A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold

This bookshelf classic never fails to leave me energized about the intersections of ecology, community and stewardship. Author Aldo Leopold reminds me that I am a part of a lineage of land management, and his words are a beautiful reminder that conservation is essential.

Clara Fuehler, Quaker Voluntary Service Fellow

The Living Landscape by Rick Darke and Douglas Tallamy

I love Gaia’s Garden and Nature’s Best Hope—they shaped how I think about ecological gardening. But one of my favorite books now is The Living Landscape because it really shows how to design gardens that are beautiful, useful and supportive of biodiversity. It’s exactly the philosophy we try to bring to our work at Northern Gardener..

Lara Lau-Schommer, Executive Director

Plant Families by Ross Bayton and Simon Maughan

My favorite northern gardening book… A fun and easy way to improve your gardening knowledge and impress your friends is learning the common plant families in the garden. This guide is my absolute favorite, with gorgeous illustrations and beginner-friendly identification tips that will have you knowing your Apiaceaes from your Asteraceaes long before the start of the next growing season.

Netanya Sadoff, Communications and Marketing Intern

Soil by Camille T Dungy

Highly recommended by a Northern Gardener reader, this beautifully written story helped me think deeper about the land we love and call home and how we can grow life from it.

Rebecca Swee, Northern Gardener editor and lead content creator

We are Each Other’s Harvest by Natalie Baszile

Gain insight into how African American farmers are contributing to our agricultural systems. Everyone needs to eat and better yet, it’s important to know how our food is getting to us and the historical and cultural context of our growing landscape in the 2020’s. This book is full of firsthand stories, beautiful images, thought-provoking poetry, excerpts from books, and so much more. This is great for any history buffs, new farmers and anyone who eats and cares about our food system.

This author also wrote Queen Sugar, which follows a woman who inherits a sugarcane farm in Louisiana. This beautiful, hopeful and sometimes tragic story gives us insight to what farming in the south truly looks like.

Anna Marhefke, Programs Manager

Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer

From the author of the popular Braiding Sweetgrass, this short and sweet read dives deep into how moss has shaped our cultural and scientific understanding of the natural world. I read this book when I was 18 and still resonates with me today. Her prose is stunning, and the lessons she unveils through her microscope is breathtaking and shows us how tiny patches of moss around our planet can teach us so much about being in community, being in relationship to the earth and about ourselves.

Anna Marhefke, Programs Manager

The Regenerative Garden by Stephanie Rose

This book not only does a great job of explaining how simple permaculture can be to establish, but it also gives great, hands-on projects (80 of them!) to do if you’re a true backyard DIYer.

Erik Bergstrom, Marketing Manager

Rewild Your Garden by Frances Tophill

No matter the size of your landscape, this book can help you add some wilderness back into it with carefully designed garden plans for four-season interest that will attract a full mini-ecosystem of insects, birds, amphibians and mammals into your yard.

Erik Bergstrom, Marketing Manager

The Humane Gardener by Nancy Lawson

The author of this book says it best: “It’s hard to call yourself a truly accomplished gardener without paying special mind to your plants and the beneficial creatures that help them grow.” You’ll level up to the status of “humane gardener” with this thought-provoking read.

Erik Bergstrom, Marketing Manager

Human Nature by Kate Marvel

The author of this book says it best: “It’s hard to call yourself a truly accomplished gardener without paying special mind to your plants and the beneficial creatures that help them grow.” You’ll level up to the status of “humane gardener” with this thought-provoking read.

Mary Riehle, Office Manager

Hellstrip Gardening by Evelyn J. Hadden

I love the author’s take on beautifying previously unused areas of the yard to be more environmentally friendly and create welcoming spaces in a neighborhood.

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Rose Daniels, Creative Director of Northern Gardener magazine