Creating and Planting Garden Troughs (Hardcover)

by Joyce Fingerut (Author), Rex Murfitt (Author) "England is a nation of gardeners, and by the early 1900's, British gardeners had discovered and made respectable the use of antique stone troughs, mostly..." (more)
Key Phrases: North America, Rex Murfitt, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Moderately priced at $21, this well-illustrated book is an excellent value for anyone, experienced or not, who is interested in trough building." -- Lren Russel, "Rock Garden Quarterly" (the Bulletin of the North American Rock Garden Society), Spring, 1999

About the Author
Joyce Fingerut, President-elect of the North American Rock Garden Society and a well-known lecturer on making hypertufa garden troughs. Many of her award-winning troughs have been seen at the Philadelphia flower show and other horticultural exhibitions.

Rex Murfitt, trained in England at the famous W. E. Th. Ingwersen, Birch Farm Hardy Plant Nursery with Walter Ingwersen VMH and his son Will Ingwersen VMH, building rock gardens and traveling widely. There he learned the romance and lore of alpine plants. He later served as head gardener to Constance Spry. He eventually moved to New York and started Stonecrop Nurseries with Frank and Anne Cabot. He now lives in British Columbia where he writes and lectures on rock gardening, troughs, and alpine plants.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 164 pages
• Publisher: B. B.Mackey Books (May 17, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893443000
• ISBN-13: 978-1893443006
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #232,489 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #37 in

  Books > Home & Garden > Gardening & Horticulture > Techniques > Container Gardening

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical workbook...., January 31, 2001

By	Dianne Foster "Di" (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

CREATING AND PLANTING GARDEN TROUGHS by Joyce Fingerut and Rex Murfitt is a pragmatic and down-to-earth (or hypertufa) work book with 164 jam-packed detailed pages printed on non-gloss heavy paper. The book contains about 10 pages of color photos, so if you're looking for a "look-book" as opposed to a "work-book" don't stop here. TROUGHS won an American Horticultural Society Book Award, and like AHS publications and U.S.D.A. government publications this publication is filled with good, solid information. (Reminds me of the Girl Scout Handbook.)

Fingerut and Martin begin with an overview of the history and background of troughs (originally carved from solid stone and used to hold water for livestock). Even though most of the photos are in black and white, you obtain a clear idea of the beauty various shapes and sizes can add to your garden. The older troughs covered with moss are to die for.

A section on "Hypertufa" explains what it is and why it is useful for making incredibly lightweight and strong facsimiles of real stone troughs. Next, the reader is supplied a shopping list of ingredients, utensils and other supplies (rubber gloves, polystyrene foam, duct tape, etc.) needed for the trough-making project. Exact quantities and amounts are not provided, but ratios are given instead. This lack of exactness might prove frustrating to the new trough maker.

A good part of the book is devoted to the design and installation of plants in troughs. There are many excellent photos and an informative text describing plant choices, plant care, recommendations, etc.). If you aren't inclined to take on the obviously dirty and labor-intensive work of making your own troughs, you can check to see if your local garden supply store or nursery sells ready-made troughs and then use this book as a guide to filling them with plants.

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most Comprehensive Resource in Print!, April 4, 2000

By	Sherba Nelson (Lexington, Kentucky) - See all my reviews

For the novice or experienced trough maker or trough gardener, this book is a MUST HAVE. I could have been spared months of research and many lost hours in trough construction had this book been available when I began making troughs! A very organized presentation of material with breath taking color photographs, detailed resources, extensive plant index, and easy to assimilate instructions. I recommend this to all my "trough students"! A worthy investment!

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too focused on plants instead of troughs, September 3, 2005

By	Bustani "Happy2Be" (ALPHARETTA, GA United States) - See all my reviews

I was disappointed in this book for many reasons. I was looking for a resource on how to create different shapes, depths and sizes of hypertufa troughs. This book focused on fairly shallow, square troughs. Because most of the trough photographs were in black and white, it was difficult for a beginner to visualize how a finished product should look. Too much of the book was focused on the type of plants you can grow in troughs. I feel a trough is just a container with unique characteristics and was hoping for information on the kinds of problems trough gardners face and how to deal with those problems. I gave the book a 3 rating because chapter 2 - 'Constructing A Hypertufa Trough' was well done. Even with the lack of color photographs in this chapter, you will know how to create a small, square trough. If you are looking for creative trough ideas this is not the book.