Gardening in Miniature: Create Your Own Tiny Living World
As a portal back to childhood, a time when one’s imagination spins magical tales, miniature gardens are precious, and the subtitle gets it just right: you can “create your own tiny living world.” Calvo’s how-to covers miniature garden accessories, scaled design basics, patios and pathways, plants for the miniature garden, samples of miniature garden projects, and maintenance. Full-color photos throughout and detailed charts that categorize trees, shrubs, and miniature bedding plants by sun and shade and outdoor and indoor light levels provide adventurous gardening enthusiasts with technical know-how, tool tips (use a dinner fork as a rake), and creative ideas. Hardly child’s play, gardening in miniature is as challenging as working with a full-scale garden design and encompasses questions of proportion and scale, maintenance and sustainability. With listings of additional readings, metric conversions, and an index, Calvo’s guide will draw beginning and experienced practitioners to this whimsical hobby as art. --Whitney Scott