Top Container Gardening Books

When it comes to books about container gardening, there are many from which to choose. To write this article, I consulted my personal bookshelf, my local library and online bookseller sites, such as Amazon.com , Barnes and Nobles, and Powells.com. From among dozens of candidates of container gardening books, I have narrowed the list down to five solid choices.

To decide which container gardening books to purchase, think about why you are interested in container gardening.

1. If you want to beautify your home and landscape, consider P. Allen Smith's Container Gardens: 60 Container Recipes to Accent Your Garden by P. Allen Smith (2005, Clarkson N Potter Publishers). This container gardening book is about landscape design using pretty flowers in pretty pots. Mr. Smith is a celebrity gardener. He appears regularly on television and has written many books on gardening and design. This book presents container garden projects using a recipe approach. He lists "ingredients" and step by step instructions to achieve the desired look. Mr. Allen also has a website, pallensmith.com, where one can attain additional help and information.

2. Easy Container Gardens by Pamela Crawford (2008, Color Garden Publishing) is another book of beautiful photos by a celebrity gardener author. It takes a "you can do it" approach to creating eye-popping container gardens without making classic beginner mistakes. It also uses a recipe analogy to create "foolproof," low maintenance plantings, including a list of plants that do best in containers and winning combinations for container gardens.

3. When I think about container gardening, I'm thinking food. Farming in a Flowerpot by Alice Skelsey, (1975, Workman Publishing Co, NY) is an oldie, but definitely a goodie. Originally titled, Cucumbers in a Flowerpot, this little book was my introduction to container gardening back in the 1970's. As the title implies, this is a container gardening book about growing food in small places. With renewed interest in urban farming and food security, this topic is timely again. It is well-organized and stated simply so that even the brownest thumb can have some modicum of success. Unfortunately, I think it may be out of print. I saw a copy on E-bay recently, but it is not listed on Amazon, or any of the usual online book outlets. If you happen to see a copy at a flea market or yard sale, be sure to grab it.

4. For a more recent, and even more comprehensive volume on container gardens that are good enough to eat, try McGee & Stuckey's Bountiful Container: Create Container Gardens of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Edible Flowers by Rose Marie Nichols McGee and Maggie Stucky (2002, Workman Publishing Co, NY). Written by

two veteran authors on gardening, this book has copious advice on growing food in containers. It includes techniques for succession gardening in containers to extend the growing season. It even has food recipes for what to do with the harvest. It is available through many outlets. On amazon.com, it had 54 reviews with an average 4.5 out of 5 stars. Very impressive.

5. Finally, for a practical, overall container gardening book, definitely consider Container Gardening for Dummies by Bill Marken, edited by National Gardening Association (1998, For Dummies publishers, Foster City, CA). What? A For Dummies book on container gardening? You would be surprised how thorough and comprehensive this book about container gardening is. As with other books from this publisher, there are no pretty photos, but the illustrations are clear, and the instructions are precise and complete. There are sections about planting in different climates, what to do when things go wrong, and how to maintain the containers and plants throughout the seasons.

Those are my top 5 picks for container gardening books. Happy gardening.