Unless you’re lucky enough to be surrounded by knowledgeable gardeners—whether they are parents, friends, or neighbors—you can often find yourself with your very first garden and very little idea of how to care for it (let alone how to design it, replant it, or start entirely from scratch).
A really great book can help; think of it as a mentor. While it’s impossible to write the definitive list of must-read books for gardeners (we could have easily doubled or tripled this list), we’ve rounded up the books we return to for gardening wisdom and inspiration. Some of these books are many decades old, but their advice still holds true.
Here are 10 books every gardener should read (and own, so you can dog-ear them):
Photography by Clare Coulson, except where noted.
1. The Well-Tempered Garden

2. The Dry Garden

3. Planting: A New Perspective

4. We Made a Garden

5. Down the Garden Path

6. Home Ground: Sanctuary in the City

7. A Garden from a Hundred Packets of Seeds

8. Vita Sackville-West’s Sissinghurst

9. A Gentle Plea for Chaos

10. The Education of a Gardener


Ready to read more? Browse all our Required Reading posts or skip straight to Alexa’s Library: 9 Favorite Classic Garden Books.
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