Bibliography for Container Gardening

Gardening for Roof Terraces and Balconies, Osborne, Michele, ©2007 Aquamarine Press, Part coffee-table picture book, part real gardening book – this is a marvelous idea book, worth looking at although most of the plant material will not do nearly a prettily in Los Angeles as it does in the book unless you pay a LOT of extra attention to your garden. The book Gardens in the Sky; Roof Terraces and Balconies ©2004 is the same book, a fact I wish I’d known before I bought both.

Potted Gardens, Cole, Rebecca ©1997 Clarkson Potter Press, A creative and whimsical romp through the possibilities of container gardening. A delightful book, full of ideas that I found inspirational and useful in every way. It is witty, charming and a lovely read - a super combination with actual information you can really use. She hails from New York and there are ideas that will melt in Southern California, but the inspiration is infectious.

Roof Gardens, Balconies, and Terraces, Stevens, David, ©1997 Rizzoli International Publishing, A decent enough guide, but assumes your budget is hefty – many of the gardens here were not built with pennies!

Sunset Container Gardening, Sunset Publishing ©1998, A lovely little book that isn’t very expensive and has a lot of tips on using color with pots – like painting the terra cotta pots. Some fun ideas!

Sunset Western Garden Book, Sunset Publishing, ©2007, I know, it’s practically an annual anymore, but still, I like the newest edition because of all the additional plants – face it, if you are gardening in Los Angeles and environs, this is THE book and there is even nothing else close so this is the book to have. I don’t get a kick back.

The City Gardener’s Handbook, The Definitive Guide to Small-Space Gardening Yang, Linda (originally published as “The City Gardeners Handbook” then as “The City and Town Gardener; A Handbook for Planting Small Spaces and Containers,” now back to the original title with enhancements – like an aging movie star?) © 2002 Storey Books, This was the text for my Small Gardens course. It was written primarily from a New York point of view, so a fair bit of “translation” is in order, but the ideas and creativity are among the best around. And the photos of gardens in the winter gives one pause. Big pots – big ideas.

The Complete Container Garden, Joyce, David, ©2003 Readers Digest Association, A well-written book and lots of ideas – good background information on what and why, just not written for Southern California. And despite the title, it is not “complete.”