The Willow Greens Gardening Book Awards

Some of you will be zooming in to read the spines. You know who you are!

Before our first visit to this house we reviewed a floor plan, and were both puzzled and curious about something called a “keeping room.” A common feature of Colonial American houses, the keeping room was an area adjacent to the kitchen where a fireplace or wood stove served as the primary source of heat. In fact, families often slept in the keeping room during the colder months. Well, never mind that our keeping room is part of a 1970s-era addition, it is indeed adjacent to a room that was originally a kitchen. But with plenty of bedrooms and sitting areas, we were hard pressed to figure out how best to use this space. That is, until we started unboxing our books. With its cozy ambience and view of the White Garden, we realized the keeping room might just be the ideal spot for books on gardening and wildlife. 

Over the years, we’ve amassed an eclectic collection of around 100 garden-related books that has grown organically (see what I did there?), rather than through some sort of strategic acquisition process. English gardens are well  represented, with multiple appearances by Christopher Lloyd, Roy Strong, Rosemary Verey, and Monty Don. And perhaps inevitably, there are some, particularly of the “how-to” variety, that were purchased in a burst of enthusiasm but ultimately failed to deliver on their promise. 

During the dog days of summer when it was too hot to be outdoors in the garden, I found myself perusing these shelves for inspiration and insight. With a nod to some of my favorite literary prizes, here are some favorites.

Best General Reference

The Vegetable Grower’s Handbook, by Huw Richards, brings a fresh 21st century approach to growing your own food, with emphasis on no-dig methods, inter-planting and companion planting, and so on. For its comprehensive look at both perennials and fruit & veg, I especially like Monty Don’s The Complete Gardener. Plus, you get to peek at Monty’s own garden at Longmeadow and learn about how it was created.

Most Inspirational

These are all accounts of how three different gardening amateurs, working within a limited budget (everything is relative), can create meaningful gardens that stand the test of time. Each garden was designed over a number of years, as time and money allowed, and none of the authors pull any punches about their own shortcomings. Through wars, droughts, and general strikes they persevered. All three gardens—East Lambrook (Margery Fish), The Laskett (Roy Strong), and Barnsley House (Rosemary Verey)—still exist, and two are still easily accessible (Barnsley House is now a luxury hotel).

This was probably one of the first nature books we bought back in the mid-1980s. The most recent edition of the Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds was published in 2021, the first update since 1980. We still pull our vintage copy off the shelves on a regular basis. As much as we love online resources like the Merlin Bird ID app and Cornell’s All About Birds, this book is a reliable—and sometimes preferable—companion.

Classics

Crockett’s Victory Garden, by James Crockett, was published in 1977 as a companion to a PBS television series. The series was something of a breakthrough and, along with This Old House, established PBS as a DIY television pioneer and leader. Crockett’s Victory Garden piqued our interest in gardening long before we had any hope of having a garden of our own.

The (New) Self-Sufficient Gardener, by John Seymour, published posthumously in 2008, was an update to the original 1978 version. A friend recommended it to me when I was new to vegetable gardening, and for years it was my preferred general reference. Seymour was an advocate of the deep-bed method for growing more vegetables in smaller areas. Many of his principles are evident in the no-dig, raised bed approach in wide use today.

Best memoir

Nigel: My Family & Other Dogs, by Monty Don. Biographies and memoirs occupy an admittedly small amount of space on our gardening shelves. But as unabashed fans of dogs, Monty Don, and Monty Don’s dogs, this book is the unquestionable winner in this category.

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Have you read any of these books? What would be on your gardening book awards list?