The Joy of Planting: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creative Container Gardening

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

This step-by-step guide to creative container gardening includes a few
full-page color photographs, and is attractively decorated throughout
with numerous diagrams and sketches. Text and diagrams alike are in
brown ink—earth color, of course. Spiral binding makes The Joy of
Planting stay open when laid flat.

The introduction consists of clear, encouraging, no-nonsense text:
“If you can scramble an egg, you can fill a container; if you can pour
yourself a glass of water, you can water your plants; if you can add
salt and pepper to taste, you can handle fertilizer; and if you can
transfer a piece of cake from the pan to a plate, you can transplant a
plant.” The Joy of Planting will serve as your recipe book.

The color index, an unusual addition to gardening books, lists plants
by color to facilitate planning for balconies, patios, and wherever a
concentrated and dramatic floral show is desired.

Arlette Laird has produced a practical yet imaginative handbook. Her
informal, anecdotal text covers technicalities while maintaining the
tone of a chat with a knowledgeable neighbor over the garden fence.