It’s the season for gardening!
Whether you prefer to grow vegetables, flowers, a mix of both, or you’re an indoorsy type who grows plants in pots on your windowsill, the Bartholomew County Public Library has the resources you need to have the know-how to have the best garden — outdoors or indoors — in your neighborhood.
Our selection of books on gardening and plant care in both our print and online book collections is vast, with books for all ages on all types of horticultural information.
A quick search for “gardening” in our catalog brings up 2,598 results. A few of the
highlights of recently published eBooks and downloadable audiobooks include:
“Indoor Gardening,” by Tom Gordon (Hoopla eBook)
“Fearless Gardening,” by Loree Bohl (Hoopla eBook)
“Gardening for Geeks,” by Christy Wilhelmi (Hoopla eBook)
“Gardening Without Work,” by Ruth Stout (Hoopla eBook)
“Mastering the Art of Flower Gardening,” by Matt Mattus (Hoopla eBook)
On our non-digital shelves, some highlights include:
“Soil Science for Gardeners: working with nature to build soil health,” by Robert Pavlis
“The Old Farmer’s Almanac: calculated on a new and improved plan for the year of our Lord 2021,” by Robert Bailey Thomas
“Growing Under Cover: techniques for a more productive, weather-resistant, pest-free vegetable garden,” by Niki Jabbour
“Grow Your Soil!: harness the power of the soil food web to create your best garden ever,” by Diane Miessler
“Attracting Birds and Butterflies: how to plant a backyard habitat to attract winged wildlife,” by Barbara W. Ellis
We have a brand new selection of memory kits available for adults with dementia and their caregivers, and one of them is on the topic of gardening.
The Gardening and Nature Memory Kit is shelved in our large print area, and contains: 1 DVD about flower gardens, lacing activity cards, a wooden butterfly puzzle, a solar dancing flower, two pairs of gardening gloves, and the book “Understanding Alzheimer’s: A first time caregiver’s plan.” There are supplemental materials included that you can keep even after you return the rest of the kit.
In addition to all of our online and print resources, we have a seed library, Cleo’s Seed Share, which enables community members to get free seeds to plant and donate seeds of their own for others to plant. If you are struggling to find just the right seeds for your garden, come to our downtown Columbus location and check out our selection.
Since some of our library staff themselves have green thumbs, library staff, volunteers, and patrons contribute to the library’s garden out on the brick patio near the Children’s department. Raised garden beds full of vegetable plants compliment flowering foliage in our relaxing brick-walled patio.
The soothing sound of birds chirping and the sight of butterflies and bees hovering in the breeze offer a contemplative area to read your newly checked-out gardening books, or simply to relax.
We look forward to helping you out with your gardening and plant care needs. To start, visit mybcpl.org and browse our catalog.
For more in-depth help, chat with one of our librarians. We librarians are like kids in a candy store when someone asks us for help on a question that they need to solve or a topic that they are researching.
For some of us, gardening and plant care is one of our favorite topics. So please come visit us, call us, email us, or message us on Facebook for help turning that brown thumb green, or to further hone that green thumb you already have.
Angela Eck is the assistant director at the Bartholomew County Public Library. She can be reached at [email protected].
