The Bountiful Container Review

I recently bought the book The Bountiful Container by Rose Marie Nichols McGee & Maggie Stuckey.

I like this book since it’s the first one I’ve bought that really gets into what you need to have a serious garden from containers. The first 2 parts of the book will seem like a lot of review for seasoned gardeners, with some needed info just for containers like sunlight requirements and container sizes. The real meat of the book though is on the individual plants suited for containers broken into four categories: fruits, vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers. This is what I really got the book for, growing information on specific plants in containers, which this book seems to cover well.

Each section contains some background information on the plant, then what it takes to grow and harvest from the plant. There are also a few recipes, short historical stories, and other tid-bits of information sprinkled throughout the plant categories. I enjoyed reading these extra insights of uses and history.

There are 3 main things which I think this book could do better:

Pictures – While this is not meant to be a coffee table picture book, it would’ve been nice to have a couple photos included to visually illustrate what these containers look like. For example, show at least one idea given for succession planting. Chapter 3 is called making your garden beautiful. While it is not long, it describes different designs to make your containers look very appealing. Some beautiful picture illustrations would’ve really helped make this point.

Pollinating – Page 97 for cucumbers is the only place it mentions human pollinating, yet if you grow these plants completely indoors you will be the pollinator. There are also some plants, like squash, which have separate male and female flowers. If you do not know this you might not get the harvest you expected simply because the flowers are not pollinated correctly. Even when planted outdoors, if the vines are grown on a trellis you might need to help nature get the  pollen from one flower to the next. There are a few plants where pollinating is specifically mentioned, but I think there should be more.

Micro-environment – It is kind of obvious that plants next to your fence or house will receive more protection from severe weather then those out in the open. But the use of buildings, decks, etc to create micro-climates is not discussed. The book seems to lean toward having a container garden on your patio for the growing season, and then covering or moving the containers during the really cold months.

Overall I like this book.  It covers a lot of information in different degrees, so if you are looking for a very simple book this might not be the one for you. Be aware there are 400+ pages, so if you are one who wants to read every page, its a long read. I was looking for better information on growing specific garden plants in containers, which this book has a a lot of.  I can read in detail about what I’m interested in and skim the rest, learning a few new things along the way. 🙂