INTRODUCTION

Gardening is a lot different today than it was a few generations ago. While our grandparents and great-grandparents focused on building victory gardens and feeding a houseful of children from an extensive backyard veggie patch, today’s smaller families see gardening in a very different light. It’s become a way to beautify our outdoor living spaces, satisfy our health-conscious appetites, and rejuvenate our work- and media-worn bodies and minds. Plants have become a symbol of calm in the hectic, digital lives of the millennial generation. Houseplants are having a renaissance, of sorts, and the presence of an incredible array of succulents on scores of windowsills, patios, and balconies is a sure sign that plants are still an important part of people’s lives. The way people garden and their reasons for doing it, however, have definitely changed.

Not only have our gardening motivations evolved; so too have our gardens themselves. Today’s gardens are vastly different from those of previous generations. While a 1/2-acre suburban lot with a modest house and a good-sized garden was the norm for many newly married baby boomers, today’s young families are more likely to reside in big houses sandwiched onto ever-shrinking lots. Or, they live in urban environments where homes are close together, or in apartments, duplexes, townhomes, or condos with tiny yards or no yards at all. All this means that most modern gardeners have less room to grow. Couple that with our desire to nurture something beautiful and green (and our busy lives that are all too short on free time) and you have the perfect recipe for a new gardening niche—a niche that happens to be the very topic of this book: compact plants for small gardens.

Compact plants are those prized for their ability to start small and stay small, even when they reach full maturity. They’re selected and bred by plant breeders for their petite form and well-behaved growth habit. With maintenance needs far less extensive than their full-sized counterparts, compact plants are the perfect fit for anyone looking to create a beautiful small-scale garden and reduce the amount of time needed to maintain their landscape. These plants are also an ideal choice for container gardeners, since most require less room for both their top growth and their root system.

There are dozens of varieties of compact trees, shrubs, and perennials, many of which you’ll meet in chapter 5. They offer the same gorgeous blooms, lush foliage, and seasonal interest as their full-sized cousins but in a far smaller package. And just like their larger kin, many of these compact ornamental plants also help sustain backyard wildlife—such as birds, butterflies, and bees—via their flowers, berries, and foliage.

There are also plenty of compact edible plants, including dwarf berries, vegetables, fruit trees, and herbs, that are an excellent choice for gardeners who want to feed their families fresh, organic produce without requiring an extensive backyard or blowing their grocery budget. Chapter 6 is dedicated to this group of fantastic and productive plants. You’ll find detailed profiles of fifty different small-statured edibles ideal for a petite kitchen garden, a collection of containers, or a small raised bed.

Compact plants also play an important role in addressing problematic areas in the landscape. Chapter 4 outlines eight common landscape problems and offers you a list of multiple compact plants capable of combating each particular problem. Whether you’re looking to screen out a nosy neighbor, cover a steep slope, bring a splash of color to a shady site, or spruce up a drab winter garden, this chapter on compact plants with purpose has you covered.

Compact edibles are ideal for small kitchen gardens, raised beds, and containers. They allow you to grow plenty of homegrown produce without taking up a lot of real estate.

In addition to these three chapters filled to the brim with profiles of unique small-scale plants that are sure to become new favorites, you’ll also learn where these minivarieties come from, how to shop for them, and even how to plant each type. And no book on gardening with compact plants would be complete without a well-formulated list of suggested maintenance tips for keeping your plants in prime condition from the start of the growing season to the finish. Though compact plants generally have reduced maintenance needs when compared to many other types of plants, chapter 2 covers the ins and outs of watering, fertilizing, and mulching these small specimens, as well as the importance of deadheading, pinching, and occasionally pruning.

But the most creative aspects of gardening with compact plants are addressed in chapter 3, where you’ll discover a plethora of practical design tips, plus ten inspiring landscape designs using only compact plants. I’ve brought in the experts for this chapter, asking ten different gardening professionals to formulate ten different ready-made plans you can use to quickly build a beautiful, professionally designed, small-scale garden of your own. From a front-entrance planting with compact evergreens and a shady nook filled with low-growing perennials to a pint-sized pollinator garden and a tiny backyard plot overflowing with micro-vegetables, these design plans are sure to give you a leg up on creating a gorgeous garden in even the tightest quarters.

And last, shown here of this book, you’ll find a source list, filled with the names and contact information for dozens of nurseries, wholesalers, and online retailers who sell the plants featured in the previous pages. These are the breeders, growers, and champions of the small-plant movement. Support them and they’ll continue to provide an even greater variety of compact plants for a new generation of gardens.

My hope is that the Gardener’s Guide to Compact Plants becomes a much-loved copilot on your journey toward building the lush and productive small-scale garden of your dreams. Once you see the breathtaking diversity of plants available to fill your garden with food and beauty, you’ll realize the possibilities truly are endless.

“With maintenance needs far less extensive than their full-sized counterparts, compact plants are the perfect fit for anyone looking to create a beautiful small-scale garden and reduce the amount of time needed to maintain their landscape.”