Books to Inspire your Spring Garden

everything from how-to planting guides to heartfelt stories about gardens

It has been entirely too long since I’ve shared books for kids and families and I’m so excited to sit down and write this newsletter. In case you’ve missed it, I started a new series on Overbooked Mama called The Plant Diaries and I’m attempting to document our Spring backyard gardening adventures. This week I’m back with some books to inspire your own spring garden.

I hope these book recommendations show you that gardening can be simple and achievable. There’s truly something for everyone here. Whether you’re working with a windowsill in an apartment or have a bit more land to plant a raised bed. I’ve tried to be mindful of location and skill level to offer a range of books that will inspire you to get your hands dirty this Spring. I’ve pulled together over 60 books and you can shop them all here! I’ve called out our favorites below.

I’ve broken my recommendations up into several categories:

• Books for little kids (these are primarily board books geared towards babies and toddlers)

• Books for young readers (these are picture books that range from how-to guides to fiction stories about gardens)

• Activity books for the whole family (simple activities and plot garden plans to get the whole family involved)

• Books for your kitchen (think cookbooks and harvest-to-table type tips)

Books for Little Kids

Edible Colors: See, Learn, Eat by Jennifer Vogel Bass shows how familiar tasty foods can look different (think purple carrots) and new ones can be similar to ones they've already tried.

Hello, World! Garden Time by Jill McDonald is a colorful board book that teaches toddlers all about gardens with easy-to-understand facts about how plants grow and how gardening puts food on our tables.

My First Book of Growing Food from Duopress Labs is a beautiful introduction for babies and toddlers to the benefits of growing food, helping them to develop a connection with the natural world.

Mrs. Peanuckle's Vegetable Alphabet by Mrs Peanuckle is the first in a series of board books celebrating the joy of nature at home and in the backyard. We’re slowly collecting them all!

The Little Gardener by Jan Gerardi shows that sunshine, clean air, fresh food, love, and good books are all that parents need to grow their own “Teenie Greenie”.

Books for Young Readers

The Garden We Share by Zoë Tucker celebrates the friendship between a young girl and an elderly woman as they plant seeds in a community garden alongside friends and neighbors, waiting for the seeds to flower.

Every Little Seed by Cynthia Schumerth takes children through each important step of gardening, beginning with planting in the spring and ending with harvesting in the fall.

My First Garden: For Little Gardeners Who Want to Grow by Livi Gosling will help kids (ages 5-7) get started with their very first gardening projects.

Secret Gardeners: Growing a Community and Healing the Earth by Lina Laurent follows three children who stumble into an overgrown city yard and end up elbows-deep in an urban gardening project that replenishes the earth and unites a community.

Activity Books for the Whole Family

Easy Peasy: Gardening for Kids by Kirsten Bradley and the follow-up book Little Green Fingers: Easy Peasy Gardening Activities by Claire Philip show that simple gardening activities are possible whether you have a backyard, a balcony or even just a windowsill.

A Little Guide to Gardening by Jo Elworthy is another great beginner book that shows garden can be anywhere--in pots, on a balcony, an allotment or a garden at home or school.

The No-Dig Children's Gardening Book: Easy and Fun Family Gardening by Charles Dowding is an activity book based on Dowding's trademark no-dig technique, which perfectly lends itself to gardening with little ones who can't manage heavy digging and who will quickly grow bored of endless weeding.

Roots Shoots Buckets & Boots: Gardening Together with Children by Sharon Lovejoy is our top pick! It has practical growing plans for 12 themed gardens that parents and kids can grow together.

My First Indoor Garden: Everything You Need to Know to Grow Little Houseplants by Philippe Asseray focuses on houseplants with practical tips on choosing and caring for the right plant for your small space.

Jam and Jelly: A Step-By-Step Kids Gardening and Cookbook by Cassie Liversidge teaches you how to grow strawberries, pumpkins, mint, and rhubarb and then harvest your ingredients and head to the kitchen to learn how to transform them into delicious treats!

Books for Your Kitchen

No-Waste Kitchen Gardening: Regrow Your Leftover Greens, Stalks, Seeds, and More by Katie Elzer-Peters is a visual guide that gives you all the instructions and tricks you'll need to grow and re-propagate produce from food waste.

Kitchen Garden Revival: A Modern Guide to Creating a Stylish, Small-Scale, Low-Maintenance, Edible Garden by Nicole Johnsey Burke shows how a kitchen garden can be an attractive, highly tailored food garden consisting of easy-to-maintain raised planting beds laid out in an organized geometric pattern.

The Kitchen Garden: Sowing, Growing and Cooking for the Garden Enthusiast by Lucy Mora is an illustrated guide to growing edible plants from sowing to harvesting that focuses on seasons and how to make the food you grow into a delicious meal.

Tiny Victory Gardens: Growing Food Without a Yard by Acadia Tucker is an award-winning illustrated book with instructions for growing a small-scale farm on your patio, your stoop, or in your dining room.

My Tiny Window Garden: Simple Tips to Help You Grow Your Own Indoor or Outdoor Micro-Garden by Felicity Heart is a new book that includes simple tips on growing plants on a windowsill.

I was able to find so many of these books through Hoopla which is a free service made available to me through my local library system. I highly suggest checking your local branch for gardening books first. I’ve used affiliate links from Bookshop.org in this post to call out these books if you’re unable to source them through the library first. Bookshop.org supports indie bookstores so it’s a win all around.

So tell me, which books caught your eye? What are you planting first?

Let’s get growing!

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