100 books like The Regenerative Garden

By Stephanie Rose,

Here are 100 books that The Regenerative Garden fans have personally recommended if you like The Regenerative Garden. Shepherd is a community of 10,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of A Family Guide to Terrariums for Kids: Imagination-Inspiring Projects to Grow a World in Glass - Build a Mini Ecosystem!

Maria Colletti Author Of Terrariums - Gardens Under Glass: Designing, Creating, and Planting Modern Indoor Gardens

From my list on indoor gardening houseplant.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have spent 25 years working at the New York Botanical Garden! My life’s pursuit of the green has been my greatest achievement. I'm a self-made terrarium designer. I developed my style and skills at NYBG and knew that I had to share this with the world. My books have sold over 14,000 copies worldwide. This is amazing to me and has taught me that my though-ness and step-by-step lessons were worth every word! Horticulture is a subject that comes naturally to me. I happily know the names of dozens and dozens of trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, tropical, desert, you name plants from all over the world and I’m learning new ones every season. 

Maria's book list on indoor gardening houseplant

Maria Colletti Why did Maria love this book?

Patricia has a distinct design that is breath-taking. Her moss creations are pure images of botany at its best. She herself is an experienced botanist and she shares all she has learned in her book for you to utilize. She knows her subject and her how-tos are informative and easy to do at home. This is a great gift for anyone in your life.

By Patricia Buzo,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Family Guide to Terrariums for Kids as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Design, plant, and grow a world of your very own—inside a terrarium! Including 15 unique, imagination-inspiring project plans, each accompanied by adorable, full-color photographs, kids and their grown-ups will discover how easy terrariums are to plant and grow. 

*As featured in The New York Times*

Kids love to create, imagine, and have fun. Nothing fulfills all three of those desires quite like designing and planting a terrarium. With the step-by-step project instructions found in A Family Guide to Terrariums for Kids, the results are beautiful, inspiring, and confidence-building. Making these little landscapes develops motor skills, spacial awareness, and provides a…


Book cover of The Complete Book of Ferns: Indoors • Outdoors • Growing • Crafting • History & Lore

Maria Colletti Author Of Terrariums - Gardens Under Glass: Designing, Creating, and Planting Modern Indoor Gardens

From my list on indoor gardening houseplant.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have spent 25 years working at the New York Botanical Garden! My life’s pursuit of the green has been my greatest achievement. I'm a self-made terrarium designer. I developed my style and skills at NYBG and knew that I had to share this with the world. My books have sold over 14,000 copies worldwide. This is amazing to me and has taught me that my though-ness and step-by-step lessons were worth every word! Horticulture is a subject that comes naturally to me. I happily know the names of dozens and dozens of trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, tropical, desert, you name plants from all over the world and I’m learning new ones every season. 

Maria's book list on indoor gardening houseplant

Maria Colletti Why did Maria love this book?

Mobee has literally spent her professional life at New York Botanical Garden. She knows everything!  Ferns are her expertise. This book is beautifully put together with her creative prowess! She really knows so much about the art of fern growing. I also find her to be a  terrific instructor and her book is a complete access to all she knows. Her projects are wonderful and I actually bought a galvanized wall hanging to plant ferns in just like hers!

Inspiration at its best is mimicry.

By Mobee Weinstein,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Complete Book of Ferns as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Complete Book of Ferns is filled with botanical information, indoor and outdoor growing and care information, details on propagation, display ideas, and even craft projects. This gorgeous book is authored by Mobee Weinstein, the Foreman of Gardeners at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx and a veteran guest on the Martha Stewart Living TV show and other media outlets.

*2021 American Horticultural Society Book Award Winner*
*As featured in The New York Times*

Houseplants in general are in ascendance, but no category is hotter than ferns. From the otherworldly Staghorns—mounted like antler trophies in homes throughout the…


Book cover of Orchid Modern: Living and Designing with the World's Most Elegant Houseplants

Maria Colletti Author Of Terrariums - Gardens Under Glass: Designing, Creating, and Planting Modern Indoor Gardens

From my list on indoor gardening houseplant.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have spent 25 years working at the New York Botanical Garden! My life’s pursuit of the green has been my greatest achievement. I'm a self-made terrarium designer. I developed my style and skills at NYBG and knew that I had to share this with the world. My books have sold over 14,000 copies worldwide. This is amazing to me and has taught me that my though-ness and step-by-step lessons were worth every word! Horticulture is a subject that comes naturally to me. I happily know the names of dozens and dozens of trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, tropical, desert, you name plants from all over the world and I’m learning new ones every season. 

Maria's book list on indoor gardening houseplant

Maria Colletti Why did Maria love this book?

Marc is brilliant! His extensive knowledge of all things orchids and tropical plants is unending. He has dedicated his career to the horticultural expertise of Orchids.

His professional career and rise to curator of Glasshouses and Orchids at New York Botanical Garden is legendary.

In this book, he shares all care tips, creative projects, and visuals of beauty.

He has these gorgeous terrarium projects that I just had to try to copy.

By Marc Hachadourian,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Orchid Modern as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Orchids have always inspired passion. Their exotic flowers and vibrant colours draw people in, but their reputation as fussy and difficult to grow keep many houseplant fans from adding them to their home decor. But orchids can be easy to grow and Marc Hachadourian, the curator of the orchid collection at the New York Botanical Garden, details exactly how in his new book. Orchid Modern includes basic information on potting, watering, and care. Hachadourian profiles the top 100 plant picks, focusing on varieties that are readily available and easy to grow. Step-by-step projects, including a jewel orchid terrarium, an orchid…


Book cover of The Indestructible Houseplant: 200 Beautiful Plants that Everyone Can Grow

Maria Colletti Author Of Terrariums - Gardens Under Glass: Designing, Creating, and Planting Modern Indoor Gardens

From my list on indoor gardening houseplant.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have spent 25 years working at the New York Botanical Garden! My life’s pursuit of the green has been my greatest achievement. I'm a self-made terrarium designer. I developed my style and skills at NYBG and knew that I had to share this with the world. My books have sold over 14,000 copies worldwide. This is amazing to me and has taught me that my though-ness and step-by-step lessons were worth every word! Horticulture is a subject that comes naturally to me. I happily know the names of dozens and dozens of trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, tropical, desert, you name plants from all over the world and I’m learning new ones every season. 

Maria's book list on indoor gardening houseplant

Maria Colletti Why did Maria love this book?

Tovah Martin is my houseplant hero! Tovah is a rare bird! Her love of houseplants rings through her writing. She has made gardening and indoor plants her life’s pursuit and it shows. This book is one of several Tovah has written. Her work often appears in Better Homes & Gardens magazine. I have followed her career from day one. Her vision of the plant is joyful and information only someone with this great love of the houseplant can share with you. If you buy one book on how to care for and incorporate the beauty of green plants in your home you must read Tovah's book!

By Tovah Martin,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Indestructible Houseplant as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Houseplants are the bane of many homeowners. How can you keep them alive and stop them looking leggy, anaemic and unattractive. In this practical and beautifully photographed book, author, Tovah Martin, author of the Unexpected Houseplant recommends which plants to choose and how to put them together into attractive low-maintenance displays.


Book cover of The No Dig Organic Home & Garden: Grow, Cook, Use, and Store Your Harvest

Bill Laws Author Of Fifty Plants That Changed the Course of History

From my list on backyard veg.

Why am I passionate about this?

Veg. I grow it; I nurture it; I shield it from cold winds, protect it from voracious pigeons, warm it against sudden frosts. And then I share it with friends, family, and neighbours… and we eat it. In between times I might write something gardeny or historical, but you’ll usually find me back on my veg plot, a little urban allotment in the west of England. I do a lot of reading there too! 

Bill's book list on backyard veg

Bill Laws Why did Bill love this book?

Organics, raised beds, permaculture, vertical gardening: there are plenty of exciting new ideas coming out of the veg patch. One of the most persuasive is Charles Dowding’s no-dig brigade. Many of my ‘can’t dig’ friends are joining up too, prevented from wielding a spade by sore backs, arthritis, and other such ailments. This regime of hand weeding and hoeing, and freshening the soil with generous helpings of homemade mulching composts is so much kinder to the planet than plastering it with artificial fertilisers.

By Charles Dowding, Stephanie Hafferty,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The No Dig Organic Home & Garden as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

No dig organic gardening saves time and work. It requires an annual dressing of compost to help accelerate the improvement in soil structure and leads to higher fertility and less weeds. No dig experts, Charles Dowding and Stephanie Hafferty, explain how to set up a no dig garden. They describe how to: Make compost, enrich soil, harvest and prepare food and make natural beauty and clean ing products and garden preparations. These approaches work as well in small spaces as in large gardens. The Authors' combined experience gives you ways of growing, preparing and storing the plants you grow for…


Book cover of The Pruning Book

Robert Pavlis Author Of Garden Myths: Book 1

From my list on practical gardening.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love gardening and learning about unusual plants but I find that many gardening books don’t provide a lot of useful advice. I grow over 3,000 different types of plants and have a background in chemistry and biochemisty. I teach gardening to new gardeners and garden design to more experienced gardeners. My students want to learn practical things like solving pest problems and growing plants with more flowers. I am always on the lookout for books that provide them with hands-on practical advice they can use right away. 

Robert's book list on practical gardening

Robert Pavlis Why did Robert love this book?

I have known Lee Reich through his writings for a number of years and I find his books factual and practical. He simplifies gardening down to some basic principles and then tells you exactly how to copy his style in your own garden. 

Pruning can be a daunting task for those who have not done very much of it, but it can be quite straightforward. In The Pruning Book, Lee simplifies the process of understanding why you need to prune something and then he shows you exactly when and how to do it.

By Lee A. Reich,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Pruning Book as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

It sounds simple enough, but pruning can confound even the most competent gardener. This new edition of Taunton's award-winning book explains the dos and don'ts of cutting back; from humble houseplants to the most amazing exotics, readers learn how to make the right cut the first time, every time. With straightforward prose, over 250 photographs and 135 drawings, this essential reference walks gardeners through the process of pruning everything from ornamental trees and bushes to topiaries and bonsai. This demystifies the timing and techniques that result in the most successful pruning for healthy growth and good form. Updated with the…


Book cover of Lola Plants a Garden

Kate Coombs Author Of Little Naturalists: The Adventures of John Muir

From my list on children’s books about gardening.

Why am I passionate about this?

I love nature and feature it in many of my books, including a poetry collection about the ocean and a board book series about famous naturalists. As a gardener, I have trouble with outside plants thanks to the deer that live in the canyon out back. However, I have 50 houseplants and an herb garden in pots on the balcony. Our house is surrounded by trees, and one of my favorite places in the world is Sequoia National Park, with its green meadows and giant sequoia trees. We spent several summers there when I was a child.

Kate's book list on children’s books about gardening

Kate Coombs Why did Kate love this book?

This is the third book about Lola, who loves to read. When her mother reads her a book of gardening poems, Lola decides to plant a garden. Note that Lola is quite young, and this book is for 2- to 5-year-olds. Lola begins her project by getting books at the library and deciding which flowers to plant. Then her mother helps her buy seeds and plant them. Lola makes a flower book while she’s waiting for the seeds to grow. When they do, she has a party to share her sunflowers and a story with friends. A sweet book that celebrates both reading and gardening. 

By Anna McQuinn, Rosalind Beardshaw (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Lola Plants a Garden as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 2, 3, 4, and 5.

What is this book about?

How does your garden grow? Book-loving Lola is inspired by a collection of garden poems that she reads with her mommy. She wants to plant her own garden of beautiful flowers, so she and Mommy go to the library to check out books about gardening. They choose their flowers and buy their seeds. They dig and plant. And then they wait. Lola finds it hard to wait for her flowers to grow, but she spends the time creating her own flower book. Soon she has a garden full of sunflowers and invites all of her friends for cakes and punch…


Book cover of Tasha Tudor's Garden

Kayla Lobermeier Author Of The Cottagecore Baking Book: 60 Sweet and Savory Bakes for Simple, Cozy Living

From my list on cozy cottagecore books to help you romanticize your life.

Why am I passionate about this?

My love and passion for embracing a cozy and romantic view of life is so strong that I built my entire business around it! I am a recipe developer, cookbook author, and content creator. My unique take on cooking and baking is by adding touches of fantasy, cottagecore, and history into my recipes and other creative work. This has led me to write all about living a more cozy lifestyle for the last 10 years! Romanticizing my life with the cottagecore aesthetic is how I find joy and comfort in a chaotic world, and I hope that can inspire others to embrace living their own magical lives!

Kayla's book list on cozy cottagecore books to help you romanticize your life

Kayla Lobermeier Why did Kayla love this book?

Tasha Tudor, the original cottagecore icon, is the one of the first people I was inspired by to change my outlook on life and be brave enough to include elements of a historically inspired style into my life. I absolutely love this book for its romantic imagery and magical ideas for building a fairytale garden and home.

This book has inspired me again and again, especially to learn to embrace my own personal style and that it’s okay to be a bit odd. This book not only has beautiful photos, but it also shares practical tips and ideas for growing your own cozy cottage garden.

With each page, you enter Tasha’s nineteenth-century-inspired world that she built and feel the confidence to build your own version of a romantic cottage life.

By Tovah Martin,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Tasha Tudor's Garden as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Tasha Tudor's poignant art has fascinated adults and children for decades. Her nineteenth-century New England lifestyle is legendary. Gardeners are especially intrigued by the profusion of antique flowers -- spectacular poppies, six-foot foxgloves, and intoxicating peonies -- in the cottage gardens surrounding her hand-hewn house. Until now we've only caught glimpses of Tasha Tudor's landscape. In this gorgeous book, two of her friends, the garden writer Tovah Martin and the photographer Richard Brown, take us into the magical garden and then behind the scenes. As we revel in the bedlam of Johnny-jump-ups and cinnamon pinks, the intricacy of the formal…


Book cover of A Little History of British Gardening

Marta McDowell Author Of Unearthing the Secret Garden: The Plants and Places That Inspired Frances Hodgson Burnett

From my list on the English love of gardening.

Why am I passionate about this?

My husband sums up my biography as “I am, therefore I dig.” I live, garden, read and write in Chatham, New Jersey, and have had a long, open love affair with the gardening style “across the pond.” At the New York Botanical Garden I teach English garden history, and I’m a regular contributor to the British gardening journal, Hortus. In my writing, I follow the relationship between the pen and the trowel, that is authors and their gardens. I’ve written books about children’s authors Beatrix Potter and Frances Hodgson Burnett, and, as you might imagine, the research trips to the UK were a special bonus.

Marta's book list on the English love of gardening

Marta McDowell Why did Marta love this book?

To understand the British love of gardening, I put Jenny Uglow’s chatty book top of the list. Reading her prose is like listening to a favorite teacher, one who tells a good story while slipping in the pertinent facts.  "If I were a crow, flying across Britain in the 10th century,” she writes, “I would see forest and fields, iron forges and salt pans, small towns and settlements - occasionally I could circle over a deep park, or swoop down and feed on an orchard of ripe fruit, or pull worms from the newly turned earth in a small allotment."  She takes us from Roman villas and monastery herbers to palace gardens, Sissinghurst’s herbaceous borders, and the futuristic Eden Project.  She loves her subject, and so will you.

By Jenny Uglow,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Little History of British Gardening as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Did the Romans have rakes? Did the monks get muddy? Did the potato seem really, really weird when it arrived on our shores?

This lively 'potted' history of gardening in Britain takes us on a garden tour from the thorn hedges around prehistoric settlements to the rage for decking and ornamental grasses today. It tracks down the ordinary folk who worked the earth - the apprentice boys and weeding women, the florists and nursery gardeners - as well as aristocrats and grand designers and famous plant-hunters. Coloured by Jenny Uglow's own love for plants, and brought to life in the…


Book cover of A Garden from a Hundred Packets of Seed

Marta McDowell Author Of Unearthing the Secret Garden: The Plants and Places That Inspired Frances Hodgson Burnett

From my list on the English love of gardening.

Why am I passionate about this?

My husband sums up my biography as “I am, therefore I dig.” I live, garden, read and write in Chatham, New Jersey, and have had a long, open love affair with the gardening style “across the pond.” At the New York Botanical Garden I teach English garden history, and I’m a regular contributor to the British gardening journal, Hortus. In my writing, I follow the relationship between the pen and the trowel, that is authors and their gardens. I’ve written books about children’s authors Beatrix Potter and Frances Hodgson Burnett, and, as you might imagine, the research trips to the UK were a special bonus.

Marta's book list on the English love of gardening

Marta McDowell Why did Marta love this book?

If you love flowers and love to garden, do not miss this book by British poet James Fenton.  Grab your seed catalogs and make a list of the hundred flowers you would grow, then compare your choices to James Fenton’s. I found it the perfect book to read during those gray days of winter, his bright prose radiating like an injection of sunshine. Fenton romps through the world of flower color: the orange of nasturtiums and Mexican sunflower, the lemon yellow evening primroses, and California bluebells “the colour of blue poster paint.” He captures his century of blooms with a poet’s pen. I didn’t want it to end.

By James Fenton,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Garden from a Hundred Packets of Seed as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"An engaging mix of the serious and the playful, and Fenton writes with a lightness of touch perfectly suited to the subject." --Alexander Urquhart, The Times Literary Supplement

Forget structure. Forget trees, shrubs, and perennials. As James Fenton writes, "This is not a book about huge projects. It is about thinking your way toward the essential flower garden, by the most traditional of routes: planting some seeds and seeing how they grow."

In this light hearted, instructive, original "game of lists," Fenton selects one hundred plants he would choose to grow from seed. Flowers for color, size, and exotic interest;…


5 book lists we think you will like!

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