Big Dreams, Small Garden: A Guide to Creating Something Extraordinary in Your Ordinary Space

I must admit, Marianne Willburn's book, Big Dreams, Small Garden, arrived at my door just in the nick of time. My husband and I moved recently, to a house with a tiny (really tiny) yard. The size of the yard doesn't bother me at all. It's a blank slate, one I can plant however I like, and I'm excited to begin. But I've never started from the ground up before, and even to a professional gardener like myself, it's a little daunting. (I might also add that my budget is considerably lower than that of most of my clients!)Marianne understands that breaking a project down into manageable pieces is key to getting the job done. From the beginning, she encourages you to list your goals and to prioritize them. She emphasizes getting your hands dirty, using reclaimed materials, and planning your garden with maintenance in mind. Such good advice! And Marianne leads by example, telling how she carried home thousands of free bricks to build a wall, and suggesting you contact landscape companies that might need to dump excavated dirt. Her approach to gardening is reality based and grounded in experience. The result is a garden that is personal and priceless.I know my small garden will look very different from Marianne's (since I get 14 inches of rain per year and she probably gets 44!), but mine will be as dearly beloved as hers is. And that's the whole point of this book. Wherever you garden, you can use the principals so clearly outlined here to create your own, personal, wonderful garden space. I'm grateful to Marianne for showing me how to get started.

I really wanted to like this book, but I was very disappointed particularly with respect to the pictures. I'm a visual person and really need good photos. There were some pages with 4 or more pics on them .... too small to be of much help .... Other pages had just a single image on them, several of which were mostly out of focus (I assume for "artistic" reasons). Page xii had a picture of a big white wall; page 134 was a picture of a lower leg in a dirty pants .... how were either of these helpful? To me, they were not. If I had picked up this book in a store, I would not have bought it. I'm sending it back.

I've gardened for many years and am always looking for inspiration. Magazines, books and online--I quickly look thru and if I just get one good idea out of it, I feel I've gotten my money's worth. They are references, not for sitting and reading. The prologue grabbed my attention right off the bat, then I found myself reading the introduction. Before I knew it, I had read it cover to cover in an afternoon. The author has a wonderful way with words. But it's not just a good read--Ms. Will burn outlined practical processes on how to figure out what you want in your garden and breaks it down so you don't feel overwhelmed (my #1 problem on starting big landscape projects). I highly recommend this book. I plan to buy more of her books.

I was hoping that it would have provided more information on the most 99% of all 99% gardening... containers. This doesn’t necessarily detract from the book, but there really wasn’t much that I personally could take away from this. Like the author says, we need to work with the limitations of our existing space. My limitations are just more limiting than most, and was only addressed with a few paragraphs. Actually, the size of the author’s own garden, which she lamented, is probably four times the size of mine. 🤣That’s ok. It was a nice read and I enjoyed the pictures.

I really liked the practical advice about embracing the garden space one has, visualizing its potential, and working toward beautifying it, rather than living one's life on hold while pining for a lavish estate and a staff of gardeners or some other fanciful dream that may never come to fruition. I liked that she acknowledged having worked through some envy of large expensive gardens before getting to a healthier place of gratitude and acceptance for her own little plot. Well-written and entertaining. I wish it had more pics of before and after gardens, and more pics of gardens from more areas of the country.

I received this book a few days ago so I’ve only just started going through it but it looks like it has so much to offer. Lots and lots of photographs and It’s broken down into four sections to help plan and achieve whichever garden you dream up!Received early in pristine condition too.

"We never abandoned our dreams, we just chose to be happy while searching for them. The point is the journey. What better than a garden to teach us that?"An excellent quote from this book. Not only will this book inspire you to get in your gardening space and do, it will also help you to consider important philosophies in other parts of your life such as family, parenting, dealing with stress/anxiety, and more. This book will help you no matter if you're a beginning gardener, a well rooted gardener, or someone who wants to garden. This book will definitely stay in my library for referencing.

The author encourages the beginner gardener to see the awesome potential of a possibly depressingly small plot of land. At the same time and with great humor, she teaches us to be happy with what we have, not envy those with more, and how to produce a stunning creation we can be proud of.A must read for anyone who longs for more land than they have!

Enjoyable read, small good ideas.

interesting book with helpful ideas