We are putting in a couple of garden beds since we have a little space at our new house.

Here are the books I’ve been referencing from the bottom up.

Botany In A Day – probably my most referenced and studied botany book ever! This is the best book out there for learning plant identification. It teaches you the characteristics by plant families and in kids some basic medicinal qualities of each plant. It’s my go to for plant ID. I use it in my Botany classes and have taught Kindergartners through adults plant identification using this method. You can check out my online homeschool Botany Class here.

Eat Your Flowers – This book is hefty and beautiful. It’s a gorgeous hardcover and honestly the photographs and cooking ideas for edible flowers had me squealing in the bookstore as I was paying through it. My daughter said she could hear me on the other side of the store. Definitely deserves a place on your shelf if you have a garden.

Cooking with Flowers – this was a thrift store find so you’ll have to hunt down your own used copy. It’s older, so no beautiful photography here. But the recipes are solid and creative. Includes holiday ideas for using edible flowers.

Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands, Vol 2 – This is all you ever wanted to know and more about rainwater catchment systems from barrels and cisterns, to berms and terraces, and more. I’ve been studying this book and I’m planning my garden around the water flow of my site in hopes to not have to water this summer. We shall see.

Better Homes and Gardens Complete Guide to Gardening – This one is older too but a good reference book if you are new to gardening.

Native Plants of the Northeast – this is a good reference as well if you live in the Northeast and want to focus on native plants that will grow well in your garden and benefit wildlife.

Betty Crocker’s Kitchen Garden – This book was a gift from a dear friend. She thought that I would love it and she was right. If your dream is an old fashioned kitchen garden, this is the book for you. Paintings and illustrations by Tasha Tudor just making it all the more charming. Also an old book so you’ll probably have to source a used one.

Next in the stack are some seed catalogs from Johnny’s Seeds, Bluestone Perennials, and Heirloom Roses.

The Tri-State Gardener’s Guide – This books is useful for those of you who live in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. It mostly addresses landscaping plants but is useful for finding possible deer resistant varieties.

Companion Planting for Beginners – This book is a good reference for beginners especially if you plan to use raised beds.

Territorial Seed Company – I plan to order seeds from Territorial this year as they are well tested, have many open pollinated varieties, and many varieties good for long term root cellar storage.

Root Cellaring – This is my go to reference for cool crop storage.

Made from Scratch Life – I almost passed this book by because I thought, I can’t possibly need one more gardening/homemaking/homesteading book. But I was wrong. I love books with working charts. She has charts with to help you figure out how many of plants you need for each veggie, and charts to help you determine the best preserving methods for each veggie. There are charts for you to fill in as you make your garden plan so this little book becomes your garden journal. In my opinion all the recipes in the back are just a bonus. I would buy the book for the charts alone.

Preserving Food – This was a serendipitous find at a book store. I love it because it’s full of old time, little know, traditional preservation techniques.

The top two items of the stack are my Kindle and my paper garden journal.

I watch for good deals on Kindle books and Square Foot Gardening is one that I referenced this time around.

And lastly, but most importantly, my garden journal. I make lists of plant varieties that I want to try, add charts with plant heights, spacing, and planting times, and draw diagrams of my garden beds. Planning this year was bittersweet as I thumbed through the pages of my past gardens at our old house. I hope you have a trusty garden journal. Everyone should have one. As you see mine is old and worn and scribbled in. But I wouldn’t trade it for the world. ❤️

Note: This post contains Amazon affiliate links.