Dig In! Picture Books for the Winter Garden

Plant, Sow, Make, & Grow: Mud-tastic Activities for Budding Gardeners by Esther Coombs

If you and your young gardeners like the idea of building a bug house, making a sunflower-head bird feeder, and watching a bean seed grow in your window, you will appreciate this colorful illustrated guide to gardening that features lots of creative, approachable projects. It is full of helpful tips on getting started, making a planting plan, and plotting activities by season. You’ll find ideas for things you can do now to get ahead to be ready for spring planting, such as saving toilet paper rolls to use for seed starters.

Gardening with Children, Brooklyn Botanic Garden Guides for a Greener Planet

Constructing a root-view garden and putting on a garden puppet show are just a few of the ideas in this community-centered book. With an emphasis on the inherent interdependence of plants, animals and people, this guide also includes tips for caregivers, a glossary, and plenty of garden-related indoor and outdoor projects you can take on now.

Carrots Like Peas and Other Fun Facts by Hannah Eliot and illustrated by Aaron Spurgeon

If it’s too cold to be working in your garden, take some time to catch up on related reading. This one is packed with interesting facts that are fun and informative, so that when the weather is warmer, you can head out to your garden armed with helpful information to guide you in your planting. For example, carrots and peas are considered companion plants; they help each other grow, so plan accordingly in your garden design. This book will delight young fact lovers and covers not only fruits and vegetables, but also other favorite foods like pizza, peanut butter, and popsicles.

Carrots Grow Under the Ground by Anne Rooney

Carrots are fun and easy to grow, and this book offers a close look at how carrots grow, from seed to flower. Did you know that carrots grow in a rainbow of colors? Have you ever yanked one out of the ground at harvest time? Have you seen the top of a carrot plant bloom into pretty white flowers? This book will show you all that and inspire you to leave plenty of space for carrots in your garden.

The Curious Garden by Peter Brown

Full of hope and wonder and curiosity, this is a lovely story that observes the transformational power of gardens, with anticipation of plants awakening from under a blanket of snow. I love how Liam, the young curious gardener, prepares for spring. “Rather than waste his winter worrying about the garden,” he reads a book (the same book he is reading on the cover, carrying in a wheelbarrow with other gardening supplies, and holding open while he sings to his plants!). Also be sure to check out this beautiful song by children’s musician Emily Arrow inspired by this book.

Planting the Wild Garden written by Kathryn O. Galbraith and illustrated by Wendy Anderson Halperin

Even though we may not be outside planting seeds this time of year, it doesn’t mean seeds aren’t being planted. This book shows us the amazing ways that wind, water, birds, animals, and plants all play a role in carrying seeds to new spots: a stream carries seeds to new banks, squirrels bury acorns, and seeds catch rides on muddy boots or an animal’s thick coat, all contributing to the planting of the “wild garden.”