There is nothing like a cold winter’s day to prompt a bit of armchair gardening. Surrounded by seed catalogues and a blank piece of paper, even the smallest garden can magically take shape. For extra inspiration, we’ve brought together our favorite new gardening books from 2024 that will fill you – or a lucky recipient – with green-thumbed inspiration.
TABLE Magazine’s Best Gardening Books of 2024
By Sean A. Pritchard, published by Mitchell Beazley
I’m not one to fan girl but I’ll make an exception with Sean A. Pritchard and his gorgeous book Outside In. Not a gardening ‘how to’ – more of a ‘what to’ as he shows you how he brings his garden into his home. This is a relaxed approach with tulip petals cascading onto stacks of books and terracotta pots full of leggy pelargoniums lined up higgledy-piggledy on a table. Not for the minimalist, but a joyful romp for the maximalist who believes that more is in fact more.
By Gracielinda Poulson, published by Artisan
Gracielinda Poulson learned the “love language” of roses as a child hanging out in her grandmother’s garden. As an adult, she began collecting roses – a self-professed obsession that resulted in a garden overflowing with five hundred rose bushes. Now her hobby is a business and in Garden Roses, she shares guidance on selecting, growing and caring for roses. I’d buy this one for the cover alone.
By Naomi Slade, published by Gibbs Smith
Poor chrysanthemums get a bad rap. For some they lack subtlety and style. They get pegged as the ubiquitous bunch of garish yellow flowers you can find at any grocery store. But look again, thanks to Naomi Slade’s new book, and you’ll find a flower with far more going for it. Not convinced? Peruse Slade’s book and fall in love with the diminutive Syllabub with it’s “honey-scented pin pinwheels” or Seatons Je’Dore, of which she says, “Cut by the armful, these delectable champagne-bubble blooms are harmonious with a wedding dress of any hue.” Brides take note!
By Hannah Rose Rivers Muller, published by Clarkson Potter
I’ve never been a fan of dried flowers. This dates back to finding my mother “decorating’ my kitchen with a pot of dried flowers that looked like they’d been harvested during the Crimean War. But Hannah Rose Rivers Muller has cured me of my youthful trauma with this sumptuous book on how to create “everlasting arrangements.” She came by her passion naturally, learning from her mom, Dru Rivers, on their family farm, charmingly named Full Belly Farm. (I’d gladly move into her Wreath Room – aka drying HQ). She shares information on sourcing and drying plus how to create dried flower wreaths and arrangements, that thankfully looking nothing like my mom’s.
By Christian Douglas, published by Artisan
Fruit and vegetables are often shunted to the farthest reaches of a garden. They’re deemed to lack the prettiness and pizzazz of flowers and grasses. But not Christian Douglas. He puts fruit and veg at the heart of a garden, allowing them to mingle happily with annuals and perennials. He shows you how you can get the look with eight “food forward” garden designs from country cottages to small city lots and even an edible front garden. His design guide gives you the tools to create your own food forward garden. With a foreword by client, friend, and Food Network star, Tyler Florence.
By Leslie Bennett and Julie Chai, published by Ten Speed
Garden design is also the theme for award-winning designer Leslie Bennett. In this book, she shares ideas on how to create joyful outdoor spaces. These are much more than just a backyard. For Bennett, gardens can and should be places of connection where we’re surrounded by colors, scents and shapes that boost our mood and bring us closer to nature. Nineteen gardens illustrate her ideas and bring to life her philosophy. “Simply put, our gardens can be where we find more connected, inspired, and grounded versions of ourselves,” she says.
By Sarah Raven, published by Bloomsbury
Pots full of flowers should be your gardening best friend year round, says Sarah Raven. She takes you to her sensational Sussex, England property, Perch Hill to show you how. Raven is a master of color and she shares tricks on how to get the look, such as choosing a “bride” (the star of the show), a “bridesmaid” (lovely but doesn’t outshine the bride) and a “gatecrasher” (the contrasting color that makes it all sing). Rather than an afterthought, pots are a lead player. “They are the bubbles in the champagne; the cherries on the cake; the final enhancement of what makes a garden beautiful,” she says. “And with pots, there is one iron rule: more is more.”
By Stefani Bittner and Alethea Harampolis, published by Ten Speed
I’ll end things on a sweet smelling note, with The Fragrant Flower Garden – dedicated to showing you how you can grow with an eye not only to beauty by also olfactory happiness. Everything from marigolds with their musky, earthy and slightly bitter scent to Calamint (Calamintha nepetoides) with its minty, fresh aroma and flowers that attract bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other pollinators to the garden, is included. Helpful tips on how to capture and preserve fragrance so you can enjoy lush garden scents, no matter the time of the year.
Story by Julia Platt Leonard
Photo courtesy of Mitchell Beazley
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