If you're not a gardener, gardening can sound pretty intimidating - planning, weeding, watering and fending off various predators for months at a time - and unless you are growing edibles, your reward may only be a pretty picture. Those of us who are already invested wouldn't give it up for the world, but we want you to give it a try, too - and there's no better way to start than with containers.

These two books - Little Herb Gardens, by GeorgeAnne Brennan and Mimi Luebbermann, and The Ultimate Container Gardener, by Stephanie Donaldson - each contain numerous projects that can be completed in an hour or an afternoon, but will provide enjoyment for weeks and months afterward. Even if you think you are hopeless with plants, these charming arrangements will make you want to try again. And if have a "real" garden, like me, you'll find yourself flipping the pages with increasing restlessness and finally heading out to the basement or tool shed to get some use out of those old pots you'd almost forgotten about.

Little Herb Gardens was the book that inspired us to begin our own herb garden several years ago, mere months after moving into our house. I've mentioned before that herbs are almost impossible to kill; a loose definition of the word might be "a weed that people have figured out how to use in cooking." Once established in the ground, they rarely need watering, and they will produce until the first frost; I have even dug through the snow to find sprigs of thyme in February. Most of them re-seed themselves and come back year after year to delight you with their fragrance and flavor. And if you've never cooked with fresh herbs, you can and should afford the luxury!



The book begins with some basic information about herbs in general, listing the most common annuals and perennials; it then gives some basic information about the best conditions for soil, watering and fertilizing. (We're talking eight pages total, and half of that is pictures!) Projects are then grouped by location: Fire Escape for city-dwellers, Inside Porch, Outside Porch and Patch of Ground for suburbanites, and Vast Vistas for those with a little more breathing room. Each project fits on a double-page spread, with a lovely, inspiring photo, a specific list of materials, and guidelines for where and when to place the plants. Most of the suggested herbs are fairly traditional, but there are a few, like green garlic and nasturtiums, that I had never thought of growing indoors and will certainly try now. At the end, there's a brief section of recipes that can be adapted for many types of herbs: flavored oils, vinegars and desserts.

The Ultimate Container Gardener is a far more extensive and adventurous book, and it favors more decorative arrangements than practically useful ones. However, the photographs are seductive in the way only do-it-yourself photographs can be; if you are familiar with DK books, you will be especially intrigued. The plants for each project are pictured separately, so that you can bring the book with you to the garden center and compare; then there are several step-by-step instructional photos and a photo of the end result, pretty but simple enough to make you think you could do that!

There is another section on gardening techniques and tools; it's longer than the one in Little Herb Gardens, but it does include lots of helpful photos of, for instance, how to propagate a plant from a cutting, and several methods for pest removal. These projects are grouped by several different variables: color scheme, season, and location. There are also special sections of projects for children, plantings that are edible or especially fragrant, and lots of ideas for decorating containers with shells, paint and a variety of other media. Altogether, there are probably 150 projects, and there are very few duds, at least for my personal taste (I have never really understood the garden-in-a-boot thing) They range from very simple to somewhat complex; the common thread is that all of them can live on your porch, deck or fire escape. A little water and sunshine, and a lot of admiration, are the only requirements.