The Gardening Book I Read in One Sitting — And Now Call My Gardening Bible

The companion-planting book I borrowed from a friend, read in a couple hours, ordered that same night, and now keep beside me when I plan my garden.

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I am not even exaggerating when I tell you I call this book my gardening bible.

And the funny thing is...

I didn’t even buy it first.

My friend Cass let me borrow her copy of Great Garden Companions by Sally Jean Cunningham.

Her copy already had handwritten notes throughout it from things she had learned, wanted to remember, or apparently thought I needed to know too.

And honestly? That made me like it even more.

I started reading Cass’s copy and just kept going.

A couple hours later, I had basically read the entire book.

That was not the plan for my day.

But apparently the book had other ideas.

And before I was even done thinking about everything I wanted to try in my own garden, I had already decided: I need my own copy.

So I ordered one. That same night.

No waiting a week to see if I still wanted it. No putting it in my cart and thinking about it.

Cass let me borrow hers, I practically devoured the whole thing in one sitting, and I ordered my own copy before the day was over.

That is pretty much how this book earned the title of my gardening bible.

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Why This Book Grabbed Me So Fast

I have read gardening information before. I have looked things up online. I have searched what grows well together.

I have absolutely stood in the garden wondering whether I should put something somewhere simply because... well, there’s an empty spot.

Apparently ‘there’s room right there’ is not an official companion-planting strategy.

Who knew?

What I liked about this book is that it made me stop looking at the garden as a bunch of individual plants.

Instead of thinking tomatoes go here, beans go there, cucumbers go over there, and flowers go somewhere else because they’re pretty, it made me start thinking about how the whole garden can work together.

Vegetables. Flowers. Herbs. Good insects. Pest prevention. Where things are planted. What you plant beside them. How you plan from one growing season into another.

That is what really got my attention.

This Is More Than a ‘Plant This Next to That’ Book

Before reading it, I think that was basically what I expected from a companion-planting book.

A giant list. Plant this with that. Don’t plant that with this. Good luck.

But this book goes much deeper than that.

It talks about companion planting and crop rotation, preparing the garden, combining vegetables with flowers and herbs, attracting beneficial insects, thinking about pests before they become a disaster, caring for the garden throughout the season, and working with specific crops.

That is probably why I read it so quickly.

It wasn’t just giving me random information. It was making me think about my garden the whole time.

And once my brain starts planning something... good luck stopping it.

The Companion-Planting Part Is What I Keep Going Back To

This is probably the biggest reason I keep reaching for the book.

When I start planning seeds, I want to know more than: Can I grow this?

I want to know: What should I grow WITH this?

That completely changes how I look at a garden bed.

Instead of planting vegetables in one section and thinking of flowers and herbs as completely separate, I can look at them as parts of the same garden.

And I love that.

I obviously want our garden to grow food. That is the whole point.

But I also love a garden that looks full, colorful and alive.

If I can grow vegetables while mixing in herbs and flowers that have a purpose too? Even better.

This is what garden-planning mode looks like around here — trays, labels, seeds and a plan for what goes where.

It Made Me Think Differently About Bugs Too

I really liked that the book doesn’t treat every bug that enters the garden like it has declared war on us.

Because some insects are exactly what we want around.

The book talks about bringing beneficial insects into the garden and using plants that can help create that kind of environment.

That is something I really like about the whole approach.

You aren’t only thinking about the vegetable you want to eat. You are thinking about the little ecosystem around it.

Flowers suddenly aren’t just there because they’re pretty. Herbs aren’t necessarily separate from the vegetable garden. Different plants can have different jobs.

And meanwhile I get a garden that looks beautiful too. That is a win for me.

It Helps With More Than Just Planting Day

Another reason this became a reference book instead of something I read once and forgot about is that it isn’t only useful when seeds first go into the ground.

It talks about caring for the garden through the season too.

And that matters because gardening definitely does not end after planting. If only.

Planting the thing is the easy part.

Then we get to spend the rest of the season wondering: What is eating that? Why does that leaf look like that? Why is this plant taking over the entire garden? And how did I somehow plant sixteen of something I thought I planted four of?

Gardening keeps you humble.

This book just gives me a better starting point.

I Love Being Able to Look Up Specific Crops

This is another thing I really appreciate.

Sometimes I am not sitting down trying to plan the entire garden. Sometimes I just want an answer about one thing.

Maybe I’m thinking about cucumbers. Or beans. Or something else I’m getting ready to plant.

I want to be able to pull out the book, find the crop I’m thinking about and start figuring out what makes sense around it.

That is much more useful to me than trying to remember every companion-planting combination I have ever heard.

Because that is absolutely not happening.

I have enough information rolling around in my head already.

It Also Talks About Preventing Problems Instead of Only Reacting to Them

This part really makes sense to me.

The book gets into plants that attract beneficial insects, plants that may help discourage unwanted pests, and ways to think about pest problems before half the garden has already disappeared.

I like that way of thinking.

I would much rather plan the garden in a way that gives it a better chance from the beginning than wait until something has eaten everything and THEN start Googling in a panic.

Does that mean nothing will ever eat my garden again? Absolutely not.

Mother Nature did not sign that agreement.

But I like having another tool to help me make smarter decisions before everything is planted.

Then There’s Crop Rotation

This was another part I appreciated because when you garden season after season, you eventually have to think beyond what you are planting right now.

What grew there before? What should go there next? Do I want to keep planting the same type of thing in the same place every season?

The book gets into crop rotation along with companion planting, which makes it useful when I’m thinking beyond one garden bed and looking at what I’m doing from season to season.

That becomes especially useful for me when we are switching gears between the summer garden and the fall garden.

Because once I go into fall garden mode... I am IN fall garden mode.

This Is Exactly Why I Pull It Out When I’m Planning

When I start sorting through seed packets and figuring out what I want to grow, this is the kind of book I want sitting beside me.

I can look at what seeds I have. Figure out what I want to plant. Start deciding where everything should go. Check what makes sense together.

And hopefully avoid my backup gardening method: ‘There’s dirt there. Stick it in.’

We are aiming for improvement around here. Not perfection.

All that planning eventually turns into this — food coming out of the garden.

And Then Hopefully This Happens

There is nothing quite like bringing food back to the house that you grew yourself.

There is something really satisfying about bringing food inside that you grew yourself.

All the seed-starting. Planning. Watering. Weeding. Watching. Wondering what is eating things. Checking the weather fifty times.

And then finally... you are carrying food back to the house.

That part never gets old.

And If the Garden Gives Me Enough, I’m Canning It

If the garden is still giving me something worth saving, I’m going to try to preserve it.

If the garden is still giving me cucumbers, beans, squash or anything else worth saving, I’m going to squeeze every last bit I can out of it.

If that means one more round of canning jars taking over the table? So be it.

Especially as summer starts winding down, I’m looking at what is still producing, what I can preserve and what needs to come out so I can start thinking about the next garden.

And guess what gets pulled back out when I start planning that next round?

Yep. The gardening bible.

I Think This Would Be Great for Someone Learning Companion Planting

One thing I really appreciate is that the book doesn’t make me feel like I need a degree in horticulture before I can understand what it is talking about.

I want gardening information I can actually use.

I don’t want to finish reading something feeling more confused than when I started.

If you are learning about companion planting, want to start mixing flowers and herbs into your vegetable garden, or you constantly find yourself asking ‘What am I supposed to plant next to this?’, this is the kind of reference that can be really handy to have around.

I still learn by actually doing things. I still make mistakes. Plants still die. Things still get eaten. And the garden still has absolutely no problem reminding me that I am not actually in charge.

But having a good reference gives me a much better place to start.

Cass Created a Problem

And by problem... I mean now I own another gardening book.

Cass may have been the one who handed me her copy, complete with all her handwritten notes inside... but she created a monster.

Because I read it. Loved it. Ordered my own copy that same night. And now I keep pulling it back out.

Honestly, I have a feeling my copy is eventually going to look a whole lot like hers.

Notes. Tabs. Things underlined. Probably dirt on it at some point.

Because if I’m calling something my gardening bible, it probably shouldn’t stay looking brand new forever.

Would I Recommend It?

Well...

I borrowed it from my friend.

I read basically the entire thing in a couple hours.

I ordered my own copy that night.

And now I call it my gardening bible.

So... yeah.

I think you can probably guess my answer.

This isn’t a book that I read and put away. It is a book I actually plan to keep using.

And to me, that is the difference between a book that was interesting... and a book that was actually worth buying.

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