If you’re looking for gardening and nature books that explore how the outdoors shapes our lives (and vice versa), this is a growing list of titles I’m reading, enjoying, and recommending, covering everything from practical tips to personal stories.
If you’re ready to transform your garden into a part of the great ecosystem, these tips for creating a wildlife pond and garden will help.
What I’m Reading
Here’s a look at the books currently on my nightstand, plus some past favorites. The topics weave through gardening, nature, and life—sometimes practical, sometimes personal, and always rooted in a love for the outdoors. I’ll keep adding new finds as I go.
With so many books published each year, the choices can feel overwhelming—and there’s never enough time to read them all! I toggle between hard copies and digital ones, depending on price, availability, patience, and shipping costs. In a perfect world, every hard copy would come with a digital version too.
Here in Canada, options for sourcing books are a bit more limited than in the U.S. (Lucky you if you have access to sites like Bookshop.org.) I often link to Amazon for convenience, but whether it’s your local library, a friend, a bookshop, or another online source, I hope you’ll find your own way to enjoy these titles.
Rather than rating books, I simply share ones I’ve enjoyed, along with a few personal notes under “My Takes.” If a book didn’t resonate with me, I leave it off the list—reading is, after all, wonderfully subjective.
Latest Picks
Phenology (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series)
by Theresa M. Crimmins
On the timing of seasonal activity in plants and animals, the impact of climate change, and what each of us, as everyday phenologists, can do to help.
My take: I read this book in one sitting. It’s a relatively little book but packed with lots of interesting examples about phenology and the interconnectedness of the natural world. I feel like natural science should be taught from this perspective as it makes the vital importance of diversity (plant and animal species) so easy to comprehend.
A Life in the Garden: Tales and Tips for Growing Food in Every Season
by Barbara Damrosch
In A Life in the Garden, horticultural icon Barbara Damrosch imparts a lifetime of wisdom on growing food for herself and her family.
My take: The book begins with a lovely description of Barbara’s childhood and then shifts into an easy-to-read sharing of everything she knows about gardening. Our approaches are so similar, I just gobbled it up.
by Carol Klein
Carol Klein is one of Britain’s best loved horticulturists, and for decades gardening has been at the heart of her extraordinary life…. In this long-awaited memoir Carol tells the story of the people, places and plants that have shaped her life.
My take: I am a Carol Klein superfan and read all of her books. She’s had a stellar career (in a male-dominated field) and has most certainly inspired many new generations of gardeners. Her skills as a teacher and communicator are so impressive and no one rolls out the botanical names like she does. Her book, Grow Your Own Garden, launched my intrigue with plant propagation, and the docuseries, Life in a Cottage Garden still ranks as one of my all-time favorite binge-watching experiences.
Bad Naturalist: One Woman’s Ecological Education on a Wild Virginia Mountaintop
by Paula Whyman
When Paula Whyman first climbs a peak in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in search of a home in the country, she has no idea how quickly her tidy backyard ecology project will become a massive endeavor.
My take: I first heard about this book on Joe Lamp’l’s podcast, The joe gardener Show. Joe’s own journey into ecological gardening has parallel my own and his choice of guests and topics are always so timely for me. Paula’s mission to re-naturalize her mountain property is an honorable and ambitious endeavor.
The Urban Naturalist: How to Make the City Your Scientific Playground
by Menno Schilthuizen
In this delightful book, The Urban Naturalist, Schilthuizen invites us to join him, to embark on a new age of discovery, venturing out as intrepid explorers of our own urban habitat—and maybe in the process do the natural world some good.
My take: I love anything that encourages us to protect, explore, and better understand the natural world that sustains us. This quote from the book shares how the idea is nothing new:
I often think the more I limit myself to a small area, the more novelties and discoveries I make in natural history.
— Mary Treat, Home Studies in Nature (1885)
A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812
by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Between 1785 and 1812 a midwife and healer named Martha Ballard kept a diary that recorded her arduous work (in 27 years she attended 816 births) as well as her domestic life in Hallowell, Maine. On the basis of that diary, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich gives us an intimate and densely imagined portrait, not only of the industrious and reticent Martha Ballard but of her society. At once lively and impeccably scholarly, A Midwife’s Tale is a triumph of history on a human scale.
My take: While this book may seem off-topic here, it’s really not. There are interesting mentions of gardening and food growing throughout the journal entries in this book. I found the story of Martha’s life as a midwife intriguing (and astonishing) and I also picked up all sorts of garden tidbits along the way. One of interest was the mention of regrowing cabbage from stem cuttings—something I’ve not seen done but now want to try.
Previously Featured
Bird-Friendly Gardening: Guidance and Projects for Supporting Birds in Your Landscape
by Jen McGuinness
Bird-Friendly Gardening is the definitive guide to planting a wildlife-welcoming home landscape filled with a diversity of native plants that feed, shelter, and support birds.
The list continues here: Recommended Garden Books.
If you have a favorite book to recommend, let me know!
~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛