Metropolitan Gardening

A s the author of the " City Gardeners Handbook " (previously reviewed here on Metropolitan Gardening) and a alumni garden writer for the New York Times, Linda Yang is a go to for tough gardening questions. She's the long time friend of NYC plant luminary David Protell and Garden Center Manager Rose DiCostanzo - so invited Metropolitan Gardening to the Chelsea Garden Center in Red Hook where she walked us through 3 important tips for seasonal gardening and decorating. We caught up with Linda on a beautiful Sunday afternoon - the Garden Center was stunning with evergreens and coniferous plants. It's a super place to get a tree! Linda raved about the benefits of her gardening as therapeutic - she remarked that being able to talk about gardening was the best thing for the change in the seasons and changes in life.

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 to work. Each plant listing