It has been a big year for gardening books with many homeowners finally finding time to tackle garden and landscape projects that have been on their to-do lists for years. And while food gardening was the predominant garden theme of 2020 (my latest book, Growing Under Cover: Techniques for a More Productive, Weather-Resistant, Pest-Free Vegetable Garden, was just released this month) gardeners were also interested in conservation, organic solutions, and container gardening.
Here are some of my favourite gardening books of 2020:
Plant Partners: Science-Based Companion Planting Strategies for the Vegetable Garden by Jessica Walliser
Walliser is well established as an authority on pollinators and beneficial insects and with Plant Partners, she offers a fresh look at a traditional topic.
Companion planting is often considered garden lore with gardeners pairing plants based on which types of crops like each other. Walliser cuts through the conjecture and approaches the subject through the eyes of science. She uses plant partnerships to improve the overall ecosystem of the garden by improving soil, reducing weeds, managing pests, and suppressing diseases.
Essential reading for anyone looking to grow a healthier vegetable garden.
Gardening Your Front Yard: Projects and Ideas for Big and Small Spaces by Tara Nolan
While vegetable gardening has been popular in 2020, many homeowners have also been re-thinking their landscaping and outdoor living spaces. With Gardening Your Front Yard, Ontario’s Nolan brings the front yard into focus with gardens that provide habitat to pollinators, offer year-round flowers and foliage, embrace sustainability, or make room for raised bed food gardens. She also includes many DIY projects for front yard gardens like her stylish lettuce or gourmet herb table.
Growing Figs in Cold Climates: 150 of Your Questions Answered by Steven Biggs
With the release of his book Grow Figs Where You Think You Can’t in 2012, Steven Biggs introduced Canadians to the idea of growing figs in their home gardens, and gardeners listened! Figs have become one of the hottest edible plants grown in home gardens.
His follow up book, Growing Figs in Cold Climates builds on the concept of growing and harvesting figs in areas with short seasons and answers 150 questions from new and experienced fig gardeners.
Garden Alchemy: 80 Recipes and Concoctions for Organic Fertilizers, Plant Elixirs, Potting MIxes, Pest Deterrents and More by Stephanie Rose
As an organic gardener I’m always looking for ways to feed my soil and nurture my plants. Rose’s Garden Alchemy is the perfect handbook for anyone who wants to learn how to make their own garden recipes to test soil, make compost tea, mix their own organic fertilizers, and create simple pest deterrents. There are also many easy DIY projects like a worm bin, bee bath, seed bombs, and self-watering planters.
Complete Container Herb Gardening: Design and Grow Beautiful, Bountiful Herb-Filled Pots by Sue Goetz
As Goetz writes in her latest book, herbs are among the easiest edible plants to grow offering unbeatable flavour and fragrance. They’re the perfect place for beginners to start and growing them in pots means you can enjoy a bounty of fresh herbs anywhere, even if you only have a small balcony or deck.
Goetz covers all the basics of growing herbs in containers and then creates DIY’s for pots of culinary herbs, tea and beverage herbs, herbs for pollinators, and those used in natural beauty recipes.
Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard by Douglas Tallamy
A follow up to his first book, Bringing Nature Home, the new release by Tallamy outlines his vision for a grassroots approach to conservation by encouraging homeowners to turn their yards into conservation corridors. These swaths of native plants provide habitat to wildlife like monarch butterflies and native bees, as well as many other large and small creatures. His approach is practical and effective and he offers many specific suggestions home gardeners can quickly and easily put to work in their own yards.
Niki Jabbour is the best-selling author of three gardening books, and a two-time winner of the prestigious American Horticultural Society Book Award. Her latest book, Growing Under Cover is now available.
