How do you get your child interested in gardening? By starting them young with these fun books on gardening–and growing one with them, of course!!
I’ve compiled a list of my favourite gardening books for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, and elementary age kids, as well as classroom teachers who are looking for fun gardening art projects or even how to start a school gardening program.
Know of a gardening book for kids that should be on this list? Let me know in the comments!!
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Gardening Books for Toddlers and Babies
Mrs. Peanuckle’s Vegetable Alphabet by Mrs. Peanuckle
A bright and colourful book to help your baby or toddler learn their vegetables. Mrs. Peanuckle also has more garden themed versions for flowers, bugs, and fruit.
The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
We love Eric Carle books in our house (who doesn’t own The Very Hungry Caterpillar?) and this book is no exception.
Lola Plants a Garden by Anna McQuinn
A good book when the toddler in your life can’t understand why the seeds you planted in the garden yesterday aren’t up RIGHT NOW!
Gardening Books for Preschool and Kindergarten
Lois Ehlert’s Growing Garden by Lois Ehlert
This collection of Lois Ehlert’s books on gardening would make a fun and gorgeous gift for the future gardener in your life. It includes Eating the Alphabet, Planting the Rainbow, and Vegetable Soup. My son really loved reading Eating the Alphabet in Kindergarten.
Oh Say Can You Seed? by Bonnie Worth
The Cat in the Hat plants a garden with the help of Thing One and Thing Two. A must for any Dr. Suess lover.
Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots by Ruth LoveJoy
A classic gardening book full of fun and whimsical projects for preschoolers to early elementary age children. Sharon has creative garden plans kids will love, as well as many invitations to play.
Gardening Books for Ages 5-8
We Are the Gardeners by Joanna Gaines
A sweet book about the trials and tribulations of growing a garden, with an emphasis about learning from your mistakes.
Grow: A Family Guide to Growing Fruits and Vegetables by Ben Raskin
This book is full of fun gardening activities for the whole family to learn about gardening together. Buy it for the summer and use it as a big, long, science experiment. There are two more books in the series, Compost, and Bees, Bugs, & Butterflies.
Gardening Lab for Kids by Renata Brown
This book could be used for multiple ages and would be a good book to use for homeschooling about gardening.
Gardening Books for Teachers
Here’s a couple of choices that would be great to help you start your own classroom gardening program.
Gardening Projects for Kids by Jenny Hendy
This book is best for ages 8-12. The projects are very inexpensive to do and it’s nice that there are projects for every season.
How to Grow a School Garden by Arden Buckler-Sporer
A very practical book for both garden projects and the actual logistics of getting the gardening program started. Use this one if you’d like to make the garden a large part of your curriculum.
Garden Classroom by Cathy James
This book is best for ages 4-8 and has more garden-inspired art projects than serious down-and-dirty gardening projects.
Recipe Books
Eat Your Greens, Reds, Yellow, and Purples by DK
While not actually a gardening book, Dominic was obsessed with this recipe book, and frankly, still is. (So obviously I had to include it.) We’ve made a few recipes, but he really just enjoys looking through the pages and talking about what the vegetables are doing.
