A comprehensive guide to creating a stylish garden. Takes a look at how the garden has developed through the ages and the influence reflected by social and fashion changes. This book also looks at the principles of garden design including drawing plans, and understanding scale and proportion. Advice is provided on how to focus on the visual potential of plants, and how to approach the subject of planting with a designer's eye. John Brookes is the author of The Garden Book, The Indoor Garden Book, The Country Garden and The New Small Garden.
"John Brookes takes you step-by-step through every stage in creating your own design blueprints, from the easy-to-learn skills for measuring your garden and drawing up a plan, to judging scale, using pattern and sitting plants. He shows you how to give your garden a coherent style by the appropriate choice of surfaces and enclosures as well as accessories, such as furniture and sculpture. He approaches planting from a design, viewpoint, focusing on the plants' visual potential and showing how to integrate them successfully into your design."--BOOK JACKET.
This book presents the best garden designs of the last ten years from more than 50 top garden designers. It offers design solutions for every situation, every area, all tastes and budgets, and any size of garden. It draws on the talents of celebrated designers such as Tom Stuart Smith, Luciano Giubbilei, Charlotte Rowe, Ian Kitson, John Brookes, Cleve West, Dan Pearson and Andy Sturgeon. It also showcases the work of lesser-known designers whose innovating designs deserve wider recognition. The process of garden design requires many thousands of small decisions in the pursuit of the most appealing solutions for outdoor spaces. But this book makes the complex process simpler by offering ample choices of contemporary design for you to explore what’s possible, what’s practical and what’s affordable. Comprising garden rooms, ornamental details, styles and planting ideas, this book will appeal to every garden owner, whether they manage a small or medium sized garden, a roof terrace, balcony or courtyard space. It offers cutting edge solutions for those seeking an entirely new look as well as key details that can make all the difference.
John Brookes is undoubtedly the doyen of modern garden designers. Since going into practice in the 1960s, he has taught, lectured and communicated to an ever wider public through his books. Garden Design, first published in 1991, quickly established itself as the designer's bible. Whether you want to redesign your existing garden or are creating a new garden from scratch, John Brookes takes you step-by-step through every stage in creating your own designs - from the easy-to-learn skills for measuring your garden and drawing up a plan, to judging scale, using pattern and siting plants. Using specially commissioned full-colour photographs, drawings and plans he shows you how to give your garden a coherent style by the appropriate choice of surfaces, enclosures and accessories, and demonstrates how to fully integrate plants successfully into your design.
Do you ever lament that you'd love to be able to garden more, but just don't have the time? The demanding pace of modern life leaves little space for the pleasures of gardening. On the other hand, gardening itself could be the culprit: elaborate, traditional perennial borders; water-hungry or disease-prone plants; needy lawns; and high-maintenance plants that require staking or clipping all suck up precious hours. Simply put, we need to start gardening in a whole new way. In this inspiring book, Val Easton shows exactly how to have a low-maintenance garden that doesn't sacrifice style. You won't have to give up your favorite plants or settle for expanses of ugly bark nuggets. You just have to unlearn some bad old habits and pick up some good new ones. So, how do you go about making a "new" low-maintenance garden? First, design your garden with maintenance in mind—good-looking hardscape will both save weeding time and showcase your favorite plants. Second, simplify your garden routines—learn the most efficient planting and maintenance techniques and don't get stressed if everything isn't letter-perfect. Third, learn how to work with nature rather than against it. And finally, embrace home-grown fruits, herbs, and vegetables; well planted containers; and thoughtfully chosen plants. The New Low-Maintenance Garden doesn't just tell you how to garden in a whole new way—it shows you, through profiles and beautiful photographs of real gardens that embody low-maintenance techniques. The pressures of life are not likely to ease up anytime soon, but the lessons of this timely book will help you banish guilt over undone garden chores and revel in your garden successes.
Addresses the needs of gardeners constrained by limited gardening space, and explains how to make the most of roofs, balconies, and window boxes, discussing plant choices, techniques, and gardening suppliers.
In this revised and updated 2nd edition of Florida Gardener's Handbook, gardeners in the Sunshine State are handed all the know-how they'll need to grow a lush, productive garden. The environmentally sound growing info for both edible and ornamental plants found here is your green thumb map to success. With profiles of more than 300 plants proven to thrive in Florida's unique climate, including shrubs, trees, perennials, annuals, vegetables, fruits, tropical plants, lawn grasses, and more, you'll be able to select the best plants to create a beautiful landscape or a high-yielding edible garden. Helpful charts highlight sun and shade requirements and offer clear and concise plant variety information. Month-by-month care and cultivation guides are offered for each plant group, guiding your journey—even if you're a first-time Florida gardener. Authors Tom MacCubbin and Georgia B. Tasker, along with pro gardeners Robert Bowden and Joe Lamp'l, address the many challenges of Florida gardening, including a changing climate and saltwater gardening information. The how-to methods for planting, pruning, watering, fertilizing, and much more are rich with information essential to Floridians. This comprehensive and extensive guide is the best resource for growing in the Sunshine State. Whether you live in Nassau County, the Florida Keys, or somewhere in between, the Florida Gardener's Handbook has you covered. Florida Gardener's Handbook is part of the Gardener's Handbook series from Cool Springs Press. Other books in the series include Midwest Gardener's Handbook, Carolinas Gardener's Handbook, Northwest Gardener's Handbook, and many others.
