Contain Yourself: 101 Fresh Ideas for Fantastic Container Gardens [Hardcover]

Kerstin P. Ouellet (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2003

Covering an array of the most beautiful ornamental grasses, perennials, and annuals ever put in window boxes, baskets, pots, and urns, this full-colour guide provides basic container gardening designs as well as detailed information and suggestions for plant possibilities. Eighty plants are profiled with photographs and information on height, light requirements, frost hardiness zone, flowering time, habits, and characteristics. Diagrams and detailed instructions for re-creating 90 designs are complemented by information on container characteristics, care clues, and plant personalities. Attention is given to plants recently introduced to the market.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Frustrated container gardeners, rejoice! Ouellet offers not just one, but one-hundred-and-one foolproof recipes for successfully creating stunning container gardens to rival any seen in nurseries or coveted on the neighbor's deck. From clay to concrete, stone to Styrofoam, no matter what sort of container, Ouellet demonstrates eye-catching displays for each medium. Logically delineating the precise procedures needed to assemble colorful designs, Ouellet takes the mystique out of mastering a horticultural art form many otherwise proficient gardeners find daunting. After covering the basic cultural requirements, Ouellet outlines 80 plant species both commonly and infrequently used in container creations. Each profile provides the pertinent factual data plus relevant descriptive information helpful for making informed choices. At the heart of the book are Ouellet's 101 detailed planting diagrams, which readers can reproduce as shown or use as inspiration for their own designs. With simple step-by-step instructions and thoughtful background rationale for design development, Ouellet makes it possible for even first-time container gardeners to create dazzling potted displays. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Brimming with brand new designs that go beyond the ordinary." -- Pacific Coast Nurseryman & Garden Supply Dealer

"Full of creative, original designs." -- Ornamental Outlook

"If you’re a plant nut on the cutting edge . . . you’ll hardly be able to contain yourself." -- Seattle Post June 5, 2003

"Ouellet set about to create an ‘indispensible resource in making your container garden dreams come true’ . . . [she] surely achieves [this]." -- Garden Compass

"Photographs, a useful list of colorful plant choices, and planting plans." -- Sunset Magazine, August 2003

"Plan your best flower pots . . . with this book that contains dozens of container ‘recipes." -- The Patriot News

"This will be great for consumers to follow the exact recipe and be thrilled to create their own . . . container garden." -- Garden Center Merchandising & Management

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: Ball Publishing (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1883052335
• ISBN-13: 978-1883052331
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #506,044 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Resource for the Novice Container Gardener, April 15, 2004

By 

Marsha Wood Wirtel (Philly's Western 'Burbs) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Contain Yourself: 101 Fresh Ideas for Fantastic Container Gardens (Hardcover)

Contain Yourself offers a clever way to teach gardeners to break out of the "marigold/impatien" cycle through creative "recipes" for container gardens featuring more color, height and texture than most novices are able to do on their own.

By presenting the material in this fashion, Ouellet gives the reader the tools to ultimately be able to create his or her own container masterpieces by using portions of multiple recipes. In essence, the reader learns new techniques as the book progresses. Once the basic techniques are learned, gardeners should be able to design beautiful gardens on their own.

The book includes care instructions for containers (which need more frequent watering than traditional gardens) and information on the growing habits of the plants used in the designs. While it's true that there is not a huge variety of containers used (as noted by another reviewer), how many households have endless supplies of different containers? I rather like the lesson taught that any one container may be used in many different ways.

More seasoned gardeners might find the text and instruction somewhat remedial. Even so, it's a beautiful book with excellent content for anyone who wishes to learn more about expanding the horizons of traditional gardening.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy and beautiful!, October 10, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Contain Yourself: 101 Fresh Ideas for Fantastic Container Gardens (Hardcover)

I'm not one of those gardeners who can spout off the botanical names of the plants. I just like things to look good. But I also like to do it myself, so when I found Contain Yourself, I thought "Maybe I can find some ideas for the planters and window boxes around my house." Because admit it, it you're like me, you depend too much on geraniums for the sunny spots and impatients for the shady ones. Kerstin's book shows me what to do with all those cool new plants I've been seeing in the garden shops. My new favorites? Wave petunia, verbena, bidens, helichrysum and chalibrachoa (I'llhave to check my spelling on this one). It looks like a miniature petunia. The authors designs look great all summer long and even now - my neighbors are coming to ME for advice! I tell them to buy the book - I gave one to my sister!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Containing myself was easy, September 10, 2003

By 

Valerie Adolph "Coast Journal" (Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Contain Yourself: 101 Fresh Ideas for Fantastic Container Gardens (Hardcover)

This book has a catchy title. The subtitle "101 fresh ideas for container gardens" is more specific, if rather unrealistic. I'll take the writer's word for it that there are 101 container gardens described in this book, but "fresh ideas" they are not. They feature fairly basic containers filled with the likes of petunias, verbena,and osteospermums, with a grass or phormium to give height and ivy, lotus vine or ajuga as a trailer. The result is the kind of thing you see on sale at Home Depot or one of the other big box retailers.

Each "recipe" for a container design has a colour photo of the mature planting, a planting diagram and notes on the plants, containers and care. These notes are repetitive because of the limited range of containers and plants.

The writer is described as president of a marketing communications firm for the horticulture field. The marketing is more in evidence here than the horticulture.