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If you have enough space for a greenhouse it can be a beautiful way to gather endless fruits & veggies month after month. Learning to operate your own greenhouse may seem daunting, but it’s surprisingly simple and a lot of fun.

In this post I’ll share the top 10 best books to help you learn greenhouse gardening at home. You can find everything from construction tips to planting guides and tutorials for configuring automated sprinkler systems.

Regardless of your gardening experience I guarantee there’s a book here just for you.

The Greenhouse Gardener’s Manual

Learn about every tool, every plant, every setup and every strategy to get your greenhouse blooming fast. The Greenhouse Gardener’s Manual is a complete guide to the whole process from start to finish.

Early chapters cover the basics of greenhouse gardening and how to pick the right one for your home. Later you’ll dive into the interior of a greenhouse and what that environment needs to feel like for a thriving indoor garden.

Herbs, fruits, veggies, and flowers each have their own chapters with tremendous detail for each one. I can only describe this as the “ultimate greenhouse guide” covering the entire gardening process. You can start with no knowledge and work your way through to competency.

And the later chapters even teach you how to make a profit with your greenhouse by selling to neighbors and locals.

Absolutely a must-read for anyone serious about greenhouse gardening in their backyard.

Greenhouse Gardener’s Companion

The act of setting up & running a greenhouse goes beyond a few hours of watering and harvesting. Your greenhouse can become a lifestyle where you cook and prepare meals with fresh foods every day.

In this book The Greenhouse Gardener’s Companion you’ll learn about all the little details of managing a greenhouse. Potting your own veggies, automated watering, and adding your own leisure space are all topics mentioned in this book.

And it is truly a massive guide with over 540 pages on dozens of must-know topics. Pollination, solar panels, hydroponics, and plant selection are just some of the ideas you’ll dig into. This is a no holds barred book that offers something for beginners and experts alike.

The author Shane Smith has over 20 years of experience managing a greenhouse with a variety of crops. This book is just an extension of that knowledge and it’s a resource you’ll find yourself reading over and over again.

Greenhouse Gardening For Beginners

Some gardeners are into the DIY workflow and Greenhouse Gardening For Beginners caters to that audience.

This book is lengthy enough with 160 pages on building your greenhouse from the ground up. Early chapters talk about the benefits of building your greenhouse vs buying a used one. But regardless of how you get a greenhouse, the actual gardening process is still very similar.

You’ll learn to create your own planting beds, irrigation systems, and how to handle plants with different climates. You’ll learn how to grow absolutely everything from tropical citrus plants to grapevines for wine and anything else you can imagine.

Each chapter is super easy to follow and the book reads in a natural progression. First you’ll learn how to build or buy a greenhouse, then how to setup plants and get your first seeds growing. Later chapters touch on cleaning, maintenance, and extending your greenhouse for extra features.

For such a short book this has pretty much everything a beginner needs to know. And the writing style is easy enough that anyone can follow along.

The Greenhouse and Hoophouse Grower’s Handbook

If you want tons of fruits & veggies in your backyard then you’ll want to read The Greenhouse and Hoophouse Grower’s Handbook.

The author Andrew Mefferd has years of experience working with greenhouses and hoophouses, both of which support a wide variety of plants you can grow year-round. Andrew shares advice for homeowners who want to grow plants that have high market value and can be sold for profit: carrots, cucumbers, eggplants and lettuce are just some examples.

To grow plants at high volume you’ll need to carefully watch your greenhouse stats like internal temp and humidity. That’s why this book is so dense spanning almost 300 pages of tips and advice.

I do not recommend this title for a complete beginner. It can be useful, but most information is best saved for gardeners with some experience working in a greenhouse.

However if you’re dying to try your hand at a hoophouse then this book has you covered.

Ultimate Guide To Greenhouse Gardening for Beginners

Ultimate Guide To Greenhouse Gardening for Beginners is a short & sweet guide to running your own greenhouse. Currently in its 2nd edition and totaling 60 pages this book has up-to-date content without feeling like a bible.

Greenhouses offer the best way for newbies to practice gardening on their own without worrying about outdoor factors and soil composition. This book talks about how to get started and how you don’t need to be an architect to get your own greenhouse installed.

Early chapters talk about the benefits of a greenhouse, the different styles, and a step-by-step guide to constructing your own. Naturally you can also buy one but many gardeners prefer to get their hands dirty and do the work themselves.

With only 60 pages you can’t expect this book to rival other guides in this post.

However it’s also a quick read and much less intimidating for beginners.

Greenhouse Vegetable Gardening

Expert gardening writer and journalist Inger Palmstierna shares her greenhouse gardening tips in this wonderful 200 page resource.

Greenhouse Vegetable Gardening demonstrates Inger’s passion for greenhouse growing and keeping fresh vegetables year-round. If you have the drive to do this yourself then this book will prove to be a huge asset on your journey.

The first few chapters help you acquire a greenhouse and get it setup properly. Planting, soil checking, and irrigation are all covered. Later chapters talk about specific vegetables and how the different seasons can affect their grown, even inside a greenhouse.

At the very end you’ll find a complete how-to guide covering how you can build a greenhouse from scratch. From laying the foundation to building the frame and installing heating properly, this book covers it all with a genuine excitement for greenhouse gardening.

If you’re a do-it-yourself gardener then you’ll really enjoy this book. It’s also great for newbies but it can feel intimidating based on how many DIY projects are littered throughout.

Gardening In Your Greenhouse

Setting up a greenhouse on your own is a big subject. But successfully gardening inside a greenhouse is a whole separate subject, and it’s the primary focus of this book.

Gardening in Your Greenhouse by Mark Freeman is a fairly old book initially publishing in 1998. However it’s a fantastic read and one of the better books on greenhouse gardening written from the gardener’s perspective.

Most information is still relevant and easy to follow. However some chapters covering equipment and watering may be out-of-date considering major advancements in greenhouse technology.

The best info in this book is everything on the actual gardening process. Planting seeds, transplanting, and organizing the interior of your greenhouse are all fascinating topics covered in detail.

I recommend this book to folks who already have some gardening experience and want to move to indoor gardening.

But if the publishing date turns you off then I would just skip it. The contents are great but many people just don’t like older books(and that’s fine!)

Greenhouses: An Introduction to Winter Gardening

Did you know that different plants thrive during the winter? It’s not a topic many gardeners realize because snow blankets western countries during the winter.

But in Claude Grey’s book Greenhouses: An Introduction to Winter Gardening you’ll learn all about the winter months and the plants that grow best during those times. Naturally this is a greenhouse-oriented guide but you don’t need any prior experience before reading the book.

Claude moves slowly into this topic holding your hand along the way. You’ll learn about the different types of greenhouse technologies like solar greenhouses and rooftop greenhouses. Each has their own benefits and drawbacks with different methods needed to make them.

Later chapters cover all the best herbs & veggies to grow during the winter months. Each chapter focuses on one at a time covering best practices for planting, caring for and harvesting the plant.

Awesome book for the money and really the only winter-focused greenhouse book you’ll find.

Greenhouse Gardening

This super short guide to greenhouse gardening is nothing more than a small intro for newbies. But it might be just the intro you need to dive in head-first and get your green thumb a little dirty.

Greenhouse Gardening by Steve Ryan is only 30 pages long so you can’t expect tremendous detail.

It works more like a rundown of the whole process talking about how a greenhouse works, the tools you need to create one, and how to actually get started planting.

Every gardener develops their own routines for maintenance and upkeep. This is something briefly touched upon in this book, however it’s something you’ll really find in greater detail elsewhere.

I only recommend this title for complete newbies who want a very short intro to greenhouses. You won’t walk away as an expert on the topic but this short book can ease your fears and answer some common questions.

The Forest Garden Greenhouse

Permaculture is hot right now and it’s the perfect design style for a home greenhouse. In The Forest Garden Greenhouse author Jerome Osentowski shares his expertise in permaculture design as it applies to greenhouses.

He doesn’t just talk about certain plants or certain construction techniques. Instead Jerome looks into the entire ecosystem to create an indoor forest right inside your greenhouse. This process looks at very diverse plants and almost mimics a typical jungle environment.

Over this 300 page book you’ll find plenty of guides and pictures showcasing exactly what’s possible in a forest garden greenhouse. Jerome is an expert on this topic so his advice is well worth considering.

But I only recommend this title if you’re willing to go the extra mile. It’s certainly not the norm and if you’re completely new to greenhouses this can be a little much.

Still an amazing read and really inspiring to see what’s possible with indoor planting.

If you’re a complete novice with no idea where to start I recommend Greenhouse Gardening For Beginners along with a copy of The Greenhouse Gardener’s Manual. These two books can take you far and they’re excellent for novices with no history of greenhouse work.

Truthfully all the books listed in this post are amazing. But some are written for more experienced gardeners while others cater to newbies or less-experienced gardeners. Take another look over this list and see if any titles catch your eye to help you move ahead on your journey of greenhouse gardening.