Plantiful: Start Small, Grow Big with 150 Plants That Spread, Self-Sow, and Overwinter

The fascination of Green’s first book is the sense that it brings into order a chaotic landscape half-seen but never attended to. Consider the tall Verbena bonariensis with its seemingly fragile, slender, 3–5–ft. stalks, the delicate bundles of purple blossoms that crown them, the butterflies they attract. This book prompts appreciation of the plant, and imparts knowledge of how to control (“edit”) it. Plants that are self-starters tend to show up in gardens, highway medians, and all manner of other locales. Self-seeders come back again and again, which can be wonderful and terrible. The challenge for the gardener is keeping them in check. This book—generous with color photographs and helpful tips and tools—lends the right eye and the technical expertise to that end. The book equips the gardener to understand what, in her garden, she is looking at, and then, understanding, she can organize and tame it and see it again, as if for the very first time. (Jan.)