The German Garden Book Prize was awarded for the 19th time at Dennenlohe Castle in Franconia: on March 8, 2024, a jury of experts chose the best books about garden art and landscape culture and garden photographs.
Every year, the German Garden Book Prize and the European Garden Photo Award honor authors who “present their green knowledge in a special way and point out that plants, animals, people, garden culture and landscape form an indivisible unity”. The literary works of art that won in the various categories are listed below.
German Garden Book Prize 2024: The winners
Best illustrated book
The book “Zu den Wiesen: About natural and species-rich gardening” by Susann Probst and Yannic Schon (known from the blog “Krautkopf”) took first place in the “Best Illustrated Book” category. The two authors dared to experiment with providing themselves with fresh fruit and vegetables.
Best guide
This year the German Garden Book Prize for the best guide went to Sonja Schwingesbauer. Her work “Naturally beautiful and wildly adored: planning, implementing and maintaining insect-friendly flowerbeds” is about native biodiversity in your own garden.
Best travel guide
This book is all about gardens worth seeing, both private and public. These can be reached by bike as part of six different day tours. “Boundless Garden Cycling: Out and About in the Münsterland and the Achterhoek” was awarded first place as the best travel guide.
Best perennial book
The richly illustrated title “Ferns: Diversity and History of One of the Oldest Plant Groups” by Anton Sundin was named best perennial book. The 216 pages are all about a medicinal and useful plant that has existed on this earth for around 400 million years.
Best Garden Cookbook
The Spiegel bestselling author Susanne Hansch was awarded first place for her book “The Great Wild Herb Cooking School: Plant Knowledge, Kitchen Practice and 180 Wild Recipe Ideas”. It presents 60 free, healthy and tasty wild plants: from flowers to roots.
Best gardening book for children
A children’s non-fiction book (ages 8 and up) with 15 groups of plants and tips for growing them yourself was rewarded with first place: “In the Garden: The Wonderful World of Plants” by Rizaniño Reyes and Sara Boccaccini Meadows is all about plants – from their characteristics their history to their benefits.
Best book about animals in the garden
The best book about animals in the garden was also awarded the German Garden Book Prize 2024: “600 cool crawlers: What’s crawling behind the house? Our tiny neighbors tell us about their lives – a guide to crawling animals” by Armin Rose (insect expert and environmental expert).
Best garden history book
The biography “Gardener of the Nation: The Four Lives of Karl Foerster” written by Clemens Alexander Wimmer about the most famous German perennial breeder won first place as the best book on garden history. Previously unknown sources were evaluated for the first time.
Best garden or plant portrait
Whether as a street tree, hedge plant or ornamental tree: the hazelnut is a popular plant. It’s hardly surprising why the book “The Hazelnut: Species, Botany, History, Culture.” , in which all cultivated species and hybrids are presented, was awarded as the best plant portrait.
Best book on garden poetry or prose
In her book “Happiness lives in the garden: From Elizabeth von Arnim to Margery Fish”, Editha Weber reports once again about English gardens and tells the stories of five self-confident garden artists (Elizabeth von Arnim, Theresa Earle, Ellen Willmott, Norah Lindsay and Margery fish).
My beautiful garden beginner’s guide
A jury from the magazine “My Beautiful Garden” from Burda Verlag chose the best beginner’s guide: “Hot for Vegetables” by the passionate hobby gardener Jörg Heiß (known from the MDR television series of the same name) and Martin Krumbein. It’s all about the dream of having your own vegetable garden.
Best Gardening E-Book
“Green in No Time – Simply Garden with Raphy from gruenesparadies: Growing and Harvesting Herbs, Fruit and Vegetables” by Raphael Samylin was named the best garden e-book this year. The step-by-step instructions are equally suitable for the windowsill, the balcony or the garden.
European Garden Book Award
The book “Virginia Woolf’s Garden: The Story of the Green Oasis in Monk’s House” was voted first place with the European Garden Book Award at the German Garden Book Prize 2024. It’s all about the fairytale garden of Virginia and Leonard Woolf.
Best Garden Creator
Katrin Iskam is a book author and home garden owner. She runs her own Instagram page (@katrinsgarten), which was awarded first place in the “Best Garden Creator” category in 2024.
Stihl special price
This year, “The Hazelnut” won twice. In addition to first place in the “Best Garden or Plant Portrait” category, the book was also awarded the Stihl Special Prize.
Tip: You can find further book recommendations from the editorial team on our topic page.
Review: These were the 2023 award winners
Best guide
The book “Self-Sufficiency: Growing Your Own Vegetables, Cuddling with Chickens, Biting into Homemade Bread.” from Marie Diederich (Wurzlwerk) was voted first place by the jury as “Best Guide”. In it, the well-known blogger clearly shows how you can provide for yourself with vegetable patches, goats and preserving jars.
Best beginners guides
Time is rare, as the author of “No time to garden – a flower paradise with little effort: With bed plans, professional tips and plant portraits for perennials, grasses and annuals” knows this: The beginner’s guide from Sonja Di Leo was rewarded with first place because he gives valuable tips on how to run a versatile garden despite a lack of time.
Best garden or plant portrait
The title “Arable plants and crops” (Quelle & Meyer) also made it onto the winner’s podium as the best garden or plant portrait: In it, Margot Spohn and Roland Spohn illustrate how the transitions between plant cultures, weeds and garden plants can be achieved smoothly. Informative texts and helpful illustrations go hand in hand in this reading Hand.
Best garden history book
“Lost Gardens: Gardens that have disappeared and been found again” by the garden historian and journalist Antje Peters-Reimann was also presented with the German Garden Book Prize 2023 in the “Best Book on Garden History” category: The reading with historical gardens from 2,500 years – from antiquity to the 20th century – secured first place.
Best Garden Cookbook
As best garden cookbook “Peppermint pesto and lilac couscous: delicious food from meadows, forests and gardens. 90 sophisticated recipes and 30 plant portraits” was awarded: Judith Gmür-Stalder, Kathrin Fritz and Maurice K. Grünig managed once again to create a total work of art. What’s particularly nice is that all recipes should be easy to cook.
Best book about animals in the garden
Cynthia Nagel’s reading about “The World in My Garden: Understanding the Fascinating Garden Ecosystem” also took first place as best Book about animals in the garden. In it, the complex ecological connections between flora and fauna in the garden are examined and illustrated in more detail on 408 pages.
Best gardening book for children
As in the previous year, the German Garden Book Prize was awarded in 2023 for the best garden book for children: “The Big Book of the Apple Tree” by Holger Haag (author) and Lars Baus (illustrator) for little readers aged five and over. The 56 pages are all about the long life of an apple tree – and the animals that live around or on it.
Best book on garden poetry or prose
The crime novel “Gardens, poison and dead men” by the Germanist and poisonous plant expert Claudia Blasl impressed the jury so much that her book took another first place: The story revolves around two retired amateur gardeners who are on the hunt for mole crickets, a murderer and the man for life.
Best Gardening E-Book
As best gardening e-book “The Cherries in the Murderer’s Garden: An Allotment Garden Crime” by Inka Stein was honored. What is it about? In the middle of the typical allotment garden idyll in the well-known allotment garden association “Am Pappelwäldchen”, a likeable heroine goes on a murder hunt after the body of a young woman is found on the nearby bank of the Rhine.
European Garden Book Award
With the European Garden Book Award This year’s award went to the book “Orchids: An Illustrated Plant Science with Works from the Natural History Museum in London” by the author and botanist Sandra Knapp. It’s all about Germany’s most popular windowsill plant, with impressive illustrations from the Natural History Museum in London.
Best garden illustrated book
Despite the English title “Gardens of Now” Rainer Elstermann’s illustrated book is all about German private gardens. The photographs clearly left an impression on the jury, so it is hardly surprising why this edition ended up in first place and was awarded the German Garden Book Prize 2023.
Stihl special price
The “Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants – Volume 2: New Plants, Fungi, Bacteria. Application. Cultural History. Botany, Dosage, Cultivation and Effects” by Christian Rätsch and Markus Berger was awarded this year Stihl special price excellent. Over 500 new plants, fungi, lichens and bacteria are presented in more than 140 monographs.
Source: German Garden Book Prize
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