Top Ten Inspiring Books for Gardening and Cooking

Top Five Books That'll Get You in the Spirit of Gardening or Cooking

It is blazing hot outside, so much that the hot temperatures zap the energy levels. I know that during a heat wave, all I want to do is to curl up quietly with a good book. Why fight it, when you can become inspired by gardening or cooking that happens in books, fiction and nonfiction, for adults and for children?

Claude Monet [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons  

Here is my purely subjective Top-Five list, in no particular order:

Wilder, Laura Ingalls. The Little House in the Big Woods. Yes, this is a children's book, but adults can get quite a bit of inspiration of the pioneer days as well. The entire series will give you inspiration for the garden and for the kitchen, and leave your mouth watering at many points, but it's more pronounced in this first book of the series.

Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee. The Mistress of Spices. This is a novel about an immortal woman who is trained in the powers, healing and otherwise, of spices and who has to choose between keeping her vows of chastity--and her immortality-- and choosing romantic love. The colors, smells, and textures of the spices come alive in this work of fiction.

Burnett, Frances Hodgson. The Secret Garden. This timeless children's book is about the blossoming of Mary Lennox: as she tends the locked-up garden that has suffered as much abandonment as she has. As the garden flourishes, so does Mary.

Spyri, Johanna. Heidi. Another children's book, Heidi features mouthwatering descriptions of melted cheese on bread, as well as breathtaking wildflowers on the mountainside.

Riotte, Louise. Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening. Here's a classic nonfiction book that talks about how certain plants will help one another grow profusely.

Happy reading!

Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry That Inspire the Love of Gardening

Gardening and Literary Inspiration: Read On! 

At this time of year, when the summer garden is all but spent and the fall garden is still but a dream, we need all the inspiration we can get. Literature can provide that inspiration, in spades (pun intended)

Fiction and Nonfiction Books that Inspire the Love of Gardening

Garden Spells, by Sarah Addison Allen

The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Diary of a Worm, by Doreen Cronin

The Complete Book of the Flower Fairies, by Cicely Mary Barker

In The Garden Trilogy: Blue Dahlia, Black Rose, and Red Lily, by Nora Roberts

The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns, by Margaret Dilloway

The Inward Garden: Creating a Place of Beauty and Meaning, by Julie Moir Messervy

The Red Garden, by Alice Hoffman

The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book, by Ruth Stout

A Hoe Lot of Trouble, by Heather Webber

Garden of Secrets Past, by Anthony Eglin

Night Gardening, by E. L. Swann

Forget Me Not, by Isabel Wolf

The Memory Garden, by Mary Rickert

The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton

Death in the Orchid Garden, by Ann Ripley

Garden of Madness, by Tracy L. Higley

The Star Garden, by Nancy E. Turner

Tomorrow's Garden, by Amanda Cabot

Buckingham Palace Gardens, by Anne Perry

The Dark Garden, by Eden Bradley

In the Garden of Stone, by Susan Tekulve

Walden, or, Life in the Woods, by Henry David Thoreau

Short Stories with a Gardening Emphasis

"Rappaccini's Daughter," by Nathaniel Hawthorne

"The Chrysanthemums," by John Steinbeck

"A Rose for Emily," by William Faulkner (okay, this one is a stretch: enjoy the story anyway)

"The Garden Party," by Katherine Mansfield

"The Occasional Garden," by Saki

"The Garden of Forking Paths," by Jorge Luis Borges

Poetry with a Gardening Theme

"The Garden," by Andrew Marvell

Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman

"La Belle Dame Sans Merci," by John Keats

"The Daffodils," by William Wordsworth

"This Lime Tree Bower my Prison," by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"The Gardener," by Robert Louis Stevenson

"The Deserted Garden," by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"This is the garden: colors come and go," by e.e. cummings

"The Little Garden," by Amy Lowell



Here's to inspiration: happy reading!

By Simon Speed (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

Top 10 Books about Gardening

My Top Ten Recommended Books about Gardening: A Must for the Bookshelf

Note: Many of these books are also available in Kindle and/or Nook format. Happy reading!

Bartholomew, Mel. All New Square Foot Gardening. Franklin, TN: Cool Springs Press, 2006. Print. This is a great source for raised bed gardening in small places.

Fell, Derek. Vertical Gardening: Grow Up, Not Out, for More Vegetables and Flowers in Much Less Space. New York: Rodale, 2011. Print. Everything you wanted to know about vertical gardening and saving gardening space.

Lovejoy, Sharon. Trowel and Error: Over 700 Tips, Remedies and Shortcuts for the Gardener. New York: Workman, 2003. Print. A handy reference for the gardener that offers effective, environmentally friendly solutions to many problems encountered in the garden.

Madigan, Carleen, ed. The Backyard Homestead. North Adams, MA: Storey, 2009. Print. This is a comprehensive guide to growing your own food through vegetable and fruit gardening as well as orchard care and keeping livestock.

Ortho. The Complete Guide to Vegetables, Fruits & Herbs: Planning, Planting, Growing, Harvesting. Des Moines: Meredith Books, 2004. Print. This is a good all-purpose gardening guide that offers excellent information, despite my initial trepidation about the company authoring the book.

Reader’s Digest. Magic and Medicine of Plants. Pleasantville, NY: Reader’s Digest Association, 1986. Print. This book explores mainly herbs, both grown in the garden and wild crafted.

Riotte, Louise. Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening. North Adams, MA: Storey, 1998. Print. This is the bible of companion planting: the tome that started this gardening trend.

Smith, Edward C. The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible. 2^nd ed. North Adams, MA: Storey, 2009. Print. This is an excellent resource covering anything a gardener would want to know about growing vegetables.

Turner, Julie. Organic Gardening Beginner’s Manual. n.p.: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012. Print. Provides invaluable information about organic gardening in a non-intimidating way.

Wilhelmi, Christy. Gardening for Geeks: DIY Tests, Gadgets, and Techniques That Utilize Microbiology, Mathematics, and Ecology to Exponentially Maximize the Yield of Your Garden. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2013. Print. Who can resist the alluring combination of gardening and geek? Get in touch with your inner geek while being in the great outdoors.

Camille Pissarro [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons In the Vegetable Garden