Book on Container Gardening
Question from Julie:
Hi Pat, you were the featured speaker at my Master Gardener graduation in May 2010. On display was a book about container gardening, I would like to know the name of the book and were you the author?
Answer from Pat:
I have not written a book on container gardening, but there are many good ones on the market and the best are chock-ful of easy-to-follow photos. I don’t know which book was displayed at the Master Gardener graduation in Orange County when I was the speaker, but below are a few of container-garden books I’ve heard about. Google these and maybe by looking at the cover photo on the Internet you’ll recognize the book for which you’re searching.
I remember seeing P. Allen Smith’s book recently so that might have been it, but Pamela Crawford’s book is highly recommended too.
Pamela Crawford’s Container Gardening, Volumes 1 and 2.
Fine Gardening: Container Gardening, 250 Design Ideas and Step-by-Step Techniques.
All-New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space! by Mel Bartholomew
P. Allen Smith’s Container Gardens
If you look at any of these on Amazon.com’s site you are sure to recognize the book you need. Many are available used and at a discount.
Thanks for the information on container gardening. Now I need to ask the
correct question. Let’s change my question to raised bed gardening. Do you have a
recommendation?
Instead of telling you what book I recommend, I am going back to your original question, which was “what was the book on raised bed gardening at the Orange County Master Gardener graduation at which I was the speaker.” Isn’t that what you wanted to ask me? (A book on raised beds, not on containers?) Here is my full answer:
First, there are many books on raised-bed gardening. Some have many photos and some have very few. Not knowing what would suit you best, I suggest you go to a book store and compare them
BUT, that said, I believe the specific book to which you are referring was Mel Bartholomew’s “Square Foot Gardening.” Someone said that book was on display on the table next to me that day last spring and they asked me if it was any good. (Perhaps it was you who asked this question?) Someone else mentioned Mel’s “All New Square-Foot Gardening.” I told the person who asked the question that I knew Mel and that years ago he’d thought up the square-foot gardening gimmick but it really worked. Yes, some folks garden this way and swear by it, but Mel is fanatic about the idea. He’s convinced it’s the easiest way to keep all your soil producing, all growing at once, and always rotating your crops. it’s a non-stop garden method.
Mel’s system is definitely one way to go. Not sure if this was the book you had in mind, but that book was definitely there on that day. So I guess you asked the right person and we finally arrived at the right question too!
It’s too funny, I just pulled out that book “Square Foot Gardening” Gotta get ready for planting season, even though its winter, gotta read up!
Yes, it’s funny, but also kinda wonderful to be reading up early and dreaming about what you are going to do in your garden when warm weather rolls around. If you have my organic book, read the veggie section for March also, just to be thinking ahead. When I was a kid living on our family farm in Pennsylvania, my brother and I used to pore over the seed catalogues in the dead of winter with snow on the ground outside. We dreamed of the gardens we would plant in spring and what we would put in them and how gorgeous they would be in summer. Our dreams were always far better than reality, but just thinking like that made us into life-long gardeners. It’s a hopeful and upbeat way to live.