Do you have a garden? Would you like to start one? Here is a bunch of books to get you started.
FICTION
The Curious Garden by Peter Brown
This is a wonderful book! Liam finds a scraggly garden growing on some unused train tracks. He isn’t much of a gardener but he learns after a while. When the garden grows curious, it spreads to other areas, wherever it feels like. There is real magic in this book.
Jack’s Garden by Henry Cole
This story is like the story The House That Jack Built. It starts with This is the garden that Jack planted. It continues with the soil, the seeds, rain, plants and continues until the garden is fully grown. The illustrations are wonderful and need to be studied carefully to catch all the details.
NONFICTION
How Does My Garden Grow? by DK Publishing
This book has lots to offer gardeners. It has a collection of gardening activities, scientific experiments, art projects, cooking ideas and magic tricks. The photo illustrations are very clear. Other gardening books by DK:
Grow It, Cook It
Wildlife Gardening
Ready, Set Grow!
Compost! Growing Gardens from Your Garbage by Linda Glaser, illustrated by Anca Hariton [sorry, no link]
Although this just looks like a pretty picture book, it also gives directions how to build and care for a compost bin. In the end there is a section with more information.
Compost Stew: An A to Z Recipe for the Earth by Mary McKenna Siddals, illustrated by Ashley Wolff
This book starts with Apple cores; Bananas, bruised and Coffee grounds with filters, used. It then goes through the alphabet, ending with Zinnia heads from flower beds whose blooming days are through. By the book’s end, you have a pretty good idea of all the things that can go into a compost pile.
101 Kid-Friendly Plants by Cindy Krezel
Not sure what to plant? Looking for ideas? This book has LOTS of them! Each plant has a photograph, a description of it and plant care directions. At the end of the book, there are several projects for using the plants, such as native plant gardens and water gardens.
Growing Plants: Leaves, Roots, and Shoots by Jim Pipe
This book is mostly about the science of gardening. It talks about the parts of plants and what plants need to grow. It’s a Science Starters Level 3 book.
Kid’s First Gardening Book by Jenny Hendy
This book is huge! It has 256 pages and more than 120 projects. Each project is rated as Easy as ABC, Give it a Try, or Nice and Challenging. Chapters include Hands on Gardening, Flower Power, Wildlife Gardening and others.
Growing a Garden by Mari Schuh [sorry, no link]
This book is for the youngest gardeners. The text is very simple and the photos are clear. Other books in this series:
All Kinds of Gardens
Animals in the Garden
Tools for the Garden
A Kid’s Guide to Perennial Gardens by Tamra Orr
A perennial flower is one that grows year after year. It’s inactive in the winter and then grows again in the spring. I’m a big fan of perennial flowers because they seem to take much less work than annual plants, which have to be planted year after year. This book tells how to plan your garden, prepare the soil, plant the seeds and other information. Other books in this series:
A Backyard Flower Garden for Kids
A Backyard Vegetable Garden for Kids
Design Your Own Butterfly Garden
Design Your Own Pond and Water Garden
A Kid’s Guide to Landscape Design
First Garden: The White House Garden and How It Grew by Robbin Gourley
This book gives a short history of the White House Gardens. It tells about Michelle Obama's kitchen garden, which was planted with help from some fifth graders from a local school. (Wouldn’t that be amazing?) It also includes recipes and gardening ideas.
Grow Your Own Monsters by Nicola Davies and Simon Hickmott, illustrated by Scoular Anderson
So what kind of monster plants are they talking about? How about Venus Fly Trap (eats flies), Voodoo Lily (looks like a snake and smells like a corpse), Giant Echium (20 feet tall) and others. Careful directions are given.
Butterflies in the Garden by Carol Lerner
This book has illustrations of more than three dozen butterflies. It shows you how to lure them into your garden. It also explains how butterflies grow from caterpillars into full-grown fliers.
I hope this is a wonderful gardening summer!
Gail
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