The No-Garden Gardener : Creating Gardens on patios, balconies, terraces, and in other small spaces [Hardcover]

Jane Courtier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 5, 1999

Here's a beautifully illustrated volume making it possible for apartment or condo dwellers, or those with only a small plot of land, a deck, pathway, or even a rooftop to create a garden in a small space. A creative and practical sourcebook of innovative ideas and simple techniques for transforming a limited space into a gardening oasis.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

No matter how small your gardening space, you can enjoy the pleasures of growing plants outdoors with The No-Garden Gardener. Discover how easy it is to turn cramped areas and window ledges into delightful gardens alive with color and fragrance.

* Everything you need to know about gardening in small spaces: window boxes, rooftops, balconies, and patios * Practical tips for making a small space look and feel bigger * Step-by-step projects to help you make the most of your space * Directory of 150 plants specially selected to enhance small spaces * Full illustrated throughout with color photographs and illustrations

About the Author

Jane Courtier is an enthusiastic gardener and garden writer, whose work appears regularly in gardening magazines. She has written many gardening books including Indoor Plants from Reader's Digest. Ruth Rogers Clausen is the American consultant for this book. She is the Horticulture Editor for Country Living Gardener magazine and is the co-author of Perennials for American Gardens which was awarded the Quill & Trowel Award for Excellence by the Garden Writers Association of America.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Readers Digest (April 5, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076210127X
• ISBN-13: 978-0762101276
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #930,401 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Black thumbs be gone!, April 24, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The No-Garden Gardener : Creating Gardens on patios, balconies, terraces, and in other small spaces (Hardcover)

This is probably not a book for more experienced gardeners... but luckily I'm not. The writing on the design aspect of the non-garden seems common sense (and it is), but the book is a real treasure for the beginning gardener and those of us who just have two left thumbs. This is because it includes basic guides on such diverse topics as: plant biology, planting (from rock gardens to hanging plants), caring for the plant, propagation and pest control. Guides to planting and plant maintenance include diagrams and step-by-step instruction for easy use. The book's best feature though is its lovely photography; the photos are intended to inspire the reader with ideas about the design of their no-garden garden.

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Container gardeners beware., March 1, 2003

By 

I. Gross Georg "imgeorg" (Edmond, Oklahoma USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The No-Garden Gardener : Creating Gardens on patios, balconies, terraces, and in other small spaces (Hardcover)

Several things turned me off about the book. First, it's seems very British for some reason. Second, it goes in to pages and pages and pages of assessing your situation, whether you are a blind gardener, "the importance of design", then gets into water gardens and water features, and raised beds. Suffice it to say that it didn't seem very geared toward the apartment owner with a 7x10 foot balcony!

It's not there isn't useful information in this book, but it's about plants in general, though. This is not totally geared toward the container gardener. I guess that's said in the subtitle: Creating gardens on patios, balconies, terraces, AND IN OTHER SMALL SPACES. About 85 pages into the book, about types of hanging baskets, window boxes and other containers. Then it gets into container design where you choose compatible plant partnerships. But even here there's a little trouble, because the illustrations show plants that are NOT IN CONTAINERS but in a garden setting. From there you get into soils, how to propagate the plants, how to control pests (suggests picking off caterpillars will do...ewwww!),

I needed more from this book. I needed a book on containers and tha plants that grow well in them. One that talked about a wide variety of plants, especially those that grow well in my zone. I could care less about the parts of a plant and stuff I had in biology. In the very back, where it talks about "lack of space makes this plant list no more than a suggestion." Well, if they hadn't filled it with [stuff] what was off-topic, there may well have been room to discuss more plants. The main problem with this book, in my opinion, is that it lacks focus.

Bottom line, I guess it depends on what you need out of this book. This book works well as a general plant care reference book, but if you need a book specifically on the special needs of plants in containers, I'd try another book. One that was more helpful to me, and one which I consider my own personal bible as far as container plants goes, is called Container Plants for Patios, Balconies, and Window Boxes by Halina Heitz, published by Barron's. I have plumbagos, and while there's no mention of them in the No-Garden Gardener, you'll find useful references to them there.