Reddit mentions of Rodale's Basic Organic Gardening: A Beginner's Guide to Starting a Healthy Garden

I recently purchased a beginners organic gardening book since I just moved in with my fiancée and he has a house with room for raised garden beds. Starting the compost now, and early spring raised beds will be installed! This book is perfect for it too, it has example gardens, what should be planted and when, and a month to month care kind for your garden.

Link: Rodale's Basic Organic Gardening: A Beginner's Guide to Starting a Healthy Garden https://www.amazon.com/dp/1609619838/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_BQb7xbC09F9ZG

I recommend this book; it is not that long but is very thorough and will teach you almost everything you need to know to get started.

https://www.amazon.com/Rodales-Basic-Organic-Gardening-Beginners/dp/1609619838

For cheap fertilizer it depends how much you are growing. Fish fertilizer is relatively cheap because you only mix about 2 tablespoons of it per gallon of water; one bottle could last years if you just have normal medium sized garden. Also big bags of granular fertilizer can be cheap and last a while but it really depends how big your garden it. The best advice i have read, which is actually from that book, is that organic gardening is more about taking care of the soil and “guiding” nature to do its thing as opposed to taking control and forcing your garden to produce by using lots of products. For example, there are flowers you can plant that attract good bugs that eat the bad bugs which effectively gets rid of pests. Good compost with lots of worms and light applications of balanced organic fertilizers, and understanding the practical things like soil aeration and drainage and plant spacing is really all it takes to get going

Most books are either about growing ornamentals or vegetables, not both, so it’s hard to make a recommendation without narrowing down your interests. Indoor gardening is a whole separate category, and I don’t doubt that there are plenty of books devoted solely to succulents, although I’m not personally familiar with them. You could try asking the folks at r/succulents for some suggestions.

Anyway, I wouldn’t say that there is any one “must-read” gardening book. I happen to like New England Getting Started Garden Guide as a basic reference for ornamental gardening. For vegetable gardening, I have an old hand-me-down book from my mother that is almost certainly out of print, but this one looks like a good starting point. You could also check your local library—they probably have some good basic references.