01 - A Book Where Gardening is Central to the Plot > Likes and Comments

A book where gardening or a garden is central to the plot


I think a lot of us guessed this one!!! I used to read A LOT of gardening books, so I've got so many favorite nonfiction books I can add to the Listopia (later, when I can take a moment to breathe LOL)


Listopia list is Here: A book where gardening or a garden is central to the plot

The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman fits the prompt and is an excellent book!

The Secret Garden: I bounced off of this one, but it is a classic that many people like

Genesis is my stretchy fallback option.

I recently read The Winter Garden. It was good enough, I wouldn't necessarily strongly recommend it. It definitely fits the gardening requirement, though!

I really like the look of Nightfall in the Garden of Deep Time!

The listopia link just comes back here by the way.

There are a few T. Kingfisher books where gardens are important, A House with Good Bones and I think Bryony and Roses. While I don't mind reading about gardening, I'm pretty sure the fantasy genre will provide for me. Maybe The Enchanted Greenhouse if I don't find anything else.

Ellie wrote: "The listopia link just comes back here by the way. ..."



oops!! thanks - let me fix that!

I loved The Secret Garden. I added The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King because Sam's gardens get a mention at the start and end of the trilogy. (Central to the plot being a loose interpretation.)

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen works perfectly for this prompt.
I kinda want to do a reread now.

Digging In by Loretta Nyhan - was a 5 star read for me

Lol, so the ad banner at the top of my GR page just flashed this book: Hazelthorn with the line "the botanical queer horror readers never knew they needed". It appears like it will work.

There's always a couple that get onto the listopia by mistake. Anyone thinking they're getting a a gardening book with Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is in for a surprise.

I have this one on my TBR - think I will read it. Houseplants and Their Fucked-Up Thoughts: P.S., They Hate You

Jennifer W wrote: "Lol, so the ad banner at the top of my GR page just flashed this book: Hazelthorn with the line "the botanical queer horror readers never knew they needed". It appears like it will..."

Bookish serendipity!!!! Love when that happens...

This Poison Heart -- YA fantasy novel where the main character's magic revolves around a poisonous garden.

House of Frank - A cozyish fantasy with found family set in a unique garden.

Flirting Lessons - A sapphic romance where one of the fmcs bonds with a new best friend over gardening.

The Spellshop - A cozy fantasy where the fmc's garden is crucial to keeping her new jam-and-spellshop running.

One still on my tbr I might read for this one is A Botanical Daughter.

Scent of a Garden is a second-chance romance about a perfumer living in Paris who loses her sense of smell to Covid. She returns to her family's luxury hotel and tends her grandmother's garden, in the hopes it will help her sense of smell return.

I may be biased on this one. I have post-covid anosmia myself (since December 2020), and it's odd recommending this book knowing I have only added one scent to my list in the more than two years since I read it. (Cooking onion and garlic, which I can usually smell as of May or June. Can't tell them apart, though, and it's only when they are cooking.)

Rose wrote: "I have this one on my TBR - think I will read it. Houseplants and Their Fucked-Up Thoughts: P.S., They Hate You"

I have that on my TBR as well!

Would Winter Garden by Kristen Hannah fit this prompt?

I like this one! I don't remember off the top of the head if I have recommendations aside from what's posted here, but I'll post on the listopia if I remember one. I think I'm going to go with Nightfall in the Garden of Deep Time.

I’m currently listening to Hazlethorn, it definitely counts as there’s a garden involved in the story.



I have this mystery to read from NetGalley, the MC uncovers a body while planting a bush so I’ll use it.

Linda wrote: "The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman fits the prompt and is an excellent book!"

Agree, a really liked this book. I'm generally an Abbi Waxman fan

Julie wrote: "Would Winter Garden by Kristen Hannah fit this prompt?"

I think it would. I read it a while ago but as I recall the "winter garden" has a significant enough role

It's a boring choice but I think I will read The Secret Garden. I was going to read it this year for a prompt but I switched books and still really want to read this

I am planning to read The Garden of Happy Endings. I was surprised to find this book on my TBR when I searched for "garden".

I haven't read it yet, but I believe The Last Garden in England would work for this.

I recommend Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden by Camille T. Dungy. It's nonfiction about a Black woman building a life for herself and her family in a very white town, and it is also very much about gardening.

If gardening doesn't interest you, maybe you'd like At the Bottom of the Garden by Camilla Bruce. The garden is central to the plot. But it's not a typical garden.

Birnam Wood would work for this topic

In The Change by Kirsten Miller, the garden plays a significant role but not in a traditional gardening way. I very much enjoyed that one!

Ones I'm pondering for this prompt are either the classic The Secret Garden or:
Coming Up Roses by Rachel Lucas - sounds like a cosy romance
The Jewel Garden: A Story of Despair and Redemption by Monty and Sarah Don - the story of a garden of one of Britain's most famous gardeners and how it helped his mental health
The Restoration Garden by Sara Blaydes - historical fiction

Gardening is important in The Unlikely Pursuit of Mary Bennet. For any fans of Jane Austen spinoffs.

Gardens are important to the plot of Nemesis by Agatha Christie

Non-fiction: The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise and Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival.

Back to fiction: The Family is a thriller involving a cultish organic gardening collective.

The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise by Olivia Laing

Diana wrote: "I haven't read it yet, but I believe The Last Garden in England would work for this."
Thank you! I was trying to remember that title!

Jennifer W wrote: "I recently read The Winter Garden. It was good enough, I wouldn't necessarily strongly recommend it. It definitely fits the gardening requirement, though!"
My book club loved that book!

Lilith wrote: "Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen works perfectly for this prompt.
I kinda want to do a reread now."
Loved that one! But I have adored every single Sarah Addison Allen book I've read!

Julie wrote: "Would Winter Garden by Kristen Hannah fit this prompt?"
Definitely!

Any book from Susan Wittig Albert's Darling Dahlias series would work. "The Darling Dahlias" is a gardening club/group!

Another mystery series from which any one book would fulfill this prompt is Anthony Elgin's English Garden mysteries

Has anyone read The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches or The House in the Cerulean Sea and knows if they would fit for this? I just want to know how much the books actually feature gardening/involves a garden...

Hmm, I've read both and don't particularly remember gardening for either, but if you were going to make a case for one, it would more likely be The House in the Cerulean Sea - one of the characters is a garden gnome, and I remember her being very passionate about planting things, though I don't know if I would say that's central to the plot.

Happy to be corrected if someone else remembers better.

After visiting Biltmore estate, I've been interested in Frederick Olmsted. I've had

on my to-read list for a couple years and I'm so excited to have this prompt to slot it into!

Joanna G wrote: "Hmm, I've read both and don't particularly remember gardening for either, but if you were going to make a case for one, it would more likely be The House in the Cerulean Sea - one of the characters..."

At one point the characters go in to town for gardening supplies (and music and ice cream for the other kids) and bond with the locals over gardening, (view spoiler)[which leads to the locals standing up for them, (hide spoiler)] so it more than just a mention of gardening.

Jennifer W wrote: "Lol, so the ad banner at the top of my GR page just flashed this book: Hazelthorn with the line "the botanical queer horror readers never knew they needed"."

Oh, that seems delightfully creepy! Excellent!

Oh that's great! Another one that's already on my shelf :D

Eglė wrote: "In The Change by Kirsten Miller, the garden plays a significant role but not in a traditional gardening way. I very much enjoyed that one!

Ones I'm pondering for this prompt are ei..."

I was browsing at the library and found The Yellow Bird Sings, a WWII story.
To soothe her daughter and pass the time, Róza tells her a story about a girl in an enchanted garden:
The girl is forbidden from making a sound, so the yellow bird sings. He sings whatever the girl composes in her head: high-pitched trills of piccolo; low-throated growls of contrabassoon. Music helps the flowers bloom.
Not sure if gardening is central to the plot, but a garden certainly seems like it is.

Argh! And another book just came to mind (that may or may not work), but I can't recall the title! All I remember is that it's magical realism and the cover is bright orange with black vines with thorns and little objects hidden in them. ETA: Of Bees and Mist! Don't think it works, but at least my brain can relax.

In The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Poirot first meets the narrator while he is working in his garden of vegetable marrows. You can decide how central that is to the plot, but it did put him on the scene in the first place.

Brandon wrote: "In The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Poirot first meets the narrator while he is working in his garden of vegetable marrows. You can decide how central that is to the plot, but it did put h..."




that scene sent me down the rabbit hole of figuring out what exactly "marrows" are. The only marrow I knew was the stuff inside bones. I'm still not sure. Are they like celery? zucchini? spaghetti squash? yellow squash?

They are basically very big courgettes/zucchini, large, green and quite pulpy inside. You can make jam with them, if so inclined. They often feature in country shows with competition to grow the largest marrow.