The Carefree Garden

The Carefree Garden

Author: Bill Terry

Publisher: TouchWood Editions

Published: 2015-06-01

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 1771511273

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What happens when a lifelong gardener finally realizes that he must collaborate with Mother Nature rather than work against her in order to achieve his dream of creating the perfect garden? In this delightful and thoughtful narrative journey of horticultural discovery, Bill Terry asks how and even why we garden, and to what end? These are personal stories, thoughts, and ideas about the "perfect" garden interspersed with humorous, imagined conversations with Mother Nature herself. As he works in his West Coast garden, choosing wild roses over the fancy hybrid teas, and discarding manmade hybrids and cultivars in favour of the charm and simplicity of peonies, hellebores, and tulips as they grow in the wild, Terry learns to welcome and encourage happy accidents, greatly reducing the work and effort required to maintain order (as most gardeners seek to do), and instead embracing a substantial measure of disorder. The perfect garden, he discovers, respects both Mother Nature’s demands—integrating endemic plants, choosing natural species and varieties—and the gardener’s personality—expressing her own taste and creativity, and rich in private memories. This is a light-hearted and witty collection of reflections that will appeal to gardeners everywhere.


The American Meadow Garden

The American Meadow Garden

Author: John Greenlee

Publisher: Timber Press (OR)

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 0881928712

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Offers guidance for designing, planting, and taking care of a meadow with information on plants, styles, and examples from all over the country.


First Ladies of Gardening

First Ladies of Gardening

Author: Heidi Howcroft

Publisher: Frances Lincoln

Published: 2015-03-05

Total Pages: 187

ISBN-13: 1781011958

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The English Garden is the universal measure of all things related to garden design. It is in the UK that the great garden designers live and work and where a major gardening movement has developed over the last few decades, influencing the rest of the world with its ideas and vision. This book introduces the “grandes dames” of contemporary English garden design and includes the great names of the garden world which have emerged since the 1950s, from Vita Sackville-West and Beth Chatto to Beatrix Havergal. It also presents outstanding women gardeners of the present-day who have likewise had a substantial influence on the development of contemporary garden design. Heidi Howcroft has discovered these women’s gardening secrets and writes sensitively and informatively about the individual women and their influence on the English country garden. The individual gardens' charm and design are captured in photos by Marianne Majerus.


Life in the Studio

Life in the Studio

Author: Frances Palmer

Publisher: Artisan

Published: 2020-10-06

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1579659055

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“Roll-up-your-sleeves advice on throwing pottery, growing dahlias, cooking her tried-and-true recipes, and everything in between.” —Martha Stewart Living “Suited to any type of creative, offering up lessons on inspiration and creativity that are sure to bring out your inner talent.” —House Beautiful, Best New Design Books What makes a creative life? For an artist like Frances Palmer, it’s knitting all of one’s passions—all of one’s creativity—into the whole of life. And what an inspiration it is. A renowned potter, an entrepreneur, a gardener, a photographer, a cook, a beekeeper, Palmer has over the course of three decades caught the attention not only of the countless people who collect and use her ceramics but also of designers and design lovers, writers, and fellow artists who marvel at her example. Now, in her first book, she finally tells her story, in her own words and images, distilling from her experiences lessons that will inspire a new generation of makers and entrepreneurs. Life in the Studio is as beautiful and unexpected as Palmer’s pottery, as breathtakingly colorful as her celebrated dahlias, as intimate as the dinners she hosts in her studio for friends and family. There are insights into making pots—the importance of centering, the discovery that clay has a memory. Strategies for how to turn a passion into a business—the value to be found in collaboration, what it means to persevere, how to develop and stick to a routine that will sustain both enthusiasm and productivity. There are also step-by-step instructions (for throwing her beloved Sabine pot, growing dahlias, building an opulent flower arrangement). Even some of her most tried-and-true recipes. The result is a portrait of a unique artist and a singularly generous manual on how to live a creative life.


The Sustainable Rose Garden

The Sustainable Rose Garden

Author: Pat Shanley

Publisher: Casemate / Newbury

Published: 2011-01-08

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1612000428

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“A fascinating and informative book for anyone who loves roses but wants to avoid spraying them with toxic chemicals” (The American Gardener). A winner of the World Federation of Roses Literary Award, this work brings together experts from around the world to inform gardeners about developments in the new, irresistible—yet long overdue—trend toward creating environmentally friendly and enduring rose gardens, with “sustainability” as the key. The queen of flowers, the rose—by presidential declaration, America’s National Floral Emblem—was initially left behind as “green consciousness” and the concept of sustainability took hold among the gardening public. But the rose is now making up for lost time. From the workshops of breeders—both in the United States. and abroad—a new generation of disease-resistant and low-maintenance rose varieties has emerged in the last decade to fill popular demand. In this book, you will learn how to make your own sustainable rose garden. With thirty-eight lavishly illustrated articles and descriptions of the best new—as well as old—rose varieties designed for the sustainable rose garden, this is a must-have book for today’s new generation of avid but environmentally conscious gardeners. “Finally, we have a book that addresses the notion of growing roses in an environmentally friendly manner . . . Nothing about sustainable rose culture has been presented as well as it has been in this book.” —Pacific Horticulture Society


Alan Titchmarsh How to Garden: Gardening in the Shade

Alan Titchmarsh How to Garden: Gardening in the Shade

Author: Alan Titchmarsh

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2012-07-31

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 1448140579

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Overcome the problems every gardener faces with helpful solutions to the problem of shady spots, and handy tips on how to make the most of these notoriously difficult areas. Includes: * creative design ideas for brightening up dark spaces, including north-facing walls * directory of shade-loving plants * care advice for shady lawns and how to deal with moss and algae * ways to achieve year-round colour and interest Alan Titchmarsh imparts a lifetime of expertise in these definitive guides for beginners and experienced gardeners. Step-by-step illustrations and easy-to-follow instructions guide you through the basic gardening skills and on to the advanced techniques, providing everything you need to create and maintain your dream garden.


Paper Gardens

Paper Gardens

Author: Evelyne Bloch-Dano

Publisher: University of Virginia Press

Published: 2018-04-26

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 0813940273

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From Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Marcel Proust, from Marguerite Duras to George Sand, from Colette to Patrick Modiano, gardens appear in novels as representations of the real world, but also as reflections of the imagination. In Paper Gardens: A Stroll through French Literature, Évelyne Bloch-Dano contemplates the role of the garden in the work of great prose writers, ruminating on how the garden can variously symbolize a reflection of the soul, a well-earned rest, an improving form of work, a nostalgia for childhood, and the dream of an ideal world. The charming and erudite first section focuses on history and is devoted to types of gardens ranging from the biblical Garden of Eden to English parklands; the second perceptively considers their role in literary works. Concealed within these cultivated wanderings is also an element of autobiography. Lovers of literature and gardening alike will fall in love with this beautifully written meditation.


A Jesuit Garden in Beijing and Early Modern Chinese Culture

A Jesuit Garden in Beijing and Early Modern Chinese Culture

Author: Hui Zou

Publisher: Purdue University Press

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13: 1557535833

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In this volume, Hui Zou analyzes historical, architectural, visual, literary, and philosophical perspectives on the Western-styled garden that formed part of the great Yuanming Yuan complex in Beijing, constructed during the Qing dynasty. Designed and built in the late eighteenth century by Italian and French Jesuits, the garden described in this book was a wonderland of multistoried buildings, fountains, labyrinths, and geometrical hills. It even included an open-air theater. Through detailed examination of historical literature and representations, Zou analyzes the ways in which the Jesuits accommodated their design within the Chinese cultural context. He shows how an especially important element of their approach was the application of a linear perspective--the "line-method"--to create the jing, the Chinese concept of the bounded bright view of a garden scene. Hui Zou's book demonstrates how Jesuit metaphysics fused with Chinese cosmology and broadens our understanding of cultural and religious encounters in early Chinese modernity. It presents an intriguing reflection on the interaction between Western metaphysics and the poetical tradition of Chinese culture. The volume will be of interest to scholars and students in a variety of fields, including literature, philosophy, architecture, landscape and urban studies, and East-West comparative cultural studies.