What are the best vegetable gardening books for beginners?
Learning how to garden is a great way to help your family save money on groceries and enjoy some time together outdoors.
But:
Gardening takes a lot of practice and dedication.
With the help of gardening books, you can start learning all about the best practices and methods for growing all your favorite fruits and vegetables in your garden.
The best vegetable gardening books for beginners will provide you with all the information you need to learn more about creating your own backyard garden.
How to Find the Best Vegetable Gardening Books
With so many books on the market, it can be difficult to know which gardening books are helpful for beginning gardeners. I’ve found that the best gardening books for beginners have a few common features:
1. Easy to follow instructions
Gardening can be overwhelming for someone who has never done it before. To be helpful, a gardening book for beginners must provide you with easy to follow instructions that lay out exactly how to set up and maintain your garden from start to finish.
2. Plant information
A garden is all about the plants you put in it, which means a great gardening book must include information about plants that are commonly planted in vegetable gardens. Make sure your book includes a section about planting and caring for the vegetables you want to plant in your garden.
3. Organic vegetable gardening advice
Creating a garden in your backyard allows you to avoid using chemicals on your produce. But organic gardening is sometimes a difficult process.
When searching for a great book on gardening, find one that includes organic gardening information, especially information on how to naturally control pests and combat common plant diseases without the need for chemicals.
4. Information on common vegetable gardening problems
As a beginner, you’re likely to encounter a variety of issues in your garden throughout the growing season, from dealing with common garden pests to fixing plant issues as they come up. The best gardening books will always have a section outlining common gardening issues and how to fix the problems.
Now that you know what to look for in a gardening book for beginners, you can start learning about gardening for yourself!
These great gardening books are some of the best choices for anyone hoping to learn the basics of backyard gardening.
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1. Vegetable Gardening for Beginners
By Jill McSheehy
Learn the basics of starting your own backyard vegetable garden with this comprehensive gardening book written especially for beginners.
Vegetable Gardening for Beginners will provide you with step-by-step instructions for starting and maintaining a vegetable garden at home.
The book begins by helping you pick the right type of garden for your yard, then guides you through selecting your soil mix, helps you plant seeds directly in your garden or transplant seedlings, and maintain your garden throughout the season.
The book is broken down into three informative sections.
- The planning section outlines everything you’ll need to know to plan and set up your garden in your backyard.
- Next, you’ll learn about vegetable varieties you can plant in your garden, including in-depth information on each type of plant, how to grow the vegetable, and tips for tackling common gardening problems associated with each plant type.
- The book finishes by providing you with information on a variety of gardening problems you might encounter in your backyard garden, including information about pests and diseases commonly seen in backyard vegetable gardens.
Helpful features:
- Detailed and informative instructions on planning and setting up your garden, including information on building raised garden beds, picking the correct soil, and mulching the garden
- Information about different seed and plant options for your backyard garden, with in-depth guides on 30 different garden plants commonly planted in home vegetable gardens
- Troubleshooting information on common garden problems, like dealing with pests and improving the quality of your vegetable harvest
2. The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible
By Edward C. Smith
Using his popular WORD system for North American gardening, author Edward Smith provides beginner gardeners with plenty of useful information for creating their very own backyard garden. The basis of the book is Smith’s high-yield gardening method that focuses on:
- Wide rows
- Organic methods
- Raised beds
- Deep soil
Each of the techniques laid out in the Vegetable Gardener’s Bible will provide you with effective natural practices that will improve your crops and increase your garden’s yield through organic gardening.
The book covers a variety of gardening topics, including creating nutrient rich soil, composting, managing weeds, and tackling pests through natural methods, like attracting beneficial insects and companion planting.
In addition to giving you a comprehensive guide for setting up and maintaining your garden, the book also features an A-Z vegetable guide outlining the strengths and weaknesses of more than 70 plants you could plant in your garden.
The guide offers detailed information on each of the featured plants, including the needs of each variety, when and how to plant each vegetable, and advice on harvesting your garden at the end of the growing season.
Helpful features:
- Actionable tips for helping beginning gardeners with setting up and maintaining an organic garden in your backyard using proven techniques for a natural garden
- Information on organic methods for controlling weeds, reducing garden pests, and increasing your garden’s yield without the need for chemical enhancements
- An all-encompassing guide to garden plant varieties with more than 70 vegetable plants outlined in detail to help you throughout the growing season
3. Raised Bed Gardening for Beginners
By Tammy Wylie
Gardening in raised beds is a popular method for planting a backyard garden.
But if you’ve never attempted a raised bed garden before, figuring out how to set up a raised garden in your backyard can be a pretty daunting task. Reading a book about the process is a great way to help you gain insight and learn effective raised gardening methods.
With Raised Bed Gardening for Beginners, you’ll learn everything you need to know to set up your own backyard raised garden.
The book outlines the many benefits of using the raised bed gardening method, including higher yield and less pest problems. Then it gets into the basics for setting up and maintaining your raised beds throughout the growing season. In this helpful book, you’ll learn how to build your own raised beds, ways to pick the right plants for your elevated garden, and tips for helping your garden thrive until it’s time to harvest.
Helpful features:
- Step-by-step instructions for building your own DIY raised bed planting boxes for your garden and mixing your own garden soil
- Detailed information on how to maintain your raised garden beds from year to year, including information about crop rotation, seed starting, and partner planting
- Full profiles on 30 different plants perfect for planting in your raised garden beds, including companion planting information and tips for successful growing
4. Rodale’s Basic Organic Gardening: A Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Healthy Garden
By Deborah Martin
Starting an organic garden in your backyard can be an overwhelming task for a beginner.
From dealing with common garden pests to tackling common plant diseases, a lot goes into caring for your garden. And when you’re trying to avoid using chemical enhancements in your garden, finding organic alternatives is essential.
With the help of Rodale’s Basic Organic Gardening, you can learn everything you need to know about organic gardening in an easy-to-follow format. Designed to help newbie gardeners learn about setting up their own garden, this helpful book will provide you with tons of useful information every new gardener needs to know about organic gardening.
The book starts with providing you with tips for tons of basic gardening tasks, answering all your gardening questions with easy to follow instructions. From learning how to prepare your soil for gardening to specific instructions for how to plant a seed, this book is a must for anyone new to planting a garden.
With the help of the book’s month by month guide for organic gardening, you’ll know exactly what tasks you need to accomplish and when to tackle them. You can even plan your garden with the help of the book, thanks to the provided garden plans in a variety of sizes and the plans for six different types of raised beds.
Helpful features:
- A glossary featuring more than 100 garden terms and their definitions to help new gardeners become familiar with gardening lingo
- Basic information and tips for a variety of common gardening techniques, including composting, organic pest control, and weed removal
- An outline of easy-care plants to help beginner gardeners create a successful first-time garden, including information on more than 100 easy-to-care for plants and details on reliable annual and perennial flowers for your yard
5. Starter Vegetable Gardens
By Barbara Pleasant
Learning gardening techniques is an essential part of beginning gardening. From learning the proper technique for planting seeds to the best methods for watering your garden, there’s a lot to learn for a beginner gardener!
But once you have the basics down, you’re going to want to get started with setting up and growing your backyard garden.
If you’ve never planned a garden in your backyard before, you’re probably wondering where to start. With the help of Starter Vegetable Gardens, you can view 24 easy plans for small vegetable gardens. With so many options to choose from, you’re sure to find a plan that will fit perfectly in your own yard.
This great book outlines everything you’ll need to know to set up your own garden right in your backyard, from tips for setting up your garden to the types of plants to sow in each row.
Learn how to set up a basic garden with the help of the provided garden plans. Then, find out how to build upon your existing set up to expand your garden as you become more experienced throughout the years.
The book provides you with information on how to set up your garden, prepare your soil, plant your seeds, and harvest your veggies at the end of the season. Along with plans for setting up your garden, each garden plan also features information on the plants inside the garden set-up, including planting information and tips on caring for the plants as they grow.
Helpful features:
- Dozens of garden plans featuring illustrated layouts to make setting up a garden simple in any yard
- Information on how to start and maintain your organic garden no matter how small or large your backyard is
- Gardening tips to help your garden thrive, including ways to enrich your soil, helpful planting schedules, and watering guides
6. Week by Week Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook
By Jennifer Kujawski
Many beginning gardeners need an action plan to get their garden started. If you’re looking for a guide to take you step-by-step through the gardening process, you’ll love the Week by Week Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook. This helpful guide provides you with detailed weekly to-do lists for setting up, planting and maintaining your garden.
The informative book takes you through the process of starting and maintaining your garden with the help of weekly checklists. The book starts with the steps for breaking ground in your garden and ends with harvesting your final plants of the season. In between, you’ll learn how and when to start your seeds, tips for checking for common garden pests, and techniques for harvesting each of the vegetables in your garden.
Helpful features:
- Weekly to-do lists that break down creating and managing your garden into simple weekly tasks
- Working notebook to help you keep up to three years of notes to provide you with information for setting up your garden during the next growing season
- Customizable planner to adjust your tasks based on your gardening zone
7. The Backyard Garden: A Beginner’s Guide to Self-Sufficient Mini Farming
By Priscilla Stevens
Create a sustainable backyard garden with the help of this informative guide. The Backyard Garden will help you create a garden in your backyard, no matter how big or small your yard is. Using the practice of bio-intensive farming as its basis, this guide will give you actionable tips for designing your vegetable garden to produce maximum yield during the growing season.
In addition to providing you with a wealth of organic gardening information, The Backyard Gardener takes garden planning a step further by providing you with information on creating your own mini farm. From outlining the benefits of including animals, like chickens, into your gardening plans to information on ways to raise animals for meat, you can learn everything you need to know to start your own backyard farm with this all-encompassing book.
Helpful features:
- A 12-month plan for your garden with information on set-up, planting, maintenance, and winterizing
- Information on the benefits of backyard farming, including tips on raising chickens and other animals as part of your backyard garden
- Tips for organic pest control to remove the need for chemicals in your garden
8. Beginner Gardening Step by Step: A Visual Guide to Yard and Garden Basics
By DK
If you’re a visual learner, reading a book about gardening may be a little difficult for you. But with Beginner Gardening Step by Step, you’ll get an inside look at creating your own backyard garden with the help of picture tutorials. The book features step-by-step instructions for each stage of the gardening process, all with easy-to-follow pictures of each step.
From picking the best plants at the nursery to preparing your garden soil for planting, you’ll find a wealth of information for beginner gardeners in this helpful book. What makes this book stand out is the informative pictures that go along with each actionable tip. With the help of this step-by-step guide, you’ll know exactly what to do for each stage of the gardening process, making setting up and maintaining your garden a breeze.
In addition to providing you with information about vegetable gardening, you’ll also find informative features on picking the right shrubbery for your yard and tips for maintaining the plants in your landscape. You can even learn how to care for your gardening tools to ensure they last from season to season.
Helpful features:
- Clear and easy to follow photographs of each step of the process, accompanied by simple steps to complete the projects
- Information on a variety of plants, ranging from vegetables to shrubbery
- Detailed information on each step of the gardening process, from selecting the best plants at the garden center to harvesting your crops at the end of the growing season.
Final Thoughts on Best Vegetable Garden Books For Newbies
I’ve found that the best way to start a garden is by getting inspiration and ideas from these vegetable gardening books.
Vegetable gardening is a lot of work. You want to optimize your harvest and your time. You’ll pick up tips and tricks by learning the best practices from experts in vegetable gardening.
Savings Tip: Some of these vegetable gardening books are available through Audible, an Amazon company with the world’s largest selection of audio books.
If you don’t already have Audible, you can get a FREE 30 day trial, which gets you 2 FREE books! Even if you cancel within the free trial period, the books are yours to keep!
Recap of the Best Books for Beginner Vegetable Gardening
- Vegetable Gardening for Beginners
- Vegetable Gardener’s Bible
- Raised Bed Gardening for Beginners
- Rodale’s Basic Organic Gardening
- Starter Vegetable Gardens
- Week by Week Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook
- The Backyard Garden
- Beginner Gardening Step by Step