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Top 10 Best Gardening Books for Creating Your Kitchen Garden
This video shares a list of my top 10 best gardening books for creating your kitchen garden. Whether you have a backyard, a patio, a city balcony, or just a sunny windowsill, there’s something here for you. And even if you already have a few books for your kitchen garden, I think you might find a few surprises in my list!
*Affiliates note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. My content may contain affiliate links to products and services. If you click through and make a purchase, I’ll receive a small commission. It does not affect the price you pay.
What Is a Kitchen Garden?
If you are new to the idea of creating a kitchen garden, you might be wondering what exactly it is and how it is different from a regular garden. You’ll learn lots about this in the gardening books that I recommend, but let me give you a quick little overview here.
A kitchen garden, as the name implies, is a garden you plant close to your kitchen. It is generally smaller than a full-fledged garden and more specific in terms of what you grow in it.
Generally speaking, a kitchen garden will include vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers, many of which are edible flowers. You’ll cultivate all these plants, harvest them, and bring your harvest into your kitchen to create delicious and nutritious meals. And the flowers can both serve as a food and as something to adorn your kitchen or dining room table!
Gardening Books to Design a Kitchen Garden
The design of a kitchen garden is often quite charming, making it both decorative and productive! The New Kitchen Garden by Anna Pavord is one of the most beautiful gardening books. You’ll enjoy the pictures and text as you learn about kitchen gardens with this gorgeous coffee table book published by DK.
In her book, Anna shows us that there are traditional gardens, such as a French kitchen garden known as a Potager with its classic square design, but there are many other ways to design a kitchen garden. You don’t need the perfect square space. A kitchen garden can be anything you want it to be.
My kitchen garden is what I refer to as a Texas Hill Country kitchen garden, meandering along both sides of a rustic flagstone path that leads to my back gate.
Potager Kitchen Gardening Books
It can be easy to fall in love with the glorious design of a traditional Potager. But even if you do not have this exact design, you can grow the same vegetables, herbs, and flowers often found in these gardens. And with the help of the Potager book by Georgeann Brennan, you can create some magnificent French meals right in your own kitchen!
A Garden Design Book When Jumping in with Both Feet!
You can choose from a number of wonderful gardening books to help you design your kitchen garden no matter what your space looks like. Here are a few of the many gardening books that I recommend in my in-depth gardening books video:
- The Kitchen Garden
- Moosewood Kitchen Garden
- Complete Kitchen Garden
- Or any of the gardening books I recommend in my video.
If you are serious about designing the ultimate kitchen garden and you’re ready to get started, then the book for you is Designing the New Kitchen Garden. This gardening book will walk you through from start to finish to design the kitchen garden of your dreams in the space you have.
Backyard Problem Solver
Once you’ve created your kitchen garden, you’ll want to have Jerry Baker’s Backyard Problem Solver book as part of your gardening library. In my video, I talk about how much it has helped me address problems, like powdery mildew, in my kitchen garden using natural and easy-to-find products.
More Kitchen Garden Ideas
Come join me in my Texas Hill Country kitchen garden as I share how I am rebuilding my garden after the harsh Texas storms we had in February of this year. (And be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel to get updates on my kitchen garden and ideas on how to cultivate plants in your garden too.)
If you are completely new to the idea of kitchen gardening, you may not be ready to start collecting gardening books or making an investment into buying seeds or small plants. Not to worry! I have the perfect project for you. Regrow kitchen scraps! It’s easy and fun to do, and you can grow many scraps in indoor pots, so you don’t even need a yard.
Last year during the quarantine, I decided that I needed to grow more of our own food and not just focus on herbs. So while our son was home with us, he built me some raised beds so that I could expand my kitchen garden. Join us for a kitchen garden tour…and meet my sweet son too!
Gardening Books for Children and Homeschooling
In my video, I talk about some of the kitchen gardening books that I enjoyed with my son when he was young:
When many of you learned that I was a homeschool mom, you asked if I would share a video about how we came to homeschooling and the homeschooling program we used. In my Charlotte Mason Homeschooling video, I share my experiences with you.
And now that my son is grown, you might enjoy hearing what he thought about being homeschooled and what he thought about being raised eating traditional foods. (Spoiler alert! He was suspicious of kefir! 😉)
Kitchen Academy Videos
Are you looking for more traditional foods videos? I invite you to join the Traditional Foods Kitchen Academy. Members of this optional paid YouTube community get access to exclusive videos, live streams, and other members-only perks.
In the following members-only video, I talk about the Traditional Foods Journals You Need to Read.
Stay in Touch with Mary’s Nest
- Subscribe to My YouTube Channel for Traditional Foods Videos (Free) - When you subscribe, be sure to click on the notification bell that will let you know each time I upload a new video.
- Subscribe to Mary’s Traditional Foods Newsletter (Free) - Get a free 36-page eBook for signing up: How to Stock Your Essential Traditional Foods Four-Corners Pantry.
- Join the Traditional Foods Kitchen Academy (Optional Paid) - For more detailed videos, live streams, and exclusive members-only perks, join my YouTube membership community.
- Preorder The Modern Pioneer Cookbook (Optional Paid) - Get a printed book of Mary's nourishing recipes from a Traditional Foods Kitchen. This cookbook will be published by Penguin Random House with their DK imprint.
I look forward to having you join me in my Texas Hill Country Kitchen!
Shop for items used in this blog post or video
Favorite Kitchen Garden Books
- Backyard Problem Solver
- Children’s Kitchen Garden
- Complete Kitchen Garden
- Designing the New Kitchen Garden
- Edible Asian Garden
- Edible Flower Garden
- Edible French Garden
- Edible Herb Garden
- Edible Italian Garden
- Edible Salad Garden
- From the Cook’s Garden
- Hollyhock Days
- Kitchen Garden Cookbook
- Kitchen Garden
- Kitchen Gardener’s Handbook
- Kitchen Herb Garden
- Moosewood Kitchen Garden
- New Kitchen Garden
- Potager
- Recipes from a French Herb Garden
- Roots, Shoots, Buckets, and Boots
- Sunflower Houses
Favorite Kitchen Supplies
- Favorite Aprons
- Whisk
- Silica Gel Packets (Helps keep moisture from building up in your mix)
- Cast Iron Dutch Oven
- 8-Quart Slow-Cooker
- Fat Separator (Clever kitchen device to help you decant bone broth)
- Flour Sack Towels
- Masontops Fermentation Kit (promo code below)
- Mockmill Grain Grinder and Whole Grains (promo code below)
Use promo code MARYSNST for a one-time 15% off Masontops and Breadsmart products on Amazon.com.
Use my Mockmill affiliate link for a special one-time 5% discount on Mockmill Stone Grain Mill products, including the new Flake Lover's Flaker. (The Mockmill discount will appear when you checkout.)
Amazon Shop and Shopping Guide
- Visit Mary’s Nest Amazon Shop
- Visit my Shopping Guide page
Get up to 15% off for stocking your Traditional Foods Pantry and equipping your Modern Pioneer Kitchen, including discounts from US Wellness Meats, Mockmill Grain Mill, Masontops, Cultures for Health, Survival Garden Seeds, Redmond Real Salt, Plan to Eat, and More!
Recommended Reading
**Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor, a medical professional, a dietician, or a nutritionist. All content found on the MarysNest.com website, including text, images, videos, eBooks or eGuides, social media, or other formats, were created solely for informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or proper nutritional advice. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have watched in a video or read on this website. Use caution when following the recipe in this video. The creator and publisher of this video and website will not be held responsible for any adverse effects that may arise from the use of this recipe and method or any other recipe and method on this website or corresponding video channel.
