Whether or not you've gotten your fingers in the soil this Spring (or plan to), pick up one of these great garden reads. Be inspired, get creative, and pick up some how-tos. Enrich your soil and your life!


Compiled by:
Morning W.
The Compendium of Amazing Gardening Innovations

Abigail Willis
- Author
635.09 Wil

From secateurs to seed bombs, hybrids to ha-has, lawnmowers to land artists, the gardening world has long attracted innovators. This delightful book outlines the advances that changed horticulture and the landscape forever. The fascinating and amusing short entries are accompanied by charming, specially-created illustrations, making this the ideal gift for the gardener in your life.


Don't Throw It, Grow It! : 68 Windowsill Plants from Kitchen Scraps

Deborah Peterson, Millicent Selsam
- Authors
635 Pet

You, too, can have houseplant fun with fruits, nuts, herbs, and spices. From the common carrot to the exotic cherimoya, dozens of foods have pits, seeds, and roots waiting to be rescued from the compost bin and brought back to life on your windowsill. Planted and nurtured, the shiny pomegranate seeds left over from breakfast and the piece of neglected ginger root in your refrigerator will grow into healthy, vigorous houseplants and tasty kitchen experiments. Discover all the scraps you can salvage!


Gardening for the Homebrewer: Plants for Making Beer, Wine, Gruit, Cider, Perry, and More

Wendy Tweten, Debbie Teashon
- Authors
635 Twe

Learn about the wide variety of plants that you can use for fermentations or infusions, whether your yard is a perfect site for barley or a fragrant collection of herbs, and how to grow, dry, and store fresh hops. Have just a balcony or a windowsill? No problem! A variety of plant recommendations will suit gardeners of all types, even ones with limited space.


Gardening with Chickens: Plans and Plants for You and Your Hens

Lisa Steele
- Author
636.5 Ste

Did you know that feeding your chickens certain plants will result in orange egg yolks? Or that onions contain a toxin that, in excess, will destroy red blood cells and can cause death in hens? Learn strategies for using chickens to aerate and till the soil and to use their waste products as compost. If you're thinking of combining chicken-keeping with gardening, this book includes things you need to know!


Grow Something Different to Eat

Matthew Biggs
- Author
635.0484 Big

Whether you're a beginner determined to make the most of limited space with a unique heirloom harvest or a seasoned grower looking to spice up your cooking with gourmet flavors, these step-by-step instructions can help you grow some unusually tasty crops. Choose from fruiting vegetables such as orange eggplants and hyacinth beans, salad greens such as fiddlehead ferns and sushi hostas, grains such as quinoa and chia, and luscious fruits such as honeyberries and white strawberries. With versatile gardening advice for growing in a variety of spaces and situations, plus cooking suggestions and preserving options, a weird and wonderful harvest is guaranteed.


Grow Your Food for Free (Well, Almost): Great Money-saving Ideas for Your Garden

Dave Hamilton
- Author
635 Ham

By recycling and reusing materials creatively and making the most of what you have, you can gather all you need to grow your food on a budget. Whether it's building your own shed from scrap, constructing a path out of recycled materials, or storing your harvest without a freezer, it's all here.


Growing Perennial Foods: A Field Guide to Raising Resilient Herbs, Fruits & Vegetables

Acadia Tucker
- Author
635 Tuc

Sturdy, hardy, and deep rooted, perennials are plants that regrow every year. They can better withstand climate extremes, thrive without chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and require less water. These long-lived plants also help build healthy soil, turning the ground into a giant carbon sponge. This easy-to-understand guide lays the groundwork for tending an organic, regenerative garden. This is gardening as if our global future depends on it.


Guerrilla Gardening: A Manualfesto

David Tracey
- Author
635.09173 Tra

The term "guerrilla" may bring to mind a band of armed soldiers, moving at night on a stealth mission. In the case of guerilla gardening, the soldiers are planters, the weapons are shovels, and the mission is to transform an abandoned lot into a thing of beauty. The concept is simple, whimsical and has the cheeky appeal of being a not-quite-legal call to action. Dig in some soil, plant a few seeds, or mend a sagging fence ― one good deed inspiring another, with win-win results all around. Social activists, city dwellers and long-time gardeners will delight in this fast-paced and funny call to arms.


Heirloom Vegetables: A Guide to Their History and Varieties

Simon Rickard
- Author
635 Ric

In a world where food production is increasingly controlled by multinational corporations with profit as the foremost concern, people who care about their food are becoming more interested than ever in growing their own vegetables, particularly heirloom varieties which offer a wonderfully diverse array of flavour, shape and colour. Learn about these foods which have lasted generations and remind us that good food is not only nutritious but tasty and beautiful.


Hellstrip Gardening: Create a Paradise Between the Sidewalk and the Curb

Evelyn J. Hadden
- Author
635.09173 Had

The hellstrip—also known as a boulevard, meridian, and planting strip—is finally getting the attention it deserves! Gardeners everywhere are taking advantage of the space to add curb appeal to their homes, expand the size of their gardens, and conserve more resources. Hellstrip Gardening is the first book to show you exactly how to reclaim these oft-ignored spaces by determining the city and home owner's association rules, choosing plants that thrive in tough situations, designing pathways for accessibility, and much more.


Vegetables Love Flowers: Companion Planting for Beauty and Bounty

Lisa Mason Ziegler
- Author
635 Zie

Centuries ago the most productive vegetable gardens paired vegetables with beautiful flowers. Even then, gardeners knew that vegetables love flowers. Or to be more precise, vegetables love pollinators, and pollinators love flowers. Drawn by colorful, fragrant blossoms, they visit in swarms, performing their good work making vegetables thrive. This book will show you how to keep the flowers blooming, pollinators buzzing, and veggies growing.


Weeds: In Defense of Nature's Most Unloved Plants

Richard Mabey
- Author
632.5 Mab

Weaving together natural history, botanical science and insight from his own travels, a nature writer reveals the many hidden truths behind these scourges of lawns and gardens, and explores how weeds have been portrayed from the Bible all the way to "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." (Novelist Plus)