Books about Gardening by various authors

c.2026, various publishers, $28-$35, various page counts

It’s almost time to dig in the dirt.

For months, it was too cold, too wet, too early to get to your garden patch but now you can hardly wait. You’ve been through the seed catalogs and picked your plants, but you need to be patient a little longer. So, pass the time with these great new books…

Let’s start with something different that makes gardening even more pleasurable: bird song. Imagine a world without it and how much you’d miss it – and then read “The Feather Wars and the Great Crusade to Save America’s Birds” by James H. McCommons (St. Martin’s Press, $33).

In very early America, immigrants simply assumed that the abundance they found on this continent would last forever. We know better now, and so did a lot of scientists, nature-lovers, society folks, hunters and others who worked hard to ensure that wild birds thrived, despite the bad guys you’ll also find inside this book. It’s a story for anyone who enjoys birdsong and has feathered friends.

So, you’re going to spend the rest of the spring, all summer, and maybe into fall, growing beautiful blooms. You don’t want to just leave them outside that whole time, do you? Of course not, so “A Year of Cut Flowers: A Life of Growing and Arranging for All Seasons” by Sarah Raven (Bloomsbury, $35) is a book that will guide you in bringing those blooms inside properly.

Spring isn’t just for planting, Raven says. It’s also for cultivating, nurturing, mulching, and taking time to see how you can make your home (and that of others) beautiful and wonderfully scented with the blooms you’ll grow in your garden. Here, you’ll learn which go-to plants to have in your plot, how to make sure you’ve got color in your garden from early until frost, how to get the most of your plants, and how to keep them fresh-looking and gorgeous for a lot longer inside. Bonus: photos. Lots of them, which will help keep you inspired while your greenery still slumbers awhile.

And when you need a welcome break from all that work, grab “Bloom,” a novel by Robbie Couch (Gallery Books, $28). It’s a rom-com about Morris, who lost his husband and his zest for life, and who’s narrowed his entire existence to the history books he owns and his TV. Then there’s Sloan, Morris’s stepdaughter, who is stuck with the grief she has for her father’s death and a mother who tends to take over. And there’s Jade, a houseplant who desperately needs water, attention, and for Morris to wake up and live again. It’s a cute book, perfect for relaxing in the sun.

If these gardening books aren’t enough for you, then head to your favorite bookstore or library and ask for the gardening section. There, you’ll find books about vegetables, plants, butterflies and birds, dirt and composting and everything you need to grow something green, flowery or edible. And be sure to look for the books, above. You’ll really dig ‘em.