flower farming single handedly, and has a huge following of flower farmers, new and old. Floret Farm’s seed sales sell out quickly of most varieties, and Benzakein is very generous with her knowledge on flower farming through her social media and documentaries, and has written a number of popular gardening books.
Full disclosure: I too have jumped on the cut flower farm band wagon, growing for my own use, as well as selling small amounts to Bloom Floral Design, where I work May through October. Benzakein’s books are incredibly detailed with seed starting and growing instructions, and have pages of beautiful photographs of their farm in Washington state. You would do well with any of her books, and this one is a good place to start.
Inspiring Gardening Books
So there we have it, a peek at my all time favorite gardening books. I hope some of these titles are new to you and that you will take a look at them. Perhaps you, too, will be inspired to grow even more beautiful vegetables and flowers in your space. I’d love to hear from you, do you have a favorite gardening book? Comment down below! And, if you are looking for inspiration on what to do with your beautiful cut flowers once you grow them, be sure to read my next blog post, My Favorite Floral Design Books! Happy reading!
