|
| | Reading books on garden design is less work than digging! |
Garden Design - did the TV shows make it popular or did it make the TV shows popular? Either way, our love affair with garden design is in full bloom, as these books show.
Do you want the most stunning display of colour, slowly shifting through the spectrum as the seasons change? Or try the oriental look? Or simply create a garden which requires as little work as possible once it's in place. You decide - these books will help you design your own garden.
Whether you want to be a professional garden designer or just browse a book to pick up ideas on improving your garden's layout, help is at hand.
|
This is the Bible of garden design by the doyenne of the subject. Rosemary Alexander founded and still runs the English Gardening School at the Chelsea Physic Garden, the forerunner for most other garden design schools.
This book takes the reader in great detail through research, preparation and design appraisal, developing and finalizing the design, creating a planting plan and the practicalities of drawing up a professional-looking board.
It is not an easy read or an inspirational browse, but rather a detailed handbook for those taking the subject seriously.
|
|
Click to buy >>> |
| Back to top >>> |
|
Designed - and I do mean designed - as an "indispensable guide to creating and maintaining a stylish, contemporary small garden" this book is in fact very inspiring. It finally acknowledges that most of us in towns have tiny poky little gardens - 30ft x 30ft or so - and that most books pay lip service to small garden design, and then assume we all have at least third of an acre.
Small gardens for modern living is brilliantly illustrated, apart from the plant pictures which are not its strong point. But this does not pretend to offer full planting plans, rather to provide ideas, solutions and tips for creating your beautiful - though Lilliputian - garden.
"Inspiration and information" it says on the back. Indeed.
|
|
Click to buy >>> |
| Back to top
>>> |
|
In this expanded, updated version of his classic book, John Brookes adresses the latest trends in garden design as well as surveying new materials and techniques. He also shows you how to use the computer as a design tool, and features new, or extended, sections on key styles, such as Minimalist, Mediterranean, Urban and Japanese and Oriental.
What does not change in this new edition is John Brookes' inspirational approach to design. Drawing on his world-famous garden design course and his lecture tours that have taken him from Key Gardens and Europe to the USA, Austalia, South Africa, South America and Japan, he combines clever and stylish design options with detailed information and practical advice.
"Garden Design" has become the essential coursebook for thousands of students as well as a favourite sourcebook of ideas for countless garden owners worldwide - amateurs and professionals alike.
|
|
Click to buy >>> |
| Back to top >>> |
|
Christopher Bradley-Hole came to the attention of the wider public with his striking garden at the Chelsea Flower Show in 1997. One of the most memorable winners of a Gold Medal (as well as the Best Garden award) it gave modern minimalist gardening ideas a great boost.
Minimalist gardens, with their emphasis on clean lines, pure form and a strong sense of space, are becoming increasingly popular - particularly with those who want to create a tranquil retreat where they can unwind from their over-busy lives (which applies to most of us). The added pleasure of the minimalist look is that it suits small urban spaces and the demands of the low maintenance gardener.
This book is beautifully illustrated, with inspiring examples - large and small, urban and rural - from around the world. Bradley-Hole explains how an understanding of space and proportion can be combined with a clever use of materials and imaginative planting to create a retreat of tranquil simplicity. The best gardens are those that relate most carefully to both the house they adjoin and the landscape or cityscape in which they are found.
This is perhaps the first British book on this increasingly popular and important area of garden design. It is r elevant to urban and rural gardens of all sizes and to ecologically aware and time-conscious gardeners. Thematic chapters include The Extended Home, Courtyards and Back Gardens, Roof Gardens, Pools and Water Gardens. It features the work of acclaimed designers from around the world, such as John Pawson, Charles Jencks, Martha Schwartz, Seth Stein and Tadao Ando. It finishes up with a practical directory of appropriate materials and architectural plants.
|
|
Click to buy >>> |
| Back to top >>> |
|
This book covers almost everything you might need to know about topiary - the art of of clipping shrubs into sculpture forms. Or as the book's forward puts it 'topiary is an icon that defines the hand of man in creating gardens…'
The authors are uniquely qualified, one being a fine art and sculpture historian, the other the head gardener at Levens Hall, top topiary garden probably in the world.
We said it covers almost everything, and one small criticism is the superficial coverage given to propagation. It is assumed that the serious topiarist will buy a large shrub on which to work, but it would have been nice to know how best to deal with all those little clippings that could form the nucleus of another great oeuvre.
|
|
Click to buy >>> |
| Back to top >>> |
|
Roger Turner's book is aimed at the plant-lover who cannot resist buying plants. We all know the syndrome: a quick visit to a garden center for some netting and we have three more plants, a visit to a nursery and we have a car full. Turner hopes to tame this impulse, or at any rate to give us solutions to what to do with our unplanned purchases.
And failing that he hopes to show us to display our collections to best advantage, but I fear we are a lost cause. So long as plant collectors prioritise the plants over the design requirements, Turner's book can only be an aspirin for a major headache.
|
|
Click to buy >>> |
| Back to top >>> |
|
This book brings mosaic and pattern in the garden right up to date. A
mixture of inspiration and practical advice this book presses all the right
buttons.
Mosaic at its worst can be overbright and garish - the mauve, plum, orange,
yellow and pink tiles did nothing in my opinion for the terracotta pot in
the 'Decorative containers' section, and completely overshadowed the cosmos
that it was presumably supposed to set off.
But a few pages later, a shell wall fountain and a glass fish dribbling
water into a little wall-mounted bowl made me keen to try. The section on
paths, patios and various patterned walking surfaces is really
inspirational.
So open your mind and browse for ideas.
|
|
Click to buy >>> |
| Back to top
>>> |
|
Spirally-bound and subtitled 'From bare plot to stylish garden in easy
steps' Brand New Garden feels like a project book. Lots of inspirational
photos make it seem oh-so-simple.
Simply decide on your style style - for instance, romantic, and follow steps
1-4. It's not quite so simple of course. Step 4 for instance actually
includes laying out a brick path with a brick circle, adding a sundial,
putting up three metal arches, removing the turf, cultivating the soild,
making the tree seat, positioning the urn, buying an ornate table and
chairs, and installing a shed - keep you busy for a few weekends.
But this book does make it look deceptively simple, attractive and fun, with
splendid results. Even if you'll need another book to work out how to really
do it.
|
|
Click to buy >>> |
| Back to top
>>> |
|
An inspiring and attractive book on the history and recent resurgence of interest in mazes and labyrinths in garden design.
|
|
Click to buy >>> |
| Back to top >>> |
|
This design and style sourcebook shows how to make beautiful gardens in which every element fits harmoniously into the whole.
With numerous examples and plans, it shows gadeners how to make the right choices, both aesthetically and practically, explaining how to make the best use of the materials and space available. Every garden element is represented in a full range of types, materials and styles. Garden plans and three-dimensional design sketches show how best to place them, while full-colour cutaway drawings shows how they are designed and constructed.
Robin Williams is the author of "The Garden Planner". Not to be confused with the Robin Williams of "Goooood Moooorning, VIETNAAAAAAAAM!" fame. Although if he wrote a gardening book we'd be the first to review it.
|
|
Click to buy >>> |
| Back to top >>> |
|
From extravagant Tudor topiary, to Renaissance fountains that squirted unsuspecting visitors, there is a long history of wit and humour in the garden. This book turns its back on the trend for "natural" gardens and suggests ways in which this tradition of wit and illusion can be applied to modern gardens.
When should you use mirrors in the garden? What is the best way to create sound effects? How do you devise a mural or any number of visual tricks? Containing pictures of contemporary gardens and including a glossary of practical advice, this book shows how to create gardens to amuse and delight both adults and children alike.
|
|
Click to buy >>> |
| Back to top >>> |
|
With chapters such as: "Places to Hang Out", "Dens for Grown Ups", "Plant Heaven" and "Shark's Fin and Other Mad Stuff", this book offers striking ways to transform your garden, using designs and features from the "Home Front" TV series. Sometimes they work... sometimes...
|
|
Click to buy >>> |
| Back to top >>> |
|
The theory behind this book is that it provides 40 off-the-peg designs that you can simply incorporate into your own garden space. Fancy a 'modern-day Utopia on your balcony? Page 100 will sort you out. But if you prefer a different feature, just mix in a bit of p.250.
Needless to say, life is not quite that simple. "Once you have chosen a theme or style for your garden, whether it is Japanese, formal, old-fashioned or cutting-edge modern - you will soon have the paving, lawn, features, pond and plants in place to match it." I will?
Planting plans are supplied for each design, but there are few pictures to help decide - it's all or nothing. I guess that's the problem with off-the-peg. So, for instance, if I decide to do Newbury's 'By the sea' garden (how does he know that the dimensions will work in my garden? What scale is his design? Will all those plants fit in my garden?), I have adetailed planting plan of 49 plants, but only 4 pictures to help me decide. Perhaps I just hand in the list to the garden centre and hope for the best.
Maybe I'm taking this too literally, and I should just browse for inspiration. Mr Newbury has won four gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show, so he obviously knows his stuff, but I'm not converted by his bible.
|
|
Click to buy >>> |
| Back to top
>>> |
That's it for this category. Click here to suggest a book on garden design and we'll do our best to review it.
|
