Garden Anywhere
By Alys Fowler
Chronicle Books, $24.95, 192 pages
This book was a pleasant surprise. Written in a personal-narrative style, it isn’t overly talky, and it gets right down to the meat and bones of small-space gardening. The audience is wide, encompassing anyone who’s ever lived in an apartment, duplex or home on a small lot. Despite the occasional use of ‘cool’ and the frank, Bohemian flavor, the pages contain actual knowledge of plant life along with real suggestions for real gardens which real people can grow.
The book places repeated emphasis on lighting, suitable plant types per climate, which I found particularly helpful. There was just enough ‘Plant Design 101′ talk then the book dove into cultivation, planting, mulching and pruning. I found useful many things from the various pages, particularly the compost box model, growing a salad in one’s window-box, home-made eco-friendly herbicides and pesticides as well as scads of information on edible gardening, and my favorite section: growing your own herbal tea.
One can indeed garden anywhere. I don’t foresee this book on my shelf; it will instead be out back on the garden bench, speckled with dirt and creased with use.
Reviewed by Meredith Greene
Sounds like something I could use…like to have a “little” but not a lot of things growing…Good Review!
See, now this just makes me feel pressure to get my garden going. Last year I planted a lovely garden full of delightful plants that subsequently shriveled up and provided us about $3 worth of food for our $40 investment. What? I’m the target audience for this book? Aww geeze, now I’m going to have to actually get serious about gardening. Luckily I have a horse, he’s always good for some fertilizer…
With retirement around the corner, small space gardening is a hot topic with me. It sounds like this book is geared to folks not new to gardening, just new to small space gardening. Perfect for me. Thanks for adding it to the reviews.
Barbara Collins