It’s nearing the end of April and just about everyone is itching to get into their gardens. Here are some garden-related fiction stories to keep you engaged while you wait to plant those items you’ve been dreaming about adding to your garden.
The victory garden (Feb 2019)
By: Bowen, Rhys
Marrying an Australian pilot during World War I, Emily volunteers to tend the neglected grounds of a Devonshire estate where she finds inspiration and support in an herbalist’s long-forgotten journals.
Pruning the dead (Jan 2019)
By: Henry, Julia
Post-retirement aches and pains can’t prevent sixty-five-year-old Lilly Jayne from keeping the most manicured garden in Goosebush, Massachusetts. With hundreds flocking to her inaugural garden party, meticulous Lilly Jayne hasn’t left a single petal out of place. But the picture-perfect gathering turns unruly upon the arrival of Merilee Frank, Lily’s ex-husband’s catty third wife. Merilee lives for trouble, so no one is surprised after she drinks too much, shoves a guest into the koi pond, and gets escorted off the property. The real surprise comes days later—when Merilee is found dead in a pile of mulch . . .
Series: Garden Squad, 1
The honey farm (May 2018)
By: Lye, Harriet Alida
The drought has discontented the bees. Soil dries into sand; honeycomb stiffens into wax. But Cynthia knows how to breathe life back into her farm: offer it as an artists’ colony with free room, board, and life experience in exchange for free labour. Silvia, a wide-eyed graduate and would-be poet, and Ibrahim, a painter distracted by constant inspiration, are drawn to Cynthia’s offer, and soon, to each other. But something lies beneath the surface.
Lawn boy (Apr 2018)
By: Evison, Jonathan
Faced by a life of menial prospects in the years after high school, Mike Munoz, a young Mexican-American, attempts over and over to change his life for the better and achieve the American dream, only to be stymied by social-class distinctions and cultural discrimination.
Digging in (Apr 2018)
By: Nyhan, Loretta
Paige, two years a widow, is barely holding on for the sake of her teenage son. To make matters worse she has an awful new boss. Alarming the neighbors, she digs up her entire yard out of grief. Can a vegetable garden help restore order to her life?
The Darling Dahlias and the unlucky clover (Mar 2018)
By: Albert, Susan Wittig
After disappointments surrounding a Dixie barbershop competition and the local telephone system breakdown throw the community in turmoil, sheriff Norris makes a perspective-changing discovery while confronting a notorious bootlegger.
Series: Darling Dahlias mysteries, 7
Winning Violet (Mar 2018)
By: Lower, Becky
After British soldiers killed his wife and child during the War of 1812, Parker Sinclair vowed to never set foot on English soil. But as Thomas Jefferson’s landscaper, one must sometimes make the ultimate sacrifice. The last thing Parker expects to find is an educated English beauty who can teach him so much more than how to plant a magnificent garden. An expert at cross-pollinating roses, Violet Wilson’s dreams of becoming the first woman recognized by the Royal Horticultural Society are fading because she’s afraid to leave the quiet solitude of her family’s nursery. Distrustful of men after a traumatic encounter, she’s not keen on disrupting her routine to help the American landscaper, but she soon blossoms under his kindness and respect.
Yews with caution (May 2017)
By: Collins, Kate, 1951-
“It’s April in New Chapel, and Abby and her husband, Marco, are off to buy shrubs for their new house. But the owner of the local landscaping company is nowhere to be found. Abby’s best friend, Nikki, meanwhile, believes she unwittingly helped a group of her hospital coworkers conspire to kill the man.”–Provided by the publisher.
Series: Flower shop mysteries, 19
The garden of small beginnings (May 2017)
By: Waxman, Abbi
Rendered a single mom after her husband’s fatal car accident, textbook illustrator Lillian recruits her young daughters and supportive sister to help her do research for a boutique vegetable guide at the Los Angeles Botanical Garden, where a patient instructor and quirky gardeners help her grieve and find healing.
The forbidden garden (Apr 2017)
By: Herrick, Ellen
An American nursery owner with a rare gift with plants jumps at the chance to help revive a run-down, Shakespearean garden on a country estate in England and becomes intrigued the with house’s haunting history and the owner’s brother-in-law.
Series: Sparrow sisters, 2
Secret hearts (Mar 2017)
By: Radclyffe, 1950-
Kip Kensington owes four hundred hours of community service for a joyride gone wrong. Jordan Rice has no time for younger women with trouble written all over them no matter how sexy they might be, even if she is in desperate need of more hands–and more funds–to keep her community garden project alive. Kip’s past follows her into Jordan’s carefully constructed, and safe, world, disrupting Jordan’s orderly life and threatening to uncover all the secrets she’d locked away.
Backyard (Nov 2014)
By: Draper, Norman
When a local supplier announces its sponsorship of a garden contest, determined couple George and Nan Fremont resolve to turn their backyard into a suburban paradise to win first prize against the formidable forces of their community’s gardening elite.
Series: George and Nan Fremont novels, 1