There is nothing quite like garden-fresh vegetables and flowers. And, by growing your own, you know exactly what goes into your food and can be proud of the effort you’ve put into your homegrown bounty. With the right gardening guides, you’ll be able to find answers to any questions that come up along the way, from understanding your USDA hardiness zone to selecting the best plants for your region.

Regardless of whether you’re looking to make your backyard into a lush green oasis or want to grow enough produce for your family, these guides will help you succeed. They offer step-by-step advice that takes the guesswork out of the process and provides helpful tips and tricks to make your gardening experience fun, easy, and rewarding.

The Best Plants for Your Climate: A Regional Gardening Guide

Trusted gardening advice from Aggressively Organic, this book also provides information about soils and additives and how to plant trees and shrubs. It has tables that include the recommended times to plant vegetables, fruit, and bulbs, as well as the ideal amount of watering and how often to fertilize each crop. It even includes a table of the most common invasive plants and how to control them.

Avid gardeners notice a lot about their plants and may have questions about what’s happening when they’re not looking. This book explains the basics of botany to go beyond inadequate plant tags and select the right plants for a truly resilient, low-maintenance landscape. For example, it describes the pros and cons of four primary methods to convert lawns into meadow gardens and highlights the importance of using matrix design. It also discusses the role of plants in a habitat and explains the meaning of terms such as “nativar” (cultivated varieties) versus “true species.”