The City Gardener's Handbook by Linda Yang is a through reference written with warm pithy wit and seasoned wisdom. The book's content is broken into "chunks" or paragraphs within chapter topics. Each paragraph having a short descriptive blurb in the margin that make it easy to scan. This organization makes it perfect to read on the subway or while riding the bus because you can easily find your place if you have to scurry to get a seat at a stop or fold a page over while making a transfer to another train. Each chapter provides a part of the complete story of how to garden in a city. From containers to soil to when and what to plant to pests and how to plan a garden space around the light that shines into it though the buildings surrounding. The lists of plants are not so extensive as to overwhelm but rather are the crib notes of a master gardener who though trial and error has provided a solid "plant vocabulary" with which t...