The Ultimate Book of Small Gardens

Kew-trained Rice packs a lot of knowledge into this informative and slickly packaged guide for those who garden on a small scale either by choice or necessity. While Rice covers basic gardening principles--from mulching to tackling the vine weevil, the horticultural world's bete noir--he also offers delightful suggestions for water features sure to transform even the smallest landlocked backyards into urban oases. The guide would have benefited from the assiduous eye of a copyeditor throughout (""this innovative little garden, mulched with recycled glass beads, will need any weeds removing by hand""), but the crisp, instructive photographs by Rice's wife, judywhite, throughout easily offset this minor irritant. More problematic--for organic gardeners anyway--is Rice's apparent reliance upon pesticides, even as he wisely preaches caution in their use (""Do not inhale vapours when spraying. A surgical mask is useful protection""). Rice is a judge for the famed Chelsea Flower Show, and this is evident in his choice of vivid color schemes for both blossoms and foliage. Interestingly, he is also a great fan of dwarf fruit trees and potagers for diminutive garden spaces, and he offers a smorgasbord of ideas for maximizing food-growing space. Most refreshing about this fun-to-read idea book is the playfulness evident in Rice's garden plots and his prose alike. The English master gardener suggests, for example, that gardeners who work from home can use""an umbrella to provide necessary shade for the laptop screen...and when you get a business call on your mobile...you can say: 'I'm at the office'--and be smelling the roses.""