Garden Planning

Recommended reads to help you prepare, plant, and harvest nutritious food.

Updated February 19, 2025
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Starting & saving seeds : grow the perfect vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers for your garden
Thompson-Adolf, Julie
Paper Book
Grow fabulous food and flowers from seeds, then save seeds to make next year's garden even better.   Creating dinner from food you've grown provides a fantastic sense of accomplishment. Now, imagine the pleasure of starting plants from seeds,...
Growing vegetables : all the know-how and encouragement you need to grow -- and fall in love with! -- your brand new food garden
Sowards, Jessica.
Paper Book
You're excited to plant your first vegetable garden--but where to start? In The First-Time Gardener: Growing Vegetables, you'll find the answers you're looking for. *Winner of the GardenComm 2022 Media Awards Silver Award of Achievement in the Photography/Book...
Beginner's garden : a practical guide to growing vegetables & fruit without getting your hands too dirty
Mitchell, Alex
Paper Book
This book offers a fun and lighthearted guide to growing your own salads, herbs, vegetables, and fruit, armed with little more than a trowel and some seedlings. Aimed at complete beginners, it de-mystifies the gardening process with sound practical and seasonal advice, lots of hints and tips for...
Rebel gardening : a beginner's handbook to creating an organic urban garden
Vitale, Alessandro (Gardener)
Paper Book
This is the ultimate beginner's guide to establishing and tending an organic kitchen garden in any urban space, no matter how small, written by the YouTuber and TikToker known as Spicy Moustache. Do you live in the city and yearn for the space and time to grow your own food and...
Grow food for free
Richards, Huw
Paper Book
Zero cost, low effort and a long-term solution to your fresh produce needs!  Grow your own food in your home garden, acreage or container, and look forward to a bountiful harvest year-round. You can plant fruit and veggies at home without spending a penny, and Huw Richard's...
1-minute gardener
Pember, Mat.
Paper Book
The Little Veggie Patch Co. has taken the mystery out of - and put the fun back into - growing fruit and vegetables. No matter how much or how little space you have, whether it's in the sprawling suburbs or an inner-city high rise, the Little Veggie Patch team will have you growing your own food in...
The urban garden : 101 ways to grow food and beauty in the city
Jentz, Kathy.
Paper Book
In The Urban Garden you'll find dozens of inspiring and creative ways to grow flowers, shrubs, vegetables, herbs, and other plants in small spaces and with a limited budget.   Whether you want to grow on a balcony, rooftop, front stoop, or a tiny urban...
Gardening for everyone : growing vegetables, herbs, and more at home
Watkins, Julia
Paper Book
A guide to creating and growing a backyard garden simply and sustainably--from planning to planting to harvest, with profiles of essential vegetables and herbs, ecological tips, and fun and creative projects Growing food in your backyard (or even on a porch or windowsill!)...
The modern homestead garden : growing self-sufficiency in any size backyard
Pilarchik, Gary.
Paper Book
With this accessible and indispensable gardening reference, discover how little land and effort it takes to start growing and preserving your own healthy organic food. Modern homesteading is a lifestyle focused on living lightly on the land and increasing self...
Sustainable gardening : grow a "greener" low-maintenance landscape with fewer resources
Simeone, Vincent A.
Paper Book
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...
No-waste kitchen gardening : regrow your leftover greens, stalks, seeds, and more
Elzer-Peters, Katie.
Paper Book
The debut book in the internationally successful No-Waste Gardening series, No-Waste Kitchen Gardening is a fun and colorful exploration of the amazing results you can get by re-growing vegetable cutoffs and scraps into harvestable, edible plants. Stop...
The plant propagator's bible A step-by-step guide to propagating every plant in your garden
Smith, Miranda.
Ebook
The food forest handbook : design and manage a home-scale perennial polyculture garden
Frey, Darrell
Paper Book
Create abundance through this unique approach to low-maintenance, high-yield, sustainable food production A food forest is a productive landscape developed around a mix of trees and perennials. Rooted in permaculture principles, this integrated approach to gardening incorporates a...
All new square foot gardening : more projects, new solutions, grow vegetables anywhere
Bartholomew, Mel.
Paper Book
This updated third edition of the best-selling gardening book in North America continues to inspire with planting charts, growing tips, and the know-how you need to grow more veggies than ever before. Since Square Foot Gardening was first introduced by Mel Bartholomew in...
Growing perfect vegetables : a visual guide to raising and harvesting prime garden produce
Paper Book
Square Foot Gardening: Growing Perfect Vegetables is a practical guide that answers the age-old question for gardeners: How do you know when a fruit or vegetable is ripe? Square Foot Gardening is the most popular alternate gardening method<...
Edible spots & pots : small-space gardens for growing vegetables and herbs in containers, raised beds, and more
Hirvela, Stacey.
Paper Book
It's time for home gardeners to rethink the traditional garden and explore the wide variety of options for growing edibles in "anywhere" gardens-from decorative pots and raised beds to unusual growing bags, hanging pouches, and tomato rings. These contained gardens are more manageable than long rows...
Life in the Garden : Tales and Tips for Growing Food in Every Season
Damrosch, Barbara.
Paper Book
"Drawing on a lifetime of organic gardening, Barbara Damrosch collects her lessons learned and wisdom gained into an easy-to-read-and-enjoy overview of kitchen gardening. For the new gar­dener, there is encouragement on top of nuts-and-bolts advice. For every gardener, there is inspiration to...
The vegetable grower's handbook : unearth your garden's full potential
Richards, Huw
Paper Book
Garden efficiently and grow more food - Huw Richards shows you how. Following the success of Veg in One Bed and Grow Food for Free, in The Vegetable Grower's Handbook Huw shares his tried-and-tested approaches from his own garden so you can unearth your garden's potential. ...
Growing under cover : techniques for a more productive, weather-resistant, pest-free vegetable garden
Jabbour, Niki.
Paper Book
Increasingly unpredictable weather patterns and pest infestations are challenging today's vegetable gardeners. But best-selling author Niki Jabbour has a solution: Growing Under Cover. In this in-depth guide, Jabbour shows how to use small solutions like cloches, row covers, shade cloth, cold...
Vegetables, chickens & bees : an honest guide to growing your own food anywhere
Arthur, Carson.
Paper Book
Everyone's in the garden! And there's no better time to grow your own vegetables than now. For gardening success--in any space!--this is the only book you need. Want to grow your own veggies but don't know how? Whatever type of space you have (backyard, front yard, balcony, patio...
Charles Dowding's skills for growing : sowing, spacing, planting, picking, watering and more
Dowding, Charles.
Paper Book
The knowledge and techniques you need for successful vegetable growing, based on Charles' decades of experience Grow vegetables easily throughout the year Use time creatively to maximize growth Learn cost-effective and productive-per-area methods Learn to...
The healthy vegetable garden : a natural, chemical-free approach to soil, biodiversity and managing pests and diseases
Morgan, Sally
Paper Book
Whether you're an experienced gardener, homesteader, or market farmer, this A-Z, soil-to-table guide shows you how to reduce chemical inputs; naturally enrich your growing ecology; and create a hardy, nutrient-dense, and delicious crop. "There are few gardeners (or farmers) I...
Raised bed gardening : all the know-how you need to build and grow a raised bed garden
CaliKim.
Paper Book
Setting up your first raised bed garden? With help from YouTube gardening star CaliKim, you'll soon be growing your own fresh, organic vegetables, herbs, and flowers like a pro. Whether your yard is big or small, raised beds are the perfect fit. They allow...
Field guide to urban gardening : how to grow plants no matter where you live
Espiritu, Kevin.
Paper Book
Join Kevin Espiritu of Epic Gardening to learn the basics of growing plants, choose the right urban gardening method for you, and troubleshoot any problems you might encounter. If you think it's impossible to grow your own food because you don't have a large yard or you live...
Raised bed revolution : build it, fill it, plant it... garden anywhere!
Nolan, Tara
Paper Book
Raised bed gardening is the fastest-growing garden strategy today, and Raised Bed Revolution is the definitive guidebook to mastering this consistently proven and effective gardening method. Raised Bed Revolution provides you with information on size requirements for...
The Raised Bed Book
Hurrion, David.
Paper Book
Whether you want to garden at a more accessible height, improve soil fertility, nurture plants with needs, or simply enjoy a closer sensory experience, growing in raised beds will help you reach new heights in the garden. Raised beds are possible in any-size garden, even on...
Composting inside and out : 14 methods to fit your lifestyle
Davies, Stephanie
Paper Book
Rethink Your Refuse Hundreds of millions of tons of solid waste are produced in the U.S. annually, and the landfills simply store it, not eliminate it. Recycling diverts significant amounts of waste, but the fact remains that the majority of landfill space is occupied by...
DIY hydroponic gardens
Baras, Tyler.
Paper Book
With practical information aimed at home DIYers, author Tyler Baras (Farmer Tyler to his fans) shows exactly how to build, plant, and maintain over a dozen unique hydroponic systems, some costing just a few dollars to make. No soil? No sunlight? No problem. A...
Home hydroponics : small-space DIY growing systems for the kitchen, dining room, living room, bedroom, and bath
Baras, Tyler.
Paper Book
Turn a coffee table, kitchen cupboard, bathroom wall, bedside table, or windowsill into a wonder of hydroponic production with project plans and DIY tutelage from hydroponic-growing pro Tyler Baras. Yes, you can grow your own delicious food literally anywhere...
Tiny space gardening : growing vegetables, fruits, and herbs in small outdoor spaces
Pennington, Amy
Paper Book
" A n an incredibly handy manual full of information on how to grow plants insmall spaces." -GOOP The beginner's complete guide to urban, small space and container gardening from "our windowsill guru." -Bon Appetit This vibrant updated 2nd...

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