If you’re tending to one of those trendy-cute moss terrariums on a coffee table, read Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Signature of All Things (2013). From the author of the blockbuster memoir Eat, Pray, Love, this bawdy and lengthy novel follows globe-trotting 19th-century botanist Alma Whittaker, who will teach you more than you ever thought you wanted to know about moss—plus love and heartbreak.

If you think your patch of land is challenging, get a new perspective by reading The Martian by Andy Weir (maybe you’ve seen the movie version starring Matt Damon). An astronaut (and botanist and engineer) gets stranded on Mars with his radio blown. He has toimprovise to survive, taking cover in the shelter once used by the team that accidentally left him behind. As food runs out, he begins to log his problem-solving efforts. What can he grow on a most unforgiving planet? The suspense lies in whether he will be able to figure out a way to stay nourished until NASA realizes he’s still there and sends help.

If you aspire to an English cottage garden or just love all things Jane Austen, thumb through Jane Austen’s Garden: A Botanical Tour of the Classic Novels (2025) by Molly Williams, a professor and gardener. While not a novel itself, it offers a deep dive into the landscapes and gardens of Regency-era England that inspired Austen’s beloved works. (Nice timing, too, as this year marks the 250th anniversary of her birth). It may inspire you to plant some Austen-inspired roses (there are several), not to mention reread Sense and Sensibility or Emma again.

If you’re thinking of hiring an arborist to put in a few fruit trees, you might enjoy The Overstory by Richard Powers, which won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It shares the experiences, around the world and over the centuries, of a group of people and their connection to trees. For instance, a farmer takes a photo of a chestnut tree that survived the blight on the same day every year, as do his descendants. A college student has a near-death experience and becomes an eco-activist. A researcher discovers that trees communicate with each other. You finish this book realizing that not only are all trees connected, but so are we.

For the person who will only watch British crime dramas on TV, this is your book: The Blue Rose by Anthony Eglin. A couple buys an old parsonage in the English countryside. Cleaning up the neglected garden, they find an astounding flower: a supposedly genetically impossible sapphire-hued rose. The couple finds that their discovery brings not just rosarians (those who love roses) to their doorstep, but also a variety of nefarious types who see the possibility of riches from a patented plant. And the best part is, it’s part of a series—The English Garden Mystery Series.

If you wish your kids had green thumbs, read The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnettto them. This tearjerker 1911 novel has inspired many a youngster to become a gardener. In it, orphaned Mary Lennox and local boy Dickon decide to refurbish a locked and walled-in forgotten garden. As the garden prospers, so do Mary and her sickly cousin Colin.

If you love afternoon tea and The History Channel, read The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys (2003). Set in WW2-era Britain during the Blitz, it follows a young woman who volunteers for the Women’s Land Army. She leads a bunch of young women growing crops for the war effort on the grounds of a beautiful but neglected estate. Also on-site: a regiment of Canadian soldiers waiting to be sent to the front. Romance ensues.

If you always get all your bulbs in before the first frost, read Tulip Fever: A Novel by Deborah Moggach (1999). You, dear reader, time-travel back to 1630s Amsterdam, when tulip hysteria gripped Holland and a single prized bulb could cost as much as a house. In this romantic tragedy, a wealthy tulip investor/speculator hires an artist to paint a portrait of him with his beautiful young wife. Guess what happens.

If you’ve turned part of your lawn into a pollinator patch, dip into Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver, whose bestselling novels and nonfiction often have environmental themes. In this one (published in 2012), a restless Appalachian wife finds a valley alive with millions of Monarch butterflies in the hills of Tennessee. The problem is that, by now, the butterflies should be far away in Mexico for the winter. Conflict arises among journalists, tourists, lepidopterists, and locals as they try to figure out what to do with their miraculous “lake of fire” before the next killing frost.

If you have a tropical garden (or are just dreaming of one), then you’ll enjoy Ann Patchett’s The State of Wonder (2011). Scientists from a Minnesota pharmaceutical company are researching a potential miracle drug made from the bark of a rare tree, only found in the most remote Amazon rain forest. Medical researcher Dr. Marina Singh is sent to retrieve the remains of her deceased lab partner, who died on the expedition. What she finds, um, surprises her. It’s a gripping read, full of vivid descriptions of the jungle. You can almost feel the humidity and hear the rain beating down. A welcome respite for those of us trapped in an icy, leafless zone this winter.