Gardening Books for the New Year

If you’re looking for books to help plan next season’s garden, here are a few ideas. All are recommended by gardeners and garden bloggers, and all are rated 4 1/2 or more stars by Amazon customers. Many are also available as downloadable e-books.

• The Book of Gardening Projects for Kids: 101 Ways to Get Kids Outside, Dirty, and Having Fun by Whitney Cohen and John Fisher. How to design, maintain and harvest a play-friendly garden.

• Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening by Louise Riotte. How to use the natural benefits of plants to protect and support each other.

• Fine Foliage by Karen Chapman and Christina Salwitz. Plant combinations that work for every purpose—whether in sun or shade, path or meadow, porch or poolside.

• Front Yard Gardens: Growing More Than Grass by Liz Primeau. Step-by-step instructions on how to add more plants to your landscape.

• The Layered Garden: Design Lessons for Year-Round Beauty From Brandywine Cottage by David L. Culp. Tips for interplanting different species in the same area for multi-season appeal.

• Making More Plants: The Science, Art, and Joy of Propagation by Ken Druse. Step-by-step procedures for collecting seeds, dividing plants, and more.

• Minnesota & Wisconsin Month-by-Month Gardening: What to Do Each Month to Have a Beautiful Garden All Year by Melinda Myers. Four-season gardening advice for gardeners in the Upper Midwest.

Beth Stetenfeld is a McFarland-based editor, writer, master naturalist and creator of the gardening blog PlantPostings.com.