The 6 Best Children’s Books About Gardening to Instil Life Lessons Early

Gardening, aside from delivering yummy homegrown goodies, is a wonderfully therapeutic hobby. Parenting can be exhausting, and children can be endlessly demanding. By teaching your kids how to garden, you get to enjoy the stress-relieving hobby alongside your little one, who learns a practical skill while you both get a chance to relax and enjoy the outdoors.

In the list below, we highlight some of the best children’s books about gardening. The first offers the basics, helping you and your kids get started with gardening. We also incorporate titles that are less about being hands-on, and more about learning the lessons gardening teaches. We include some heartwarming stories and even a kid-to-kid guide to get your kid excited with a relatable role model!

A-Z Animals Top Picks for Children’s Books About Gardening

#1 Best Overall: Gardening for Kids: Learn Gardening Basics, Grow, Harvest, and Enjoy Your Gardening by Daphne M Cooper

The best overall children’s book about gardening is Gardening for Kids: Learn Gardening Basics, Grow, Harvest, and Enjoy Your Gardening by Daphne M Cooper.

This book is available in Kindle, audio, and paperback formats. It’s the type of book that helps improve your child’s science, technology, engineering, art, and math skills. Gardening is a productive hobby and a wonderful way to spend more time with your kids at home. As you embark on this quality time together, your children also acquire some really fabulous skills. Plus, you get to enjoy nature together. This book covers some gardening basics and includes a guide for planting.

Kids can explore different themes for your garden, and you can decide on one together. They also learn all about green gardening and some gardening arts. This is a step-by-step guide that’s so easy to follow. Read it along with your kids because you’re certainly both going to find it helpful. This is great for novices because of how each step is clearly outlined. Even if you’ve never tried to grow a food product before, don’t be intimidated. This book is simple enough for you and your kids to start a flourishing garden.

However, it’s a ‘basics’ book so if you already have some knowledge about gardening, this will feel a little too elementary for you and you may want to explore another type of book.

Pros and Cons of Gardening for Kids: Learn Gardening Basics, Grow, Harvest, and Enjoy Your Gardening by Daphne M Cooper

Best Overall

Gardening for Kids: Learn Gardening Basics, Grow, Harvest, and Enjoy your Gardening

• Helps improve your child’s science, technology, engineering, art, and math skills.
• Step-by-step guide
• Customers rate this book four out of five stars

Check Amazon

2. Best for Book Lovers: Lola Plants a Garden by Anna McQuinn (Author) and Rosalind Beardshaw (Illustrator)

If your children love books and love gardening, then Lola Plants a Garden by Anna McQuinn (Author) and Rosalind Beardshaw (Illustrator) is the perfect choice as it expertly blends the two.

This book is available in audiobook, hardcover, and paperback format and features stunning illustrations. The story follows Lola who is a book lover herself. She gets inspired after reading a collection of garden poems with her mom. Now, she wants to plant her own garden full of beautiful flowers, so she and her mom go off to the library to check out a few books about gardening.

Then, they choose their flowers and buy their seeds. They dig out in the dirt and plant those seeds. Then comes the waiting stage. Lola struggles with patience as she waits for her flowers to grow but she passes the time by creating her own flower book. Before the story is over, she has a garden full of sunflowers and gets a chance to invite all of her friends to come over to enjoy some cake and punch. They all gather around her flourishing garden in the end.

However, this is a story about the garden and not about the gardening process. If that’s what you’re looking for, this book isn’t for you.

Pros and Cons of Lola Plants a Garden by Anna McQuinn (Author) and Rosalind Beardshaw (Illustrator)

Best for Book Lovers

Lola Plants a Garden

• Great educational work
• Sweet story and beautiful illustrations
• Customers rate this book 4.9 out of five stars

Check Amazon

3. Best Self-Love Story: Blossom and Bud by Frank J. Sileo (Author) and Brittany Lakin (Author & Illustrator)

If you’re looking for a story that expresses self-love then we recommend Blossom and Bud by Frank J. Sileo (Author) and Brittany Lakin (Author & Illustrator).

This next story is about Blossom and Bud. As you can imagine, Blossom is a flower and Bud is still a budding flower. The author anthropomorphized them, and the illustrations depict them with cute smiling faces. Both Blossom and Bud live in a flower shop owned by Mr. Baxter. They live among all sorts of different plants of every color, shape, and size. However, Blossom doesn’t like her height. She feels she’s too tall and spends her time trying to hide just how tall she is. Bud doesn’t like his appearance so he tries to force his flower to bloom.

Mr. Baxter, however, thinks they are just perfect as they are. He presents each of them with a special role. The story is all about appreciating and accepting yourself as you are. It doesn’t matter how tall you are, how short you are, or what your shape is. Instead, this book invites children to love themselves unconditionally and to nurture a positive body image. This book also incorporates a special note to parents and caregivers about this important lesson.

Pros and Cons of Blossom and Bud by Frank J. Sileo (Author) and Brittany Lakin (Author & Illustrator)

Best Self-Love Story

Blossom and Bud

• Story about appreciating and accepting yourself as you are
• Cute and warm illustrations to help drive home the message
• Customers rate this book 4.7 out of five stars

Check Amazon

4. Best Seed to Sprout Story: In a Garden by Tim McCanna (Author) and Aimée Sicuro (Illustrator)

For a sweet seed to spout story we suggest In a Garden by Tim McCanna (Author) and Aimée Sicuro (Illustrator).

This next book is available in Kindle and hardcover formats. Acclaimed author Tim McCanna writes the book to celebrate everything related to nature, gardens, and critters. The book is a vibrant picture book you can read out loud with your kiddos. It helps children understand how a garden comes to grow. Your kids get to follow along as seeds start to sprout. They learn how they go from sprouting to budding and then finally to becoming garden blooms. The book also addresses how little critters help a garden and it touches on the roles that millipedes, ladybugs, and worms play each season. McCanna writes in a rhyming style and the illustrator brings the story to life with charming illustrations.

This book includes a bonus on the back pages that shares a couple of pretty interesting facts about the ecosystems and symbiosis between bugs and plants. This book is suitable for children between four years old and eight years old. It takes place in a busy city where there is a shared community garden. This garden gets a lot of attention from the humans that live in the nearby apartment buildings. But the book highlights different plants and insects. Although from an apartment window, the garden looks quite serene, it’s actually buzzing with lots of activity. The book zooms in to teach children everything that goes on in that community garden.

Customers love how cute the illustrations are and appreciate that kiddos can enjoy this short story. The rhyming text engages little ones and it makes a perfect gift for kids, especially around springtime when they can truly appreciate the marvels of garden blooms.

Pros and Cons of In a Garden by Tim McCanna (Author) and Aimée Sicuro (Illustrator)

Best Seed to Sprout Story

In a Garden

• A vibrant picture book
• Plenty of interesting facts
• Customers rate this book 4.8 out of five stars

Check Amazon

5. Best Heartwarming Tale: Trees Make Perfect Pets by Paul Czajak (Author) and Cathy Gendron (Illustrator)

The most heartwarming tale on the list is Trees Make Perfect Pets by Paul Czajak (Author) and Cathy Gendron (Illustrator).

This is the type of book that takes tree hugging to a whole new level. It’s also a wonderful story for kids because it teaches the important lesson of standing up for yourself. In the story, a young girl named Abigail befriends none other than a tree. She has been obsessing over the perfect pet and finally chooses Fido, her tree. She appreciates that he offers shade when the sun is out, he stays wherever she asks him to stay, and he even gives her oxygen to breathe.

However, not everyone she knows thinks that having a tree as a pet is a great idea. This becomes especially true when Fido starts growing. This is an incredibly heartwarming story that incorporates nature, plants, and gardening. It tells the story of an unusual pet and offers kids a really sweet introduction to gardening and environmentalism. Throughout the book, Abigail demonstrates determination, kindness, and courage as she stands up for herself. The book is appropriate for children between four and eight years old and is 32 pages long. Plus, the whole book contains gorgeous illustrations that added to the magic of this story.

Unfortunately, some customers reported that they received a damaged book.

Pros and Cons of Trees Make Perfect Pets by Paul Czajak (Author) and Cathy Gendron (Illustrator)

Best Heartwarming Tale

Trees Make Perfect Pets

• Wonderful story that teaches kids how to stand up for themselves.
• It is appropriate for children between four and eight years old
• Customers rate this book 4.7 out of five stars

Check Amazon

6. Best Kid-to-Kid Guide: Gardening with Emma: Grow and Have Fun by Emma Biggs

For a book for kids and written by a kid we recommend Gardening with Emma: Grow and Have Fun by Emma Biggs.

In this guide, your kiddo is able to connect with another kid named Emma. Emma Biggs is super passionate about gardening, and she wrote this book at 13 years old. She helps kids learn how to grow healthy food and raise the most awesome plants. Biggs does this while making sure that your kids get plenty of fun. She touches on plants that tickle and make noises and also gives your kids tips on how to grow a flower stand garden. Biggs also offers several different suggestions for veggies from the biggest of veggies to even the tiniest ones.

She also blends originality with practicality while she gives your child entertaining advice and offers some inspiration. She’s managed to pack this book with tons of useful information about soil, sowing, and properly caring for a garden throughout different seasons. The book includes bright and colorful photography and Emma’s own words with the help of her dad, who is a fellow gardening enthusiast. Emma is very clearly a creative and authentic kid who shares her love for the outdoors and digging in the dirt with other children in this book. It’s great for kids between eight and 12 years old.

Pros and Cons of Gardening with Emma: Grow and Have Fun by Emma Biggs

Best Kid-to-Kid Guide

Gardening with Emma: Grow and Have Fun

• Book written by a 13 year-old
• Blends originality with practicality, mixing entertaining advice and inspiration
• Customers rate this book 4.7 out of five stars

Check Amazon

Criteria: What to Look For in Children’s Books About Gardening

As you can see from the short yet varied list above, there are tons of children’s books about gardening for the kiddos in your life to enjoy! Before you decide on a book, however, consider the following criteria. This way, you can ensure the book doesn’t sit on a shelf to gather dust!

Reading Level

Although children’s books may appear the same at first glance with cute illustrations and simple text, it’s vital you select a book at the appropriate reading level for your little ones. Sometimes, authors use rhyming text to keep babies and toddlers engaged. The lyrical approach helps with memorization and makes the process of reading out loud to children who can’t read on their own very enjoyable for both of you. Although older kids may enjoy rhyming books, they do well with books that are a bit more challenging. They include new vocabulary words and incorporate more complex concepts like important life lessons or step-by-step instructions for building a garden.

Purpose

If your kiddo is ready to go from a book to out in the dirt, they need a guide! With this type of book, your kids (and you!) can follow along with instructions and begin to transform your backyard space. If your kids enjoy gardens but prefer to keep learning and following along with garden stories instead of going out to explore soil, seeds, plants, flowers, and food, you can certainly keep building their library! Some books about gardening teach children about the patience it takes to see the fruits of what you plant. Other books incorporate garden stories while teaching your children about concepts like self-acceptance and standing up for yourself.