It's the time of year when I try to cope with winter by leafing through gardening books; especially those with big glossy photos of deep flower beds. Please share your favorite! Mine is Passionate Gardening, by Lauren Springer and Rob Proctor. Really anything by either of them, but that's the one I turn to the most, for it's humor and inspiration during the doldrums of late winter.

I love gardening books too...especially to get through winter nights....cheaper than looking through gardening catalogs, lol! I just ordered Passionate Gardening through Thriftbooks.com. I'm always looking for new books too so I thought I'd give it a try since you had enjoyed it. A few of my favorite authors would be Ken Druse, Monty Don (BBC Gardeners World) and Nancy Oneida. Monty Don is the most entertaining with the other two being more toward the practical gardening side.

My favorite is 'Tasha Tudor's Gardens' with text by Tovah Martin and photographs by Richard Brown. Tasha was an eccentric who lived in Vermont. She shunned all things modern. Her home and gardens were amazing, the home was hand built with manual tools and her gardens are the epitome of cottage gardening. This book is a quaint and enjoyable read combined with beautiful photos. I re-read it every year at the beginnings of spring, now a 10+ year tradition. Highly recommend it.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0395436095/

I used to comb the library and come home with bagfuls of garden books.
I ended up buying for myself Adrian Bloom's Year-Round Garden & Rosemary Verey's "The Art of Planting" and read them over and over again.

I also like "The Dry Garden" by Beth Chatto and Beth Chatto's Gravel Garden.

Anything by Michael Dirr- encyclopedic and entertaining
Plants For Dry Climates by Bob Perry- as the title says
Anything by Scott and Lauren
Agaves by Greg Starr- living sculptures and then some
Tropica and Exotica by Graf- just have the towels handy to catch the drool(I'm not kidding)
Japanese Maples by Vertrees- another drool inducer
Botanica by Turner- I think I've seen some others by him as well, all quite droolly
The American Meadow Garden by John Greenlee- grasses, grasses, and more grasses
Anything by Debra Lee Baldwin- succulent landscaping heaven
I'm in southern California so I tend to focus more on xeriscaping and low water plants but I am a plant nerd so I can't help looking at other plant porn too

On another note I just read "The Plant Messiah" by Carlos Magdalena; inspiring, entertaining and a great story-teller.
A plant nerd and book addict all in one and my wife can't let me near a nursery or bookstore or we won't pay the rent

PutteringinIdaho said:It's the time of year when I try to cope with winter by leafing through gardening books; especially those with big glossy photos of deep flower beds. Please share your favorite! Mine is Passionate Gardening, by Lauren Springer and Rob Proctor. Really anything by either of them, but that's the one I turn to the most, for it's humor and inspiration during the doldrums of late winter.

The art of planting (c) Rosemary Verey.

Susan Mason (Life As We Know It: Man, Nature and the Fate of the Earth): My biggest reading loves are the Early Modern and Enlightenment books.

Agree looking through a gardening book with great pics is great fun, especially in the winter. I used to like a book i think was called Gardening in the Shade. I reread it many times. Book was destroyed in Superstorm Sandy [as was the house]. If i ever get my shed finished i'll add a few bookshelves and try some of the recommended ones. Edit to add the David Austin rose catalog was fantastic to leaf through.

Just checked this thread before I head to the library. With the gardening season winding down, I also am flipping through more books and keeping up with my favorite gardening blogs. I second anything from Ken Druse because I have tons of shade and learn so much from him (as an aside I love listening to his episodes on Margaret Roach's podcast "A Way to Garden"). One of my latest favorite books was "The Layered Garden" by David L. Culp. So many pictures, I took a lot of notes while reading that book. Claus Dalby's "Containers in the Garden" is also full of inspiration. I typically really lack creativity with container plantings.

I'm someone just getting interested in the concept of 'cottage gardening' because of its emphases on what my 'yard' is becoming (fruit; flowers; & vegetables all together, small size, coziness, & beauty) - instead of yet more huge rich folks' estates - and Englishness of course...

I've been doing tons of reading this winter, esp. on garden & variety history/heirlooms & CGs.

See reviews of many on amazon (.co.uk; better than .com because it'll have British reviews first), but beware that the quality and literacy of 'reviews' there has decreased alarmingly since the rise of the I-phone, facebook, etc. (you don't say; like the rest of civilization), to the extent that many don't even seem to realize it's a book review and not a 'seller rating' or complaint form ... so 'sort them by date then start at the oldest (and buy from a better business than amazon if you at all can).

Another method is look on ebay (and .co.uk) since sometimes sellers of a title have photos of the book that might show contents, index, etc.

Sometimes archive.org also will have preview pages of books that can be 'borrowed as daisy' (which I know nothing about).

Sometimes you know nothing of a book by title and author and that's enough to take a chance!

Of course if you live in a city (I am far from) there's the Library & interlibrary loan! (three cheers for Libraries & Librarians!!!)

Some books of course have other editions (US or UK, SC/HC, etc.). You can meta-search many sellers of used books on bookfinder com (also like ABE owned by amazon) or adall com.

One more thing; I'm not including books here that I've only read as scanned/archive copies so far, but there's TONS there especially pre-1930s, so all yer Gertrude Jekyll, William Robinson, JC Loudon, etc. University of California scans are often the best by the way, and .djvu usually better & smaller than .pdf
(I have hard copies on order of some of these after seeing the scans...)

FINALLY! Below are my favo(u)rites so far in appx. order of appeal (data from my BookCat file - I'm a bibliophile also).

Title: English cottage gardens
Author: Hyams, Edward, 1910-1975; Smith, Edwin (Photographs)
Publish year: 1970
Pages: 234
Publisher: Nelson
Publisher place: London, England
ISBN: 0171430212
LOC Cat #
72543760
(great photos, excellent writing; history & societal context of English GSs)

Title: Cottage Gardens: Geoff Hamilton's Cottage Gardens
Author: Hamilton, Geoff
Publish year: January-05-95
Pages: 256
Publisher: BBC Books
Publisher place: London, England
ISBN: 056336985x
(accompanies the BBC TV series from same time; good DIY plans, friendly style, good pix. Download all 6 of the TV episodes on archive.org: vid-20220729-085946 )

Title: The Cottage Garden
Author: Lloyd, Christopher; Bird, Richard
Publish year: 1990
Pages: 192
Publisher: Prentice-Hall
Publisher place: New York, etc.
ISBN: 0131812319
(loads of great English CG photos, opinions & observations by the great gardening guru)

Title: Grandmother's garden - The Old-Fashioned American Garden 1865-1915
Author: Hill, May Brawley
Publish year: 1995
Pages: 240
Publisher: Abrams
Publisher place: New York, NY
ISBN: 0810933896
(The first serious study of traditional American perennial gardens, which attained great popularity in the years between the Civil War and World War I, this abundantly illustrated volume explores this old-fashioned garden style--frequently referred to as "grandmother's garden"--as seen in small towns, artists' colonies and craft villages, mining towns, and settlements on the Western frontier. 159 illustrations, 75 in color.)

Title: Creating a Cottage Garden
Author: Phillips, Sue; Perry, Clay (Photographs)
Publish year: 1990
Pages: 113
Publisher: Grove Weidenfeld
Publisher place: New York, NY
ISBN: 080211248x

Title: Midwest Cottage Gardening
Author: Manos, Frances
Publish year: 2004
Pages: 220
Publisher: Trails Books
Publisher place: Black Earth, WI
ISBN: 1931599408
(great writing & adaptation to suburban Chicago city lot; emphasis on adaptation with regional natives & non-natives to get a CG without making the mistake of trying to copy what works in England)

Title: The Cottage Garden
Author: Scott-James, Anne
Publish year: 1981
Pages: 160
Publisher: Allen Lane
Publisher place: London, England
ISBN: 0713912634
(history & evolution of GCs)

Title: Creating a Cottage Garden
Author: Phillips, Sue; Perry, Clay (Photographs)
Publish year: 1990
Pages: 113
Publisher: Grove Weidenfeld
Publisher place: New York, NY
ISBN: 080211248x

Title: Plants from the Past - old flowers for new gardens
Author: Stuart, David C.; Sutherland, James
Publish year: February-01-88
Pages: 256
Publisher: Viking
Publisher place: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England
ISBN: 0670808520

Title: Furnishing the Old-Fashioned Garden: Three Centuries of American Summerhouses, Dovecotes, Pergolas, Privies, Fences & Birdhouses
Author: Hill, May Brawley
Publish year: 1998
Pages: 160
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
Publisher place: New York, NY
ISBN: 0810933357
(Introduction -- Ornaments and Necessities in Colonial Gardens -- The New Republic, 1780-1810 -- Arcadian Visions, 1810-1840 -- Picturesque Gardens and Rustic Seats, 1840-1870 -- Domestic Nostalgia and Suburban Comfort, 1870-1900 -- Arts and Crafts and the Colonial Revival, 1900-1930 -- Bauhaus and the Home Garden, 1930-1960 -- Looking Back, The Recent Past -- Noted -- Bibliography -- Index)

Title: Cottage Garden
Author: Arter, Elizabeth
Publish year: January-01-93
Pages: 64
Publisher: Canopy Books
Publisher place: New York, etc.
ISBN: 1558595473
(small book, great ideas & pix)

Title: The Country house kitchen garden 1600-1950
Author: Wilson, C. Anne (Editor)
Publish year: 2003
Pages: 182
Publisher: Sutton Pub Ltd
Publisher place: Phoenix Mill, Far Thrupp, Stroud, Gloucestershire
ISBN: 0750934298
(less cottage than manor, but of interest for plants. Keywords: Cooking, British; Garden Design; Gardening; English Landscape; Country life--Great Britain; Cooking & food)

Author: Kightly, Charles

Title: Country voices - life and lore in farm and village
Publisher place: London, England
Publisher
Thames & Hudson
Publish year: 1984
Pages: 240
ISBN: 0500013144
(Keywords Country life - England; Villages - England; England; English Landscape; UK & Great Britain)

Title: English cottages and farmhouses
Author: Cook, Olive; Smith, Edwin (Photographs)
Publish year: 1982
Pages: 208
Publisher: Thames and Hudson
Publisher place: New York, NY
ISBN: 0500241147
(not CG per se, but photos of many. Same photographer as Hyams' book, above; noted author is also Photographer's wife)

Title: The kitchen garden
Author: Lyte, Charles
Publish year: January-01-84
Pages: 214
Publisher: Oxford Illustrated Press
Publisher place: Sparkford, Yeovil, Somerset, England
ISBN: 0946609039

Title: Paradise lost - Paintings of English Country Life and Landscape 1850-1914
Author: Wood, Christopher
Publish year: 1989
Pages: 223
Publisher: Trafalgar Square
Publisher place: North Pomfret, Vt
ISBN: 0943955106

Title: English cottages
Author: Evans, Tony (Photographs); Green, Candida Lycett (Text); Betjeman, John (Introduction)
Publish year: 1982
Pages: 160
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Publisher place: London, England
ISBN: 0297781162
(another with similar appeal as the above)

Title: The Findhorn Garden - Pioneering a New Vision of Man and Nature in Cooperation
Author: Findhorn Community (Corporate author)
Publish year: 1976
Pages: 192
Publisher: Harper Colophon
Publisher place: New York, etc.
ISBN: 0060905204
(Members of the Scottish agricultural community present the history and philosophy of their extraordinary gardens; not quite GC but definitely emphasizes variety & full gardening'.)

Shoot, almost forgot: Anything about soviet & post-soviet & E. Euro dacha gardening and European 'allotment gardens', esp. Finnish & Swedish is pretty much 101% cottage garden too .. Even though for someone who spent years in the xussr (and been to many dachas in Ukraine, Rep. of Georgia, Lithuania, belarus, & russia .. even the ussr) it's hard to remember /anything/ good about russia in these days of fascism and genocidal war - but UKRAINE has dachas too and there was culture in Germany before hitler and it eventually returned after hitlerism was destroyed. Let's hope.

Title: Summer Kitchens - Recipes and Reminiscences from Every Corner of Ukraine
Author: Hercules, Olia
Publish year: 2020
Pages: 352
Publisher: Weldon Owen
Publisher place: Richmond, CA
ISBN: 9781681885704
(EXCELLENT! & though more of a cook/food book, emphasizes the Ukrainian outdoor summer kitchens, culture, & produce)

Title: Summerfolk - a history of the dacha, 1710-2000
Author: Lovell, Stephen
Publish year: 2003
Pages: 260
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Publisher place: Ithaca, New York
ISBN: 9780801440717

Caldwell, Melissa (2011).
Dacha Idylls: Living Organically in Russia's Countryside.
Berkeley: University of California Press.

(ignore that empty bit below; accidentally replied to myself instead of editing...)

Thank you for this extensive contribution. I am fascinated by dacha gardening and shall look at those recommendations.

The primary reason I am jealous of your climate in winter is the time to read. Thank you.

Another fun source of new to you info (e.g., on dachas and allotment gardens in Scandinavia) is the surf the web using auto-translate for whole web pages - you can translate the word for, say, dacha (or use wikipedia to get the name in another language), then search that new word (better to use google then the suffix of the country, eg (goggle.fi for finland) or (on goggle anyway) use the search addition 'site:fi' after the term so you get better hits from the 'target culture'.

Then autotranslate the results & pages of interest (I use an add-on to brave browser to translate called 'Google Translate' which also works on 'chrome' and derivatives).

Warning - goggle translate is essentially random for plant names 71.32% of the time; even if the exact same form of the exact same word is used on the same page the results may be quite different for that plant. It seems to like to call lots of things gooseberry, blackberry, & elderberry in particular (even as above for the same plant, page, etc.!). However, sometimes it literally translates a plant's name which is fun - e.g., which plant in Finnish is called 'miser's knees'?

Here's one I happened to have open:


et viola!


It's at here if it looks interesting (more pix, incl. good granite bedrock exposure!):
(censored by forum robot - you can type in in manually!)

Excellent. Thank you.

Natural Landscaping by Sally Roth is one of my favorites.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/35468...

jpm995 said: Agree looking through a gardening book with great pics is great fun, especially in the winter. I used to like a book i think was called Gardening in the Shade. I reread it many times. Book was destroyed in Superstorm Sandy [as was the house]. If i ever get my shed finished i'll add a few bookshelves and try some of the recommended ones. Edit to add the David Austin rose catalog was fantastic to leaf through.

Sorry to hear about the loss of your house and book. I agree that the David Austin magazines are/were some of the very best as are their roses. Nearly all of the roses in my northern Indiana gardens were wiped out in the rose blight that occurred in the last decade.

pod said: Thank you for this extensive contribution. I am fascinated by dacha gardening and shall look at those recommendations.

The primary reason I am jealous of your climate in winter is the time to read. Thank you.

More reading material: https://smallfarmersjournal.co...

Thank you for sharing that link. I receive Terrior Seeds newsletters and found this was another interesting article by Stephen Scott. Thanks much!

Linda Vater's book, https://www.amazon.com/dp/0760372373/ I loved it so much after borrowing it from the library, that I bought one, I think I got mine on Ebay actually.

She also has a garden journal coming out the end of this year https://www.amazon.com/dp/0760382921/

That Elegant and Edible gardening book looks really nice! I've bookmarked it and will likely add it to my gardening library. Thanks for the recommendation!

at first look this may not look like a gardening book but the second half is all native plants and what they have to offer to the native pollinators.
very detailed well researched information
I have learned a lot