Picture Books Featuring Gardens
With the weather cooling, and with more time spent at home right now, it is the perfect time to get out in the garden and plant winter crops…or read a book in the sun!
This week the girls and I have planted sunflowers, separated succulents, and placed and planted a beautiful native plant gifted to us from the library staff. Gardening with kids can be a little bit like bedtime books with kids – you don’t necessarily want to do it until you are doing it and then you don’t want to stop and you think ‘I must remember that this is a deeply pleasant and GOOD thing to do with my children’!

It is so great to sit in nature, to dig, plant, sow and water and observe what is happening in your garden. In our own garden, we have spotted lots of Blue Banded Bees darting around our Ipomea vine as well as a number of other native bees such as the Tetragonula Carbonaria and the Teddy Bear Bee.

I’ve been reading books about gardens and gardening to my own children since they were born and you can see some of our favourite activities and books by scrolling the ‘gardening’ archives here. I love gardening but do not get much time these days, instead focussing on enjoying the gardens of others and fangirling over Costa – see his visit to my mum’s school kitchen garden here.
We have quite the collection of garden-related picture books and most of the ones in this list below are on our shelves at home. Many of the suggestions in this list are from members of our Your Kid’s Next Read Facebook group, which you can join here.
Best Picture Books Featuring Gardens
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‘Isabella’s Garden’
by Glenda Millard & Rebecca Cook

‘Mrs Millie’s Painting’
by Matt Ottley

‘Florette’
by Anna Walker

‘We Are The Gardeners’
by Joanna Gaines and Julianna Swaney
Print & eBook available
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‘Amelia Ellicott’s Garden’
by Liliana Stafford
*currently out of print. Check your local or school library

‘The Gift’
by Michael Speechley

‘Uno’s Garden’
by Graeme Base


‘All Through the Year’
by Jane Godwin & Anna Walker

‘Mamie’
by Tania McCartney

‘The Incredible Edible Garden’
by Victoria Breheny

‘Up In The Garden And Down In The Dirt’
by Kate Messner & Christopher Silas Neal
Print & eBook available
Buy from Apple Books

‘A Patch From Scratch’
by Megan Forward

‘In The Garden’
by Emma Giuliani

‘Emily Green’s Garden’
by Penny Harrison & Megan Forward


‘I Am The Seed That Grew The Tree – a poem for every day of the year’
selected by Fiona Waters. Illustrated by Frann Preston-Gannon

‘Rose Meets Mr Wintergarten’
by Bob Graham


‘Jasper’s Beanstalk’
by Nick Butterworth & Mick Inkpen

‘Linnea In Monet’s Garden’
by Christina Bjork, Lena Anderson & Joan Sandin (translator)



‘Grandpa’s Garden’
by Stella Fry & Sheila Moxley

‘Home’
by Jeannie Baker

‘The Curious Garden’
by Peter Brown

‘Yucky Worms’
by Vivian French

‘Beauty’
by Sandra Kendell

‘The Bug Girl (A True Story)’
by Sophia Spencer & Margaret McNamara. Illustrated by Kerascoet
Print & eBook available
Buy from Apple Books
