This book would be a great resource for someone wanting to fill a small space with color and/or garden plants. While there are options for containers that would be suitable for an apartment balcony, most of the plans included are more suited to someone with a small yard. Advice is given for the entire process, from what to look for to planting and care of your new compact plants. Several design plans are given to fit a variety of spaces. Information is given about specific plants, both ornamental and edibles, to aid the reader in designing their own space using compact plants.

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group - Cool Springs Press and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I think I got compact plant and container gardens mixed up. This is still more space than most people in cities will have. The very small garden is still six feet by six feet. However, if you are working with a small yard or have a landscapable balcony/roof, this is a well laid out book with lots of pictures. It goes though the basics, several ideal gardens, and then over some common concerns, such as borders and slope. It ends with a list of different plants, including fruit, vegetables and herbs. I do not know the subject well enough to fact check in and the author is from Pittsburg so it seems to give preference to this area of plants and may be less useful for those needing more heat and drought resistant options.

This is a really helpful guide for people with not a lot of space in their outdoor garden. I don't have a yard, so some of it didn't really help me, but some of the plants are easily applied to balcony gardening, since they are so small. I liked that it explained the way to look for compact plants by a list of different helpful hints, and even explained the latin names and how to read them for beginners without a clue of what a jumble of latin means. It lists a bunch of plants by name, which can be helpful if you see them around, but not so much if you are looking for a specific name and your nursery doesn't carry it. The advice given on how to pick out compact plants will probably help solve this problem though. The writing is accessible to beginners and tackles problems that people with outside gardens may face, like no pollinators in the garden. Again, not so helpful to me, but I definitely tucked some of the solutions away for if my parents have garden issues in their yard.