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Garden Anywhere: How to grow gorgeous container gardens, herb gardens, kitchen gardens, and more, without spending a fortune
Have a small patch of soil? Or just a window box? Not a problem. Garden Anywhere shows how anyone can create an oasis in the smallest of spaces. We're not talking just a simple pot of marigolds, here. Garden Anywhere outlines everything an aspiring gardener needs to know to sow a bounteous, thriving garden. Alys Fowler, trained at the New York Botanical Garden, guides readers through the process from the ground up—from planning the garden to composting, pruning, harvesting, and propagating. Stylish photos illustrate the how-tos while Alys shares tips on creating gorgeous container gardens, herb gardens, kitchen gardens and more, without spending a fortune.
192 pages, Paperback
First published March 25, 2009
8 people are currently reading
629 people want to read
About the author
Alys Fowler
19 books93 followersAlys Fowler trained at the Horticultural Society, the New York Botanical Garden and the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew. After finishing her training, she worked as a journalist for the trade magazine, Horticulture Week, and then joined the Gardeners' World team as a horticultural researcher.
Alys is a gardener who loves food. She has an allotment and an urban back garden with two chickens, lots of flowers and plenty of vegetables. Her inspiration for urban gardening comes from her time volunteering in a community garden on the Lower East side in Manhattan, New York City. Much of the ethic, thrift and spirit she encountered there is found in her work today. She is author of several books and writes a weekly column on gardening for the Guardian.
Alys is a gardener who loves food. She has an allotment and an urban back garden with two chickens, lots of flowers and plenty of vegetables. Her inspiration for urban gardening comes from her time volunteering in a community garden on the Lower East side in Manhattan, New York City. Much of the ethic, thrift and spirit she encountered there is found in her work today. She is author of several books and writes a weekly column on gardening for the Guardian.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
May 3, 2011
I do not prefer this book. It is supposed to be about small space gardening on a budget, which is great and important to me, so I thought I would like it. But I did not.
I thought this book could benefit from better organization and more information about indoor growing (small space gardeners gotta use every inch). Fresh Food from Small Spaces: The Square-Inch Gardener's Guide to Year-Round Growing, Fermenting, and Sprouting is a much better resource for someone interested in small space food production. Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces is another excellent small space garden book that I would recommend instead of this book.
Much of the advice for saving money is "find the stuff you need in a dumpster" which is really good advice if you're inclined to dumpster dive, but there doesn't need to be a book about that. Another way you can save money is by buying "seconds" plants at the nursery. The problem with this is that a beginning gardener doesn't have the experience to diagnose & save an ailing plant. If you're an experienced gardener, take home all the discounted charity cases and mysterious ailments.
I found plenty of the book to be either misleading or plain wrong. They pay authors to write books, right? So the information should be researched and accurate, right? Are my standards too high? I don't think you should tell people to put dumpstered copper wire around their plants unless you can prove that it actually protects plants from slugs. Gardeners beware: copper should be buried into the ground so slugs cant burrow under it or affixed to a container (again, so they can't burrow under it). It should be about wider than the slugs are long. And the barrier stops working when the copper oxidizes or if the copper gets dirty(aka when it rains). So, no, I don't think copper is an effective slug deterrent. Also? Let's be serious. It's uncommon to find copper tubing in dumpsters. Usually it's recycled or re-sold. And if you buy copper instead of dumpstering it, it's expensive, like cost-prohibitively expensive.
I felt certain that some of the photos in the book were staged/fake to imply a more impressive harvest than could be reasonably expected from some of these methods. It seems disingenuous to imply that a beginning gardener can achieve such results in a small space with free/cheap strategies. The beginners who try this going to suffer a blow to their confidence if they use these methods, and many of them will resign themselves to having a "black thumb" and give up on gardening.
The chapter on plant propagation was good. It has plant lists and specific advice for several species. I think it also had some good advice on making your own rooting hormone solution from fresh willow cuttings/bark. I appreciate propagation information, but I didn't expect that to be the best "take home" message I would get from this book. Thanks to my public library for having this book so I didn't buy it!!
I thought this book could benefit from better organization and more information about indoor growing (small space gardeners gotta use every inch). Fresh Food from Small Spaces: The Square-Inch Gardener's Guide to Year-Round Growing, Fermenting, and Sprouting is a much better resource for someone interested in small space food production. Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces is another excellent small space garden book that I would recommend instead of this book.
Much of the advice for saving money is "find the stuff you need in a dumpster" which is really good advice if you're inclined to dumpster dive, but there doesn't need to be a book about that. Another way you can save money is by buying "seconds" plants at the nursery. The problem with this is that a beginning gardener doesn't have the experience to diagnose & save an ailing plant. If you're an experienced gardener, take home all the discounted charity cases and mysterious ailments.
I found plenty of the book to be either misleading or plain wrong. They pay authors to write books, right? So the information should be researched and accurate, right? Are my standards too high? I don't think you should tell people to put dumpstered copper wire around their plants unless you can prove that it actually protects plants from slugs. Gardeners beware: copper should be buried into the ground so slugs cant burrow under it or affixed to a container (again, so they can't burrow under it). It should be about wider than the slugs are long. And the barrier stops working when the copper oxidizes or if the copper gets dirty(aka when it rains). So, no, I don't think copper is an effective slug deterrent. Also? Let's be serious. It's uncommon to find copper tubing in dumpsters. Usually it's recycled or re-sold. And if you buy copper instead of dumpstering it, it's expensive, like cost-prohibitively expensive.
I felt certain that some of the photos in the book were staged/fake to imply a more impressive harvest than could be reasonably expected from some of these methods. It seems disingenuous to imply that a beginning gardener can achieve such results in a small space with free/cheap strategies. The beginners who try this going to suffer a blow to their confidence if they use these methods, and many of them will resign themselves to having a "black thumb" and give up on gardening.
The chapter on plant propagation was good. It has plant lists and specific advice for several species. I think it also had some good advice on making your own rooting hormone solution from fresh willow cuttings/bark. I appreciate propagation information, but I didn't expect that to be the best "take home" message I would get from this book. Thanks to my public library for having this book so I didn't buy it!!
October 6, 2009
Alys Fowler is British. Her book, The Thrifty Gardener, has been a hit in England. Garden Anywhere, the re-titled North American version, deserves the same success in Canada and the U.S. as it has across the pond.
Fowler started gardening as a teenager. Now roughly 30, she goes against the grain of British gardening—or so it seems. Her sartorial look—given to shades, plimsolls without socks, and a print shift that a First Nations artist might have designed—is somewhat neo-hippie. A shot or two of her dumpster diving for salvage to fashion into, say, a cold frame—a handiwork at which she demonstrates her grace and mastery of the power drill—captures her method and manner. This is very distant from Better Homes and Gardens.
As unorthodox as Fowler might seem, she’s no Sunday putterer. Trained at the Royal Horticultural Society, The New York Botanical Gardens, and the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, she’s earned her gardening rep. Currently, she’s head gardener for the BBC’s TV programme Gardener’s World. That’s a cornucopia of gardening bona fides.
Garden Anywhere therefore contains ace gardening knowledge, such as “Knowing your light conditions is half the battle,” and “The single key to a stylish garden is love—it’s that simple.” Other information and advice abound, from dealing with pests (organically!) to hand and power tools to building a worm box to surviving the garden centre (“never spend money where it’s not needed”) to pruning and composting. One of my favourite tips, because of its sheer joie de vivre, is to “avoid dull municipal planting” and instead “plant bedding annuals in great masses and allow them to run riot”. Her advice on sowing drifts of bulbs shares the same spirit.
However unconventional she may seem on first glance, this spirit places Fowler in the tradition of British horticulture, with its roots in early-modern Romantic thought, and in American practice of the period, which strongly influenced British gardeners. The result is tend the garden, sure, but let it grow thither and yon, too, as its vegetal imagination shapes it. This view is contrary to the controlled French outlook, monumentalized at Versailles, wherein reason and order are the objects of verdant desire. I confess to a general Francophilia (movies, paintings, street demonstrations). Yet when it comes to gardens, the British way, which encourages the surprising and unpredictable, is, IMO, the superior path.
Fowler’s persona, prose style, and content are all a serious delight. Plus the book is au courant in its contribution to the slow food movement. This makes Garden Anywhere of great use and pleasure and puts its author right up there with such British heroines as Jane Austen and Vanessa Redgrave. In addition, the book is creatively designed by Carl Hodson. Its pages are variously intermingled pastel colours: olive green, pink, lavender, blue—just like a garden. The illustrations by Aaron Blecher are friendly. The many photographs by Simon Wheeler serve to illustrate the text while often being artistic, notably a helicopter shot of Fowler hard at work and nearly lost in her garden.
Is there a shortfall to this book? If you live in dry conditions and need to xeriscape, that genre isn’t covered. Fowler’s British, after all, and has gardened there and in New York. Other than this desert lacuna, Garden Anywhere is as chockablock as anyone could expect. If you need one gardening reference, or if you have many, this excellent book belongs on your shelf—or rather, in your soil-encrusted hands while you ponder whether to plant bush beans or pole beans in that wedge of dirt over in the corner near the forget-me-nots beside the wild rose behind the chard.
Review by Neil Flowers
Fowler started gardening as a teenager. Now roughly 30, she goes against the grain of British gardening—or so it seems. Her sartorial look—given to shades, plimsolls without socks, and a print shift that a First Nations artist might have designed—is somewhat neo-hippie. A shot or two of her dumpster diving for salvage to fashion into, say, a cold frame—a handiwork at which she demonstrates her grace and mastery of the power drill—captures her method and manner. This is very distant from Better Homes and Gardens.
As unorthodox as Fowler might seem, she’s no Sunday putterer. Trained at the Royal Horticultural Society, The New York Botanical Gardens, and the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, she’s earned her gardening rep. Currently, she’s head gardener for the BBC’s TV programme Gardener’s World. That’s a cornucopia of gardening bona fides.
Garden Anywhere therefore contains ace gardening knowledge, such as “Knowing your light conditions is half the battle,” and “The single key to a stylish garden is love—it’s that simple.” Other information and advice abound, from dealing with pests (organically!) to hand and power tools to building a worm box to surviving the garden centre (“never spend money where it’s not needed”) to pruning and composting. One of my favourite tips, because of its sheer joie de vivre, is to “avoid dull municipal planting” and instead “plant bedding annuals in great masses and allow them to run riot”. Her advice on sowing drifts of bulbs shares the same spirit.
However unconventional she may seem on first glance, this spirit places Fowler in the tradition of British horticulture, with its roots in early-modern Romantic thought, and in American practice of the period, which strongly influenced British gardeners. The result is tend the garden, sure, but let it grow thither and yon, too, as its vegetal imagination shapes it. This view is contrary to the controlled French outlook, monumentalized at Versailles, wherein reason and order are the objects of verdant desire. I confess to a general Francophilia (movies, paintings, street demonstrations). Yet when it comes to gardens, the British way, which encourages the surprising and unpredictable, is, IMO, the superior path.
Fowler’s persona, prose style, and content are all a serious delight. Plus the book is au courant in its contribution to the slow food movement. This makes Garden Anywhere of great use and pleasure and puts its author right up there with such British heroines as Jane Austen and Vanessa Redgrave. In addition, the book is creatively designed by Carl Hodson. Its pages are variously intermingled pastel colours: olive green, pink, lavender, blue—just like a garden. The illustrations by Aaron Blecher are friendly. The many photographs by Simon Wheeler serve to illustrate the text while often being artistic, notably a helicopter shot of Fowler hard at work and nearly lost in her garden.
Is there a shortfall to this book? If you live in dry conditions and need to xeriscape, that genre isn’t covered. Fowler’s British, after all, and has gardened there and in New York. Other than this desert lacuna, Garden Anywhere is as chockablock as anyone could expect. If you need one gardening reference, or if you have many, this excellent book belongs on your shelf—or rather, in your soil-encrusted hands while you ponder whether to plant bush beans or pole beans in that wedge of dirt over in the corner near the forget-me-nots beside the wild rose behind the chard.
Review by Neil Flowers
May 4, 2009
Can you give half stars? I rate this 3.5
This book has great pictures-- Fowler looks like a kind of kitschy-cool youngish person who unexpectedly gardens in fun looking clothes-- it is a great book for inspiration but it is by no means any sort of encyclopedic guide to container gardening (not that I guess it expressly claims to be) (I didn't buy it-- sorry Tattered Cover-- I sat cross legged on your floor and read portions-- it is very skim-able-- and concluded it wasn't worth the $24.95 + tax you were asking--)
Conclusion-- if the library gets it check it out and enjoy-- if they don't you're not missing enough to fork over the cash. Buy McGee & Stuckey's Bountiful Container.
;)
This book has great pictures-- Fowler looks like a kind of kitschy-cool youngish person who unexpectedly gardens in fun looking clothes-- it is a great book for inspiration but it is by no means any sort of encyclopedic guide to container gardening (not that I guess it expressly claims to be) (I didn't buy it-- sorry Tattered Cover-- I sat cross legged on your floor and read portions-- it is very skim-able-- and concluded it wasn't worth the $24.95 + tax you were asking--)
Conclusion-- if the library gets it check it out and enjoy-- if they don't you're not missing enough to fork over the cash. Buy McGee & Stuckey's Bountiful Container.
;)
October 9, 2009
Beautiful pictures, interesting ideas, but I was still a little disappointed with this book. I was expecting a lot more tips on how to garden within small means like an apartment, but only a few pages were dedicated to growing things indoors.
December 17, 2017
Another fabulous book by Alys Fowler. I absolutely love her writing; you can just tell she has a passion for gardening and she's not snobbish about it, and she makes it more understandable to the person who does not have some kind of qualification in horticulture. This book has now inspired me to go dumpster-diving and be much more creative with garden structures (garden boxes, compost bins, etc.) and it has given me some encouragement in operating power tools and (trying) to make things that I thought were beyond my abilities.
Will definitely want to get again to look at various design ideas as well as to read the section on pruning/trimming trees and shrubs. That was the best basic explanation I've come across for pruning. Also, the propagation section and explanations were very helpful.
Definitely a book worth incurring a four-day-fine at the library (because they wouldn't let me renew it and I hadn't finished it!).
Will definitely want to get again to look at various design ideas as well as to read the section on pruning/trimming trees and shrubs. That was the best basic explanation I've come across for pruning. Also, the propagation section and explanations were very helpful.
Definitely a book worth incurring a four-day-fine at the library (because they wouldn't let me renew it and I hadn't finished it!).
February 10, 2017
This book has a great section on propagating. Other than that it is a little to spread thin to be useful enough for me.
September 9, 2018
A decent book. Alys Fowler in her element. Not quite as good as The Edible Garden, but entertaining and informative none-the-less. Lots of good ideas.
November 30, 2022
Inspiring
January 4, 2024
This one was kinda disappointing. No real new info
June 16, 2024
More information than I need, but an amazing ideas. ( Don't think k I'll be making a worm bin.)
April 26, 2016
My apartment is possibly one of the most inhospitable of environments for raising plants at all--north-facing; vegetation-loving cats; a small, recessed back stairwell shared with three other apartments. But this book made me feel like I could at least start somewhere. Fowler provides a terrific overview for the basics of starting small, manageable gardens and creating a sustainable work ethic. She covers a lot of area and leaves you informed enough to understand what kind of further information you may need (and how to articulate it). I checked this out from the library, but it is something I would definitely consider buying if/when I move into a more conducive space or could figure out a way to build shelves inaccessible to felines. (Mainly, I just want to start a compost bin to satisfy my love for watching things decompose. Would my neighbors care? We'll see....) The only drawback for me was how poorly the book was edited--misplaced punctuation made many sentences difficult to read, and there was one instance where a sentence just stopped halfway through at the end of a page and a new chapter started on the next. Weird, frustrating, but generally didn't detract significantly from the overall information.
March 7, 2010
I picked this up on a trip to San Francisco because I fell in love with the images. This adorable hippie/gnome running around the garden with her wild strawberry blond hair sticking out and dirt under her fingernails. A woman after my own heart. After reading the book, I can say I'm happy I bought it and will be using it as constant reference from now on. Her frugality appeals to me: she uses junk like nobody's business and nothing goes to waste. There are instructions for making compost tea out of weeds and saving your own seeds, even from fruit you buy to eat at the grocery store. I covet her worm box to the point of sin. She's modern and smart and patient and I would love to have tea with her some day :-)
July 31, 2011
I think of this author as the Jamie Oliver of gardening - her pictures show her to be a hipster looking chick who knows her stuff when it comes to frugal gardening. She has cool tips on how to brew your own compost tea from comfrey and nettle plants, how to get cheap/green materials for raised beds or container gardening, and how to grow plants from grocery store leftovers like past due chickpeas or lemon seeds. It's a motivating read with lots of helpful, if a bit random, tips. It's not an encyclopedia but it's a fun read.
October 13, 2010
I really enjoyed this book and will keep it on the shelves as a reference book. Her hands-on and utilitarian approach helped me to approach my garden with a broader perspective and greater willingness to experiment. With her advice, I've found great bargains at places I might not have explored, and begun to compost my kitchen scraps. The photos are lovely and inspirational while still maintaining a "real" feel; unlike the extreme perfection so often displayed in gardening books.
February 26, 2011
I ABSOLUTELY love this book! It is one the most helpful and resourceful books about gardening, whether you live in the city or country. She details variations of herbs, flower, vegetables, composting, unique containers, good soil mixtures, and suggestions for superior planting conditions. Beautiful and artsy pictures coincide with earthy toned pages. A perfect gardening book to enjoy on a bright sunny day. This is a very inspirational gardening book!
July 6, 2015
many gardening books make me feel dumb because they make it really complicated with plans and all of that. thought this was a really nice book-- she covered things in a mostly (realistic) way that makes sense for first timers and for people with limited space, not a lot of money, and with varying growing conditions--with lots of practical examples and lovely photos. would look at this again for a reference.
September 8, 2012
I thought this would be a little cute and puffy--you know, how to grow basil in an olive oil can, that sort of thing. Actually, Alys Fowler covers a lot of ground (ahem) here, addressing propagation, soil maintenance, pest control, seed gathering, and many other useful topics in an engaging and approachable way. And the book is pretty to look at. So, surprisingly, I enjoyed this book (and learned) much more than I expected.
December 10, 2009
Good introduction to all kinds of gardening and garden-like activities. Fowler incorporates great fun/interesting/cheap/green tips. Provides a lot of good ideas, and even pictures to help to explain herself more clearly. She doesn't really get too in depth about any gardening subject. Quick easy read, and a great book to flip through.
May 15, 2013
I'm a beginning gardener, and I thought this book was a light and lighthearted introduction to gardening in the types of small spaces I'll be working with. Yes, all the photos of the author felt more than a little self-indulgent, and no, I still have no idea what I'm doing. But it was a nice push to get started, and made for good airplane reading.
August 24, 2009
There were some excellent ideas in the book--especially for someone trying to be frugal. I would like to follow up with the following seed companies: www.heirloomseeds.com, www.rareseeds.com, www.johnnyseeds.com
October 8, 2009
Simple, quick read. Well thought out info for audience: young people getting into gardening without a lot of space or money (talks about container gardening, windowsill gardening, dumpster diving). Awesome pictures (both of plants and her outfits).
May 4, 2010
This book made me feel like I actually COULD be an adorable urban gardening hipster.
Lots of good information, building plans, and practical advice for making anything from a kitchen windowsill to a community garden plot work. I really can't wait to get out and dig in!
Lots of good information, building plans, and practical advice for making anything from a kitchen windowsill to a community garden plot work. I really can't wait to get out and dig in!
July 3, 2010
Hip and informative book for ALL types of gardeners. There is something in this book for everyone- pretty pictures, good ideas, and countless great tips on gardening in small spaces.
AND the personal narrative style works well, too.
AND the personal narrative style works well, too.
November 27, 2010
This is a beautiful book. The color photographs are wonderful as is the page design. For some reason, I just couldn't get into the actual book though. I found myself falling asleep and having to re-read sections quite a bit. I think I'll give this one another try some time.
June 19, 2011
love this book! especially since i'm currently growing my first raised gardens. the book has thick pages filled with beautiful photographs and alys fowler brings great insight into simple, practical gardening.
May 12, 2009
Oh deliciousness. Presently, in my raised beds and containers: rhubarb, beans, zucchini, basil, wild iris, carrots, lavender... I'd like to garden all day.
September 8, 2009
Very inspiring. Great info and tips, topped off with beautiful photography.
September 22, 2009
Useful, but not as organized nor as comprehensive as I had hoped.
February 20, 2010
This is perhaps the best comprehensive gardening book that I've seen. It has a lot of great information and ideas that are neither cheesy or easily outdated.
July 1, 2010
I love this book. Lots of pictures for inspiration and enough information to make it useful for indoor and outdoor projects.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews