Eden Book Reviews


My Tiny Window Garden Felicity Hart Summersdale, £8.99


My Tiny Window Garden is a small book containing a lot of information. It fits into a back pocket and is filled with tips to encourage neophyte gardeners to explore the pleasure of growing plants on a small scale. Experienced gardeners who need to downsize may also find it useful. Hart explains the benefits of gardening for physical and


mental health (with a Health and Safety warning about the weight of planters), recommends any necessary tools, provides a simple glossary of common terms and gives clear instructions about what plants require to grow well in containers. Thinking ‘outside the pot’, she illustrates ways to create


imaginative displays in small spaces both indoors and out. Whether it’s creating containers from repurposed teacups, empty seashells and vintage food cans or explaining the value of focal points even in a tiny garden, she introduces the principles of garden design as a way of turning a horticultural jumble into a curated spectacle. Unusual and stylish suggestions for window gardens include Japanese kokedame (moss balls), succulent spheres, and even a miniature wildlife pond, all of which are attractively illustrated with photographs. Later, there are lots more photographs of indoor and


outdoor plants with instructions on where and how to grow them, often with suggestions about what to grow alongside. Throughout this section there are quotes from gardeners and other artists extolling the virtues of gardening, and opposite these are small sayings such as ‘sow seeds to feed


the bees’ and ‘science + art + passion = gardening’. While these ring true, for me, these pages might have been better used to help new gardeners by illustrating activities such as seed sowing and identifying pests. My only other small criticism is that unless the author is thinking of grander-than-average windows, some recommendations are more suited to balconies or small gardens. But overall, this is a delightful little book and, as all


gardeners know, great oaks from little acorns grow. Julia Durbin


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