For Your Bookshelf: Garden Books for the Beginner

June 25, 5:47 PMGardening ExaminerRobin Ripley

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Walk into any of the big book stores and the gardening book section is like a candy store. So many choices!  And so pretty!

At my local bookstore recently I counted 18 books on roses alone and another nine on perennials.  There were about two dozen memoirs and no fewer than eight books on orchids. With so many choices, how do you pick the best from the bounty?

I asked some of my garden blogging friends to tell me what books they recommend to beginning gardeners—the books that are the most useful and inspirational.

Interestingly, one book popped up on several of their lists—Barbara Damrosch’s Garden Primer. Frankly, if my friends hadn’t mentioned this one, I would have put it at the top of the list myself. This was, without a doubt, the book that taught me to garden.

The newly revised version was released a few months ago, but I still have two copies of the original Primer. I keep one copy in my indoor garden library and the other lives in my outdoor garden cart. That one is covered with muddy fingerprints. The pages are warped from getting wet. Open the pages and bits of soil will fall out. I am not alone in this outdoor book habit because Michele at Garden Rant called the Garden Primer the “dirtiest book on my shelf!”

Damrosch’s Garden Primer covers all the basics—vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers and more—all arranged alphabetically by section. She combines sound plant information with her own observations based on her gardening experience. So while other gardening books will tell you how to grow peas, Damrosch tells you how to grow them and then warns that they are a lot of fuss for not a lot of production. Similarly, she’ll tell you that if you only have so much room to garden, buying potatoes in the store is inexpensive. Her writing style is casual and yet precise and clear.

The newly revised version is marketed as 100% organic. There is more material in the new version, but the winning formula of her first book remains. Altogether, this is a top-rated book by many gardeners I know.

If you dream of a rose garden, my friend Dee at Red Dirt Ramblings recommends the Rose Bible, by Rayford Clayton Reddell.

“It is a great book for two reasons,” explained Dee. “First, he explains rose history in a way I could understand and showed how each class of roses came to be. He also convinced me that having a rose which bloomed only once a season, but for an entire month was something worth having. Second, he provides a list of the ‘Fifty Immortal Roses’ which he believes stood the test of time.  In most cases, I would have to agree with him. The ‘Fifty Immortals’ gave me a place to start.”

Melissa at Zanthan Gardens recommends Passalong Plants by Steve Bender and Felder Rushing. The book focuses each small section on a particular plant with a personal story and observations.

“Before I bought my own copy of Passalong Plants, I’d read the library copy several times,” said Melissa. “As a beginning gardener I found the writing style a reassuring antidote to all those stuffy books on English or Connecticut gardens. Most importantly, the plants discussed were plants I had growing in my yard and in my neighborhood.”

Melissa also recommends Gardening with Heirloom Seeds: Tried-and-True Flowers, Fruits & Vegetables for a New Generation by Lynn Coulter. The book is an excellent reference book that summarizes information about top heirlooms, including a bibliography and list of heirloom seed sources.

“Even for plants I’ve grown for years, I learned interesting tidbits from Lynn Coulter–that cosmos bloom best after the summer equinox and that larkspur seeds (which I collect every year) quickly lose viability after a year,” said Melissa.  

Perennials are the nirvana of plants for many gardeners because they return every year and can be divided to increase the number of plants you have. If that sounds appealing to you, Kathy at Cold Climate Gardening recommends Easy Care Perennials by Patricia Taylor. Although it is out of print, used copies are available from booksellers, including Barnes & Noble.

“It makes perennials as uncomplicated as possible,” said Kathy. “And it includes only perennials that grow where grass would. No soil amendment. No fancy plants. Most could be gotten as passalongs.”

Carol at May Dreams Gardens also recommends Perennials Short and Tall: A Seasonal Progression of Flowers for your Garden, by Moya L. Andrews and illustrated by Gillian Harris. In addition to information on perennial basics and useful appendices, it includes a discussion of 25 spring, summer and fall perennials, particularly for those that grow well in Zones  4 through 7.

Carol said, “This book would make an excellent gift for the beginning gardener who has discovered the joy of having a garden full of perennials and wants to learn more about how to have flowers blooming in succession through spring, summer and fall.”

Of course, with all these good books, you might want to buy extras for those gardener-wannabes on your Christmas wish list. Happy reading and gardening!

Other recommended books include:

• All New Square Foot Gardening : Grow More in Less Space!  by Mel Bartholomew - An all-time-favorite reference on growing vegetables and using space efficiently.
• Bountiful Container: How to Create Container Gardens of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Edible Flowers by Rose Marie Nichols McGee - Excellent basic information on container gardening along with beautiful photos to spark your own ideas.
• The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden by William Alexander - A very funny memoire off a gardener with more than a little bit of an obsession.