Container Gardens: Fresh Ideas for Creating Beautiful ... (ISBN 0696211254)

Excellent container garden ideas:
Of all the container garden books I read this spring, this was one of my favorites. The pictures are excellent. The book has "recipes" for containers, plant ideas for different kinds of containers, and also touches a bit on water gardening in containers. Its an all around great book for a beginning container gardener.

Who is the editor??:
My order said the editor was Cathy Barash, the book says Eleanor Lewis wrote it and Kate Carter Frederick was the editor. I should have known better than to expect BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS CONTAINER GARDENS would have much of interest to me, but I try to keep an open mind. Unlike many of the "garden magazines" BG relies not on expert garden writers but on its own staff to produce garden copy. Furthermore, the photos in the articles mostly depict overly zestful compositions that distract rather than soothe, which makes me wonder how photography is handled. In spite of its overall shortcomings (who is in charge? who is writing, i.e. offering advice?), each section of the book has some strengths. In rather detailed chapters, the text discusses, accompanied by photos, the creation of various planting arrangements. For example, in the "Shallow Bowls" section we are shown which plants to add to the arrangement, how to select and fill the bowl with the planting medium, and how to arrange the plants. In this case an aster, a sedum, a mum, a fern, a variegated ivy, and an ornamental cabbage. Interestingly, although the text explains that the project is "easy" and the time involved is "1 hour" and the zones where this arrangement will work are "3-10", it does not explain that this is a fall arrangement that it can withstand some dryness but will succumb if over-watered, that it will have full sun requirements, and that it will probably not be easy to locate the listed plants "in bloom", as the text suggests, in the early summer months. Rather the text says you should "engage in a bit of advanced planning" and note when plants are at their peak (fall plants peak in autumn). In other words, this may not be an "easy" project for a beginner, but might prove easier for someone like myself who has been gardening a while. The next few pages of this section suggest various shallow bowl arrangements for different times of the year (although most shown are for spring), which is useful for someone who has been gardening a while and may not have tried primulas in pots (although I have done pansies, arrangements of sedum, and combinations of tulips). So, the question is who is the target audience? Is it the novice, the intermediate, or the old-timer? I think the novice could use the book, but don't expect it to tell you everything. You might want to buy McGee and Stuckey's BOUNTIFUL CONTAINER as your first book. Buy this one for the photos which aren't all bad.

IDEAS, IDEAS, IDEAS!:
I bought a few different container gardening books through Amazon and this one is my favorite for creative container display ideas. I appreciated that the full color photographs showed different arrangements of containers in yards, on decks, stairs, foyers, and under windows. There were also great tips on creating or modifying 'found' objects into planting containers. The information in the individual plant care section was sparse. However, but there was a key to foliage and fruit colors that is important in making beautiful displays. The strengths of this book are the ideas and photographs. Sometimes a good picture is the only motivation you need to get started!