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American
Horticultural Society
The American Gardener
March/April 2006 Recommended
Garden Books
Because the AHS Horticultural Book
Service was discontinued as of June 30, 2000 no further phone or mail orders
are filled. However, AHS members are still be able to order books at a
discount by linking to Amazon.com through the Society's Web site. Through this
partnership with Amazon.com, AHS members can receive better discounts on most
titles, faster delivery, greater inventory, and improved access to
hard-to-find books. The books listed here have not been critically evaluated;
they have been chosen for description based on unusual subject matter or
substantive content.
The following books are our current
recommended garden books from the March/April 2006 issue of
The American Gardener. To read the review just click on the
book title. You can then order the book directly from Amazon.com by clicking
on "Buy this book!" that follows each review.
BOOK REVIEWS
Recommendations for Your Gardening Library
GARDENER’S BOOKS
Gardening with Edible Plants
BOOK REVIEWS
Recommendations for Your Gardening Library
 Outside
the Not So Big House: Creating the Landscape of Home
Julie Moir Messervy and Sarah Susanka. Taunton Press, Newtown,
Connecticut, 2006. 216 pages. Publisher’s price, hardcover: $34.95.
Buy This Book
In this new book by award-winning landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy
and best-selling author-architect Sarah Susanka, the visionary duo shows
homeowners and professionals how to break down design barriers between a
home and its surroundings. They call this unified design concept “the
landscape of home.” Susanka, famous for her “Not So Big” book series,
blends her views with Messervy’s compelling ideas for extending a home
beyond four walls and into the landscape.
Illustrated by 20 diverse residential projects, Outside
the Not So Big House is organized into four themes: Site (embracing the
habitat of home), Flow (composing journeys), Frames (linking the inside
with the out), and Details (crafting the elements of nature). Within
each category, Messervy and Susanka describe how “Not So Big” concepts
such as “variations on a theme,” “spatial layering,” and “shelter around
activity” are echoed inside and outside to create a well-integrated
design.
In a home and garden in California’s Berkeley Hills, the
idea of adjacent places for shelter and activities is well illustrated.
In the garden, a teak bench on its own small terrace is backed up
against the upward-facing slope of plantings, allowing the owner to
enjoy views beyond. Indoors, a corner of the dining room is “sheltered”
by window mullions, suggesting the protection of a screened porch.
“Outside Up-Close” sidebars explain practical ideas for
planting and hardscape design. Featured side-by-side in each chapter,
“Outside Parallels” and “Inside Parallels” show how interior and
exterior design choices can mirror each other. The photography enhances
these lessons, as in Messervy’s Asian-style landscape for a renovated
ranch house near Boston. She designed circular “windows” for an outdoor
teahouse, providing as much satisfaction for the owner as the home’s
“framed openings” (open doorways) that highlight views toward a circular
Zen-like gravel area in the front yard.
The takeaway from this well-written and
practically-illustrated book resonates with anyone who “lives” in their
garden: “When inside and outside are designed as one, the results can
inspire you on a daily basis, feeding your spirit, and allowing you to
truly delight in the natural world without having to go outside to do
so.”
Debra Prinzing
Debra Prinzing is the “NW Style” columnist for the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer and author of The Abundant Garden (Cool Springs
Press, 2005).
 Begonias:
Cultivation, Identification, and Natural History
Mark C. Tebbitt. Timber Press (published in association with Brooklyn
Botanic Garden), Portland, Oregon, 2005. 272 pages. Publisher’s price,
hardcover: $34.95.
Buy This Book
In an age when gardening books brim with ankle-deep information,
Begonias is a whole-body experience. If you like begonias, this book has
the power to make you fall in love with them. And if you are already a
begonia lover, who knows where it could lead!
Like Liberty Hyde Bailey, Tebbitt is a botanist with a
keen appreciation for horticulture. At the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG),
Tebbitt manages a research program on the systematics of cultivated
ornamental plants, with a special emphasis on Begonia. (In the interest
of full disclosure, I served as director of special projects at BBG from
1985 to 1992.)
Tebbitt’s monograph is the first on the subject since
Alphonse de Candolle’s published in 1864, and it couldn’t come at a
better time. Begonias are enjoying a renaissance as both house and
garden plants. Some of the notable and popular begonias this book
describes are:
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B. grandis, a hardy species native to China. Tebbitt, who
notes that it “survives winter temperatures down to 19ºF (-7ºC)” at BBG,
may be surprised to hear that B. grandis has been thriving in my Iowa
garden for nine years, where winter routinely brings us deep-freeze
temperatures that make his low seem balmy.
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B. prismatocarpa, a yellow-flowered miniature first
collected on the West African island of Bioko by Gustav Mann in 1861.
Since then it has proved to be one of the best flowering plants ever
introduced for growing in a terrarium.
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Fancy-leaf rex begonias and the angel wings that grow on
canelike stems are increasingly appreciated for the beauty they bring to
shade gardens.
Bessie Raymond Buxton, whose popular book Begonias and How To Grow Them
was published by the Macmillan Company in 1946, wrote that if more
people grew begonias, the world would be a better place. Amen!
Elvin McDonald
Elvin McDonald is the deputy garden editor for Better Homes and Gardens.
He also serves on the editorial advisory board of
The American Gardener.
 The
New Garden Paradise: Great Private Gardens of the World
Dominique Browning and the editors of House & Garden. W.W. Norton &
Company, New York, New York, 2005. 464 pages. Publisher’s price,
hardcover: $65.
Buy This Book
If you’re looking for a tome to stimulate your garden-dreaming glands,
check out The New Garden Paradise. Yes, it’s another weighty
coffee-table book filled with images of breathtaking gardens.
Nonetheless, since the gardens profiled were chosen for their design
sensibilities, which are often translatable at any scale, there’s much
to be gleaned here beyond seeing what you might be able to do if money
were no object.
The book’s structure offers an introductory lesson in
contemporary approaches to garden design. Chapters are organized to
illustrate “new” ways of interpreting classicism, traditionalism,
naturalism, cottage gardens, and modernism, as well as gardens inspired
by personal visions or a passion for plant collecting. The overall
message is that there are limitless possibilities for expression in
garden making— with examples that range from lush and flamboyant to
minimalist and serene. It showcases the work of some of today’s most
inspiring garden designers, including Piet Oudolf, Topher Delaney,
Patrick Chassé, Yoji Sasaki, and Isabelle Greene.
Resist the temptation to skip over the text and lose
yourself in these displays of horticultural eye-candy. Storytelling, if
only subliminally, can be just as essential to great gardens as is the
creation of unforgettable visual imagery. Dominique Browning, a master
storyteller (as revealed in two captivating collections of essays and
the introductory musings to each issue of House & Garden) obviously made
sure the book also focused on the stories and ideas that infuse these
evocative gardens.
The tale of Andrew Cao stands out. While the images of
his California garden might peg him as an innovator using new materials,
the text reveals how his passion to recreate the remembered beauty of
his native Vietnam led him on a personal journey that seems mythic in
its scope and moving in its results.
Despite the profusion of beauty depicted in these pages,
I found myself wanting more—to enter and meander around these spaces, to
immerse myself in their sensory magic. It also made me want to get
outside and tinker in my own private paradise.
Virginia Small
Virginia Small is a freelance writer, editor, photographer, and speaker.
She gardens in Woodbury, Connecticut.
Mini Review
While gardeners wait impatiently for spring to begin in
earnest, it’s easy to forget that summer vacation season is just around
the corner. Those planning to visit the Golden State or just dreaming of
a trip there will want to have a look at the latest in the Insiders’
Guide Gardenwalks series.
 Gardenwalks
in California, by Alice Joyce,
Buy This Book
features a diverse yet concise selection of destinations
for the horticultural tourist. Like recently-published Gardenwalks
guides to the mid-Atlantic and New England, this book offers useful,
up-to-date information on public parks and attractions, botanic gardens,
and arboreta. But Joyce, who lives in California, seizes the opportunity
to show readers all the huge and eclectic state has to offer, from
winery gardens to specialty nurseries to the San Diego Wild Animal Park.
She also includes a chapter on accommodations of particular interest to
gardeners, and a helpful list of resources, including websites,
periodicals, shops, and regular events.
All of this information is arranged in a user-friendly manner that makes
Gardenwalks in California the perfect traveling companion for those who
want to sample California’s horticultural riches.
Linda McIntyre, Editorial Intern
GARDENER'S BOOKS
Gardening with Edible Plants
Anyone who has raised and eaten homegrown produce knows the flavor,
freshness, and fun it can provide. Edible plants are also a great way to
involve children in gardening. One of my earliest horticultural
experiences was helping my grandfather with his vegetable patch when I
was a child. It seemed magical that he could grow food right in his
backyard, and nothing tasted as delicious as those plump peas, crunchy
carrots, and tangy ground cherries that I helped to harvest.
 Historically,
growing one’s own food was a necessity, as Steve Solomon points out in
Gardening When it Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (New Society
Publishers, 2006, $19.95).
Buy This Book
Predicting lean years ahead due to rising costs and
dwindling resources, Solomon makes the case for raising food with
time-tested techniques that require minimum input to get maximum output.
To help gardeners achieve this, he covers topics such as essential tools
and how to use them, composting, water strategies, and pests and
diseases. Charts and sidebars supplement the text, and line drawings
illustrate salient concepts. There’s also a chapter on “what to grow and
how to grow it” that describes various vegetables and their cultural
requirements.
In addition to providing food, a
well-designed vegetable garden also can look beautiful. Taking
inspiration from classic European kitchen gardens, Designing the
New Kitchen Garden: An American Potager Handbook by
 Jennifer
Bartley (Timber Press, 2006, $34.95)
Buy This Book
explains how to achieve an edible garden with
multi-seasonal appeal. It explores historical kitchen gardens and some
contemporary examples, and describes nine principles such as “enclose
the garden,” “design for the counterpoint,” and “consider winter use”
that are important guidelines for creating a potager. The book includes
several designs by Bartley, accompanied by color sketches, as well as
ideas for plant combinations for various design purposes.
Containers can work well for growing
edibles, especially for those with limited space or time. In
Incredible Vegetables from Self-Watering Containers (Storey
Publishing, 2006, $19.95)
Buy This Book,
author Edward Smith writes, “Containers
 need
little weeding and no cultivating. Container plants are often less
likely than earth garden plants to be bothered by pests or diseases.”
The flip side is that containers need to be watered more often than
earth gardens—hence the importance of the self-watering element. In the
book, Smith divulges his methods for getting the most out of a
containerized vegetable garden, including his “secret” potting soil mix,
design ideas, and harvesting tips, all accompanied by color photographs
of his garden. A final section describes the vegetables, herbs, and
edible flowers that do well in containers and includes details such as
container size, recommended cultivars, and potential pests.
 For
a comprehensive reference book on edible plants, there’s Vegetables,
Herbs & Fruit: An Illustrated Encyclopedia by Matthew Biggs, Jekka
McVicar, and Bob Flowerdew (Firefly Books, 2006, $29.95).
Buy This Book
It contains information on hundreds of edible plants
accompanied by more than 1,800 color photographs and illustrations.
Entries include the origins and history of each plant, descriptions of
recommended varieties, cultivation information, and companion plant
suggestions as well as culinary, medicinal, and cosmetic uses. A yearly
calendar of garden tips and tasks is organized by season, and a section
devoted to general gardening practices such as crop rotation and site
preparation complete the volume.
 If
you’d like to deviate from growing the usual suspects, 75 Exciting
Vegetables for Your Garden by Jack Staub (Gibbs Smith, 2005, $24.95)
Buy This Book
will provide plenty of alternatives. From Amaranth
‘Joseph’s Coat’ to Zebra Hybrid Eggplant, this book introduces 75
“really superb vegetables in current culture that are as exciting for
their physical beauty as they are for their taste.” Staub’s lively
writing style makes this not only a useful book, but also an
entertaining read. Along with beautiful, old-fashioned watercolor
illustrations by Ellen Buchert, you’ll find enticing physical
descriptions, practical growing tips, and fascinating tidbits about the
geographic origins and historical uses of the plants. Staub even
provides imaginative suggestions for how to enjoy their unique flavors.
Viveka Neveln, Assistant Editor
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