Cozy Up With Great Gardening Books

Jeff Rugg
Tue, 02 Dec 2025 21:00:00 -0800
Lifestyle

Winter came to my yard right after Thanksgiving with lots of snow and lots of cold. What do gardeners do in the winter? We read about gardens and gardening, of course. With Christmas gift-giving in full swing, many people wonder what to get the gardeners on their list. Here are a handful of books that any gardener will enjoy.

Ellen Zachos has written a unique book about garden plants from a historical viewpoint, covering many plants featured in ancient Greek mythology. Plants were not just used for food. They were used for magic, medicine, intoxication, tools and warfare. "Mythic Plants: Potions and Poisons from the Gardens of the Gods" is beautifully illustrated and is a great gift for gardeners who also love history.

Moon gardening has been a gardening style since at least the 1600s when the Taj Mahal was built with a white garden. The use of white and silver leaves and flowers is effective on moonlit nights and during the day for a peaceful, calming garden.
Updated: Wed Dec 03, 2025

Winter came to my yard right after Thanksgiving with lots of snow and lots of cold. What do gardeners do in the winter? We read about gardens and gardening, of course. With Christmas gift-giving in full swing, many people wonder what to get the gardeners on their list. Here are a handful of books that any gardener will enjoy.

Ellen Zachos has written a unique book about garden plants from a historical viewpoint, covering many plants featured in ancient Greek mythology. Plants were not just used for food. They were used for magic, medicine, intoxication, tools and warfare. "Mythic Plants: Potions and Poisons from the Gardens of the Gods" is beautifully illustrated and is a great gift for gardeners who also love history.

Moon gardening has been a gardening style since at least the 1600s when the Taj Mahal was built with a white garden. The use of white and silver leaves and flowers is effective on moonlit nights and during the day for a peaceful, calming garden.

"White Gardens: Creating Magnificent Moonlit Spaces" is a new book by Nina Koziol, an award-winning garden designer and gardening expert. The book includes white gardening basics, design tips, hardscape items and more than 75 plant profiles of white annuals, perennials, shrubs, roses, vines and exotic plants.

"My Father is the Gardener: Devotions in Botany and Gardening of the Bible" digs into the plants, gardening and landscapes of the Bible, unearthing inspiration in the routine ways of caring for plants and keeping a garden. Shelley S. Cramm leads you through the gardener's work — chores such as preparing soil, watering, weeding, cultivating and composting — to understand these practices as enriching garden metaphors full of wisdom to help you find meaning in daily life. Her selection of featured biblical plants, from flower bulbs to vegetables to shade and fruiting trees, connects horticultural subtleties to the hidden treasures of God.

Some gardeners are just beginning to garden, so let's talk about a kid's book.

"Wait like a seed, Cozy and small. Wait like a seed 'Til the spring rains fall," advises Erin Alladin's "Wait Like a Seed," which beautifully explores the life cycle of milkweed and its vital relationship to monarch butterflies. Complete with accurate botanical drawings and comprehensive back matter detailing the life cycles of plants and butterflies, this timeless story is perfect for both school curricula and curious children who enjoy nature. Children will be inspired to help save the diminishing population of monarch butterflies in their own environment. This book combines the wonders of nature with poetic text and warm and welcoming art.

Erin also has several other kids' books about gardening and nature.

I wrote the "Greener View Gardening" book. I think it is an awesome resource you will want to refer to time and time again. It is a book on horticulture, gardening and landscaping for the owner of a landscape or houseplants who knows very little about plants but needs to take care of them. It is over 400 pages long and has 975 photographs and illustrations. It is available in softcover and as a PDF.

The first three chapters of the book cover how plants are named and grouped; how plants grow in different weather, climate, soil and water conditions; and how plant processes turn sunlight, chemicals in the air and water into a vast array of their own chemicals. In this section, you will learn principles such as the Root to Shoot Balance, the Plant to Environment Balance, Dead Stuff Decays and the Thrive to Sudden Death Ranges of plant health.

After learning how plants grow and react to changes in their environment, it is time to move to chapters that cover how to buy, plant and grow annuals, bulbs, perennials, houseplants, fruits, vegetables, lawns, shrubs and trees.

When you have plants growing in the landscape or house, the next chapters cover landscape maintenance, pest control and pruning.

A beautiful landscape is more than just plants; it includes birds, butterflies and the sounds of water splashing. The final chapters cover landscape design, water gardens and gardening for wildlife.