At some point, all of us plant lovers start out as beginning gardeners. Whether you are looking for gift ideas for a fellow plant enthusiast or just want to expand your own knowledge on gardening and landscaping with flowers, we are listing our top 10 best gardening books for beginners. We have curated the best outdoor and indoor gardening books to help someone get started on a journey of cultivating and loving outdoor flowering plants and landscaping! These books make great Christmas gifts for gardeners because they can study up and then start planting in spring!
With so many plant books out there, finding the best gardening books for beginners can be a challenging task, but with a little help from our suggestions below, you can find the perfect book to help you or your loved ones take their plant styling obsession to the next level.
I grew up with a mom who loves to plant and garden outdoors. She started out with landscaping gardens and moved on to vegetable gardens, eventually. Growing up, I remember spending so much time at the local gardening nurseries in El Dorado, Arkansas! Although my plant fascination today is more with house plants, I do love a well-thought out landscaping garden!
Luckily, our home came with well-though out landscaping gardens outside from the original owners who had this home custom built. But as the unusual freezes and Snowmageddon of the past several years have killed off some of our landscaping gardens, we have been faced with doing some outdoor landscape gardens on our own. Beginner gardening books have been so helpful!
Here is an older shot of a landscaped section with a pruned crepe myrtle and other flowering plants in our front yard before the freeze took them out. We have now planted some north-facing azaleas of a different variety on this side of the house. They have yet to bloom so we will wait and see!
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Best Gardening Books for Beginners Who Love Landscaping
Let me start by saying these beginner gardening books are not only purposed for giving you gardening tips, but these books are gorgeous in their own right! I love to use my gardening books as a styling prop around my home with my indoor plants.
Outdoor Greenery and Flower Gardening Books for Beginners
- The Complete Gardener by Monty Don – This book receives rave reviews from other gardening beginners. Learn all about dividing the garden for vegetables and for non-vegetable plants and how to provide habitats for wildlife within your gardening space. This is a revised edition with new photographs and information, based upon the original 2003 version. Monty Don’s Instagram is very active with over 5,000 posts if you want to follow!
- Gardentopia: Design Basics for Creating Beautiful Outdoor Spaces by Jan Johnsen – If you are hoping for lush patio or garden accent wall, this book is for you. The author focuses on cultivating gardens to bring out the beauty of a space. You can follow Jan Johnsen on Instagram for more ideas!
- The Layered Garden by Adam L. Culp – This highly-rated book will walk through you the techniques of interplanting to create a lush layered garden effect.
- The Homeowner’s Garden Design Guidebook by Isabella Woods – A book for beginner gardeners, this book is straight and to the point with a focus on DIY garden design and real-life budgets.
- Encyclopedia of Plants and Flowers by Christopher Brickell – This book gives an overview of which plants and garden goals a new gardener should have in mind for his particular growing zone and conditions. Written by a team of plant specialist under the direction of botanist and author, Brickell, this beginner gardener book has a wealth of information regarding thousands of species of plants and flowers.
- Annuals, Perennials, and Bulbs by Editors of Creative Homeowner – This book, put together by the editors of Creative Homeowner, is loaded with photos and tips for choosing the appropriate annuals and perennials for your home. What I love are some of the tips – like how to take cuttings from specific plants and how to propagate specific plants.
- Gardening for the Complete Beginner: Why, What, and How to Start Planting in 7 Days by LD Greens – This book is absolutely for someone with green thumbs who is starting from the ground up with beginner gardening!
- The Science of Gardening: Discover How Your Garden Really Grows by Dr. Stuart Farrimond – This book is for the science-minded gardener. If you or someone you know is really intend on understanding the scientific backgrounds of gardens, this gardening book is for you!
- 1,001 Gardening Tips and Tricks: Timeless Advice for Growing Vegetables, Flowers, Shrubs, and More by Mary Rose Quigg – This book, full of gardening proverbs, includes advice for dealing with those pesky gardening pests and other things that aile gardeners of new and old.
- Garden Planner and Log Book: Monthly Garden Organizer Notebook for Avid Gardeners by Gemey Publishing Books – For someone who loves a good planner book like myself, I couldn’t leave off this gem of an gardening planner book! Fill it up monthly with notes and observation of your gardening adventures!
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