Best Books About Plants, Gardening, and Gardens
LSweeney_moderator
| Posted in Mid-Atlantic Gardening on
What are your favorites books about plants, gardens, gardeners, or gardening? Share all your best recommendations whether essays, garden design books, biographies, plant science or any other genre that you think would peak the interest of your fellow gardeners. I will start by recommending a perennial favorite: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
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Handy for plant nerds to have when trying to describe or identify plants:
Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary, by James G. Harris and Melinda Woolf Harris, several editions e.g. 2001
ISBN-10 : 0964022168
ISBN-13 : 978-0964022164
If you want simplicity and some ideas for plant layout and composition, look at:
Five-Plant Gardens: 52 Ways to Grow a Perennial Garden with Just Five Plants, by Nancy J. Ondra (Author), Rob Cardillo (Photographer), 2014.
ISBN-10 : 1612120040
ISBN-13 : 978-1612120041
Naturalistic Design, an article by Kelly D. Norris, in the May/June 2021 issue of The American Gardener simplified the layering principles of matrix, structure, and vignettes - for me. I know Norris has his own book - which I have, and I realize he has been featured in Fine Gardening as well.
Favorite garden nostalgia book:
Two Gardeners: Katharine S. White and Elizabeth Lawrence, A Friendship in Letters
by Katherine S. White (Author), Elizabeth Lawrence (Author), Emily Herring Wilson (Editor)
SBN-10 : 0807085588
ISBN-13 : 978-0807085585
"A legendary editor at The New Yorker during its first thirty-four years, Katharine S. White was also a great garden enthusiast. In March 1958 she began publishing her popular column, "Onward and Upward in the Garden." Her first column elicited loads of fan mail, but one letter in particular caught her attention. From Elizabeth Lawrence, a noted southern garden writer, it was filled with suggestions and encouragement. When Katharine wrote back her appreciation, she reported on her Maine garden and discussed the plants and books that interested her. Thus began a correspondence that would last for almost twenty years, until Katharine's death in 1977."
Favorite humorous vintage garden book set in England:
Down the Garden Path, by Beverley Nichols, 1931.
Allways trilogy #1
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/59389.Beverley_Nichols
Favorite article ever from Fine Gardening is:
How to Reduce Maintenance Some time-saving tactics can make your garden easier to care for
By Sydney Eddison Fine Gardening - Issue 112
https://www.finegardening.com/article/how-to-reduce-maintenance
Wow! So many great recommendations!