Backyard Cutting Garden: Small-Space Blooms to Grow, Harvest, and Arrange in Every Season

by Trisha Snyder

Learn to plan, grow, and cultivate a backyard cut-flower garden that yields bouquet-worthy treasures year-round.

Discover the art of backyard flower gardening with this comprehensive, beginner-friendly guide! Trish Snyder of Flourish Flowers walks readers through every step of creating a vibrant, seasonal garden that provides gorgeous blooms for every occasion.

The book

• advice on garden layout, soil prep, planting, and all the materials and tools needed to start; 
• tips on composting, watering, deadheading, and dealing with pests;
• profiles on over 40 common flowers and plants for small-space gardening, including bloom times, growing and cutting tips, and vase life, covering both annuals and perennials;
• detailed planting, harvesting, and ongoing care schedules; and
• instructions for 20 illustrated step-by-step projects for corsages, sprays, bouquets, wreaths, and more.

This book will inspire avid gardeners, aspiring floral designers, and total beginners to create an inviting (and practical) garden brimming with color and magic.

200 pages, Hardcover

Published January 28, 2026

Reviews

[Mary Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been reading many books on flower farming and cutting gardens recently. They each have something different to offer. This was great for a beginner or intermediate gardener new to growing flowers. I appreciated the basic and simple but beautiful and impactful projects and photos. Nothing intimidating or fancy here. Another reviewer mentioned outdated growing techniques. Every one has different ideas, I think it’s important to read about all and make your own decisions. What might seem outdated or wrong to one person could be helpful to another. Or at least offer another perspective.

[Julia Matesich]

Beautiful pictures with lots of in depth growing experience and arrangement ideas!

[Ronda Canary · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.4

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

A beautiful book with gorgeous photos of flowers. The number of flowers covered are limited. In addition there is little to no discussion of shrubs and greens that can be incorporated in arrangements. Therefore I considered the book to be for beginners. The author does cover a wide variety of arrangements including traditional vases, wreaths, garlands and others. She does not really discuss floral design as in composition, components, and the like. The gardening advice at the beginning is very old school and is shocking for 2026. Please learn about soil science before you follow her outdated advice on rototillers and cardboard. Lastly this book is very empty with lots of white blank space. This design style feels calm, clean and simple but it also results in very little information being included on each page. This is a better book to look at than as a reference you want to own would reuse time and time again.