Recommended Gardening Books & Reading

Recommended Books & Readings

We curated a list of books and resources to act as supplements to help you along the way! As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. If you would like to help support The Urban Harvest at no cost to you, please shop through the links provided. If not I hope you still use it as a valuable resource to inspire awareness, change, and understanding of our food system.

Backyard Gardening Books

Fantastic look at effectively growing food in our pest and fungal-laden gardens here in Florida without having to resort to toxic chemicals
Easy to read short book that covers the very basics of veggie types that grow well in Florida, a good overview
The most detailed book Ive read about Floridas amazing diversity of fruit trees and one of my top reconmendations when starting a food forest here
All the things we use on a daily basis but somehow forget to grow in our gardens, discusses the "understory" plants for a thriving food forest
Melding the traditional vegetable garden with low maintenance perennial crops that will provide food for you year after year
A book focused on container gardening with edibles with lots of creative ideas and important details
A technical and honestly somewhat boring but incredibly detailed look at how to properly set up drip in your landscape
A thousand examples of how to effectively increase yields and grow an abundance of food even in small spaces
From companion planting to pest identification. This easy to use refrence book will help you identify the vast majority of garden issues
Approachable enough for the beginner herbalist with easy to implement recipes for salves, tinctures, and more

Permaculture and Homesteading Books

Super simplified, easy to read short story that gives you snippets of information on where to start and some well-suited varieties to Florida
Deep dive into permaculture that is better suited for someone with a basic understanding and who is ready to learn more
Realistic think of everything ahead of time book that will have you making notes & highlighting along the way
Easy to understand and inspiring first look at what permaculture can offer the beginner gardener and small scale homesteader
A look at how small shifts on an individual scale can lead to big changes in our current food production
Fantastic approach to pruning trees to small and manageable sizes so that small scale gardens can reap abundant and diverse harvests
A great book for beginners who are looking to expand from vegetable gardening into a more robust homestead model
An inspiring read about how one man transformed his land into a well oiled and productive homestead with beautiful synergy
Discusses how a family can produce a majority of their food on a small piece of land with insightful tips
An inspiring book for any small-scale grower to read on the value and importance of heirloom seeds and vegetable gardening

Foraging

Beginner's Guide to Edible Florida
Florida's Edible Wild Plants
Florida's Incredible Wild Edibles
Healing Plants - Medicine of the Florida Seminole Indians
Southeast Foraging: 120 Wild and Flavorful Edibles from Angelica to Wild Plums

Food System & Society

This is the first book I read as I dove into understanding our food system and it was incredibly impactful on how I choose to move forward
An eye opening research/fact based book on the health and financial impacts of our food system that is still easy to read and understand
The first book in a long time that actually completly shifted my perspective on a subject rather than building on existing knowledge
Defining the novel break in society from our agricultural system as people were distanced from their food and where it comes from
Setting aside the physical health benefits of gardening to focus the tremendous mental health impacts it can have

Cooking and Nutrition

The first book I used when I started cleaning up my diet with great substitutions for common foods that we all love without all the bad ingredients
Interesting perspective of how our bodies interact with foods we consume, especially helpful for those who are dealing with chronic health issues
A beautiful recipe and story book that emphasizes whole foods cooking especially with foraged and unique ingredients
The ins and outs of how to brew your own Kombucha, a homesteaders version of soda with lots of good recipes to mix things up
Making the gourmet breads approachable for the average person using fermented aka sourdough recipes

Lifestyle & Eco-Culture

A testimony to the power of presence and the importance of slowing down in this ever busy world we live in
Second Nature: A Gardener's Education
A world renowned book to gain an understaning of your financial situation, because you cant live a free life without creating a solid foundation
A "classic" that is just as applicable today as the day it was written. A call it as it is type book that reveals the devastating impacts of pesticides and herbicides
Required reading for my Wildlife Ecology degree it is a beautifully written book that paints the picture of an and natures interactions that I have reread multiple times