Another favorite is Henry Mitchell. Again not a novelist but just sort of rambles about his own garden and others, talking about plants, the history of plants and gardens, the strange obsessons we gardeners can develop...and he's witty and thought-provoking and I reread his books almost every winter. :)

I don't read much contemporary fiction but even in the books written much earlier, I don't know of any centered around gardening. Jane Austen for instance or John Galsworthy mentioned plants and grdens but only briefly. Nero Wolfe, the mystery writer, mentioned his orchids and rooftop greenhouse often but it wasn't central to his stories. I think I have seen mention of a current mystery writer with a series based on something to do with gardens, but the books were panned as mysteries. :)

Maybe someone else can be more helpful...josh

Deadly Nightshade
Devil's Trumpet
Bleeding Heart
Garden View

I also really enjoyed Beverly Nichols, mentioned above.

Author Main Character

Susan Wittig Albert China Bayles
Alisa craig Dittany and Osbert Monk
Joan Hadley Theo Bloomer
Charlotte McCloud Peter and Helen Shandy
Margaret Miles C. Willet and R. Longfellow
Ann Ripley Louise Eldridge
Lora Roberts Liz Sullivan
Rebecca Rothenberg Clare Sharples
Nancy Means Wright Ruth Willmarth
James Fraser William Aveyard

Hope this gives you some good reading.
Kay

P.S. Sorry, I can't seem to get this post to work in columns.

I googled on book lists gardening fiction and variations of that phrasing and came up with lots of lists. Here's just one and below it a list of links to other lists:

Blooming Books: Gardens, Gardeners & Gardening

Susan Wittig Albert Hangman's Root
Rosemary Remembered
Witches Bane
Nancy Atherton Aunt Dimity and the Duke
Marion Babson Guilty Party
Giorgio Bassant Garden of the Finzi-Continis
Valerie Townsend Bayer City of Childhood
Metaphysics of Sex
Forbidden Objects
Lawrence Block Topless Tulip Caper
Elizabeth Buchan Consider the Lily
Dorothy Cannell Down the Garden Path
Karel Capek Tales from Two Pockets
Agatha Christie Murder at the Vicarage
Nemesis
Wilkie Collins Moonstone
K.C. Constantine The Man Who Liked Slow Tomatoes
Alisa Craig Grub-and-Stakers House a Haunt
Grub-and-Stakers Move a Mountain
Grub-and-Stakers Quilt a Bee
Philip R. Craig Beautiful Place to Die
Double-Minded Men
Women Who Walked Into the Sea
Marjorie Dorner Freeze Frame
John Keith Drummond Thy Sting, Oh Death
'Tis the Season to be Dying
Rosemary Enright The Walled Garden
E.X. Ferrars Crime and the Crystal
Murder Too Many
Other Devil's Name
Smoke Without Fire
Something Wicked
Richard Forrest Death Under the Lilacs
Anthea Fraser Six Proud Walkers
Frances Fyfield Question of Guilt
Leon Garfield Pleasure Garden
Jon Godden In Her Garden
Rumor Godden Episode of Sparrows
Eileen Goudge Garden of Lies
Caroline Graham Killings at Badger's Drift
Murder at Maddingly Grange
Ann Granger Say it With Poison
Joan Hadley Deadly Ackee
Alice Hoffman Practical Magic
Muriel Resnik Jackson Garden Club
Emma Lathen Green Grow the Dollars
Elizabeth Lemarchand Change for the Worse
Ngaio Marsh Grave Mistake
Mary McMullen Grave Without Flowers
Barbara Michaels Vanish With the Rose
Gladys Mitchell Death Cap Dancers
B. J. Morison Champagne and a Gardener
Ellis Peters A Morbid Taste for Bones
Brother Cadfael Series
Rosamunde Pilcher The Shell Seekers
Ruth Rendell The Crocodile Bird
Talking to Strange Men
Ann Ripley Mulch
Elliot Roosevelt Murder in the Rose Garden
Rebecca Rothenberg Bulrush Murders: A Botanical Mystery
Dandelion Murders
Betty Rowlands Little Gentle Sleuthing
Helen Santmyer Herbs and Apples
Dorothy Sayers Busman's Honeymoon
John Sherwood Flowers of Evil
Bones Gather No Moss
Green Trigger Fingers
A Botanist at Bay
Carol Shields The Stone Diaries
Celestine Sibley Ah, Sweet Mystery
Straight as an Arrow
Sheila Simonson Larkspur
J.I.M. Stewart Andrew and Tobias
Faith Sullivan Cape Ann
Rosanne Dary Thomas The Angel Carver
William Trevor Silence in the Garden
Jessamyn West Friendly Persuasion
Phyllis Whitney Hunter's Green

More links:

http://www.jocolibrary.org/index.asp?DisplayPageID=1306
http://www.wrl.org/bookweb/booklists/garden.html
http://www.webrary.org/rs/flbklists/garden.html

I have one personal favorite - "Night Gardening" by E.L. Swann- it is a beautiful love story.

Hope you enjoy.

Barbara Kingsolver, _Prodigal Summer_.
THis novel has 2 or 3 interrelated stories, one of which is about a young woman, recently married and then widowed, who struggles to learn farming.

I was surfing around Garden Web and saw Vicky's 'very old' post about gardening fiction novels. I am publishing a novel that will hopefully be available in November 2008 that has many gardening aspects to it. I volunteer as a master gardener in my community and gardening inevitably finds its way into my stories.

My book is called My Way Home and is the story of Cammy, a woman who finds herself at the age of 48 having to make a new life for herself, and it is on St. Gabriel Island that she begins to see what that new life could be. For over twenty years, Cammy had dreamt of someday visiting the Island. Charming old buildings line its main street, grand homes, cottages, gardens, and woods cover the rest. And the best part, no cars, just horses, bikes, and snowmobiles in the winter.

It is on St. Gabriel that Cammy meets Sara a thirty something free-spirit and a cast of locals that befriend and challenge her. And when she finds an old abandoned lodge she must decide if she will risk everything to embark on a cross country move to live on the island and restore a lodge, gardens, and orchards.

My Way Home is a story of forgiveness and love that is filled with heartbreak, humor, and a little bit of mystery.

I am an idependently published author and will be relying on creative avenues to get the word out about my book. If anyone would like me to let them know when my book is available for purchase, please e-mail me and I’ll add you to my list.

Thanks and Happy Gardening and Reading,
Cynthia lee Cartier

Martha