1 comments about The Ultimate Water Garden Book.

1. This was the only book, that I was able to find, that covered all of the different techniques for pond construction, including fiberglass. For that reason alone it was worth the purchase price. But the book also contains an excellent review of different pond styles and half of the book is a review of different pond plants and animals. But it's strongest point is it's complete coverage of all the different construction techniques and methods.

No comments about Terrestrial Paradise.

3 comments about A Garden of Love and Healing: Living Tributes to Those We Have Loved and Lost.

1. "For every flower than opens in your garden, another wound is healed in your heart." -Unknown
   
   "A Garden of Love & Healing" is a book filled with unique ideas for creating a living tribute to those you have loved and lost. Marsha Olson shows you how to create a memory garden which can be elaborate or a single tree. This garden can be created in your own backyard or in a public space.
   
   In order to create your garden, Marsha gives information on the symbolism of plants, common garden themes and guides for preparation, installation and maintenance of a garden. She also explains remembrance rituals.
   
   Throughout the book, the author shares personal stories and photographs of actual memory gardens. You will notice they are places where you can wander through, stepping on smooth stones or where you can sit on a chair or bench. These are places for reflection.
   
   The chapters include:
   
   Nature's Healing Spirit
   Giving Your Garden Meaning
   Garden Themes
   Preparing, Installing, and Maintaining Your Garden
   Accessories for a Memory Garden
   Dedicating Your Garden
   Final Thoughts
   
   Through this book, you can learn which flowers represent the month you lost your loved one or what the color of the flowers you choose symbolizes. If you were to make a garden for a friend, you might wish to plant "zinnia: thoughts of absent friends."
   
   You might also want a "theme" garden and you may want to plant:
   
   An Herb Garden of Memory
   A Meditation Garden
   A Patriotic Garden
   A Spring Garden of Memory
   A Monet Garden for an Artist
   A Bird and Butterfly Garden
   
   Some of the pictures have a name engraved in stone surrounded by plants. "A Garden of Love & Healing" is for those who want to honor the legacy of a beautiful soul who touched their life in a meaningful way.
   
   Note:
   
   While this book is specifically for memorial gardens, there is also a great amount of information on the meanings of flowers and page after page of "The Victorian Language of Flowers" which is an extensive list. There is also a list of Selected Plants arranged by common name with their botanical name, type, zone and light needs. This book might also be helpful for florists or for anyone who wants to create a garden to honor a living relative or friend. Wouldn't it be beautiful to create a garden for someone you love while they could enjoy it? This book has many possibilities.
   
   Gardening is definitely therapeutic and it helps take your mind off your worries and stress in everyday life.
   
   ~The Rebecca Review



2. I am delighted to review this beautiful book because it offers such creative and healing ideas for affirming and celebrating life throughout one of life's most difficult passages, the loss of a loved one. It offers myriad ideas for creating garden tributes, places of beauty and solace where we can honor lost loved ones in an atmosphere of peace and hope. This book is filled with useful ideas and directions for physically creating garden retreats, large and small, but it is also brimming with compassionate and sensitive advice for grieving people. It's meditative tone gently creates a vibration of healing and an appreciation for the cycle and interconnected web of life. It helps us to connect with Nature's healing spirit. It offers a list of plants representing each month, discusses the symbolism of color, touches on the Victorian language of flowers, as well as several themes and their associated plants. These lists are detailed and out of the ordinary. They are filled with thought and care and are diverse enough to suit most any need. Poignant quotations and the personal thoughts of others surviving loss grace the book throughout and help one to relate and open to healing as if in the company of gentle friends.
   Many different garden themes are suggested, of varying sizes and complexity, such as an herb garden of memory, a meditation garden, a patriotic garden, a garden in remembrance of a baby, a bird and butterfly garden, among several. Sporadic photographs illustrate the book and lend inspiration as well. Descriptions of several famous memorial gardens are described such as The Danny Thomas Memorial Garden near St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis and the Wrigley Memorial Garden on Catalina Island.
   Sometimes getting busy and putting our body to work is the most therapeutic thing we can do for ourselves when we are hurting and this book suggests that principle in the chapter that explains how prepare, install and maintain your garden.
   Suggestions for accessories such as trellises, bird baths, chairs, benches, plaques, engraved stones, statues and artifical lighting are discussed. Dedications for the garden are discussed. All in all, it is a very effective book in terms of nuts and bolts how-to advice, but its most precious gift, one which I feel every grieving person could benefit from, is the holistic perspective that it restores to a heart rent with loss and pain. By inviting us to be creative and to pay tribute with our own talents, ideas, efforts and physical work to someone we have lost, it gives us an opportunity to go inward and search out the best and most life-touching attributes of our loved one and the gifts and meaning that the relationship gave to our lives. It helps us to gently shift our focus away from loss and look toward legacy. To be remembered is something that most of us hope for and this lovely book will help greatly in the process that brings us through to remembering the life rather than the loss. I highly recommend it.



3. A Garden Of Love & Healing: Living Tributs To Those We Have Loved And Lost by grief counselor and experienced landscape/garden designer is not a traditional gardening guide, but rather a book for experienced gardeners who wish to create and dedicate their growing in the memory of a loved one. From choosing plants with the right traditional meaning to embracing the healing spirit of nature, A Garden Of Love & Healing is a gentle, thoughtful, unique, highly recommended guide to celebrating beloved memories through the art of nurturing and growing plant life.

No comments about City Lights: Illuminating the American Night (Landscapes of the Night).

No comments about Sensations: A Time Travel through Garden History.

5 comments about The Garden at Highgrove.

1. This is a fabulous book and a treasure for garden lovers. It's nice for even amateur gardeners to have a selection of books on Sissinghurst, Giverny, and now Highgrove. I especially loved this book because of the unusual features including the stumpery, which is, quite simply, fantastic. The pictures are beautiful, and I even enjoy the winter scenes.(snow+England=Dickens for me!). The beautiful statues and sculptures are unique--and range from classical to modern;they all seem well-placed in this garden. I liked the way the Prince of Wales encouraged young stonemasons to give their castoffs to add to a wall that looks to be straight out of Alice in Wonderland.
   It's true that not of all of us can live like a Prince, but it apparent that his Duchy employs a number of people--and it seems he has been more than generous in opening his garden to visitors and fundraisers. If I knew how beautiful and inspiring this book was--or even that there was such a book--I would have bought it earlier (big regret). I anticipate many years of delightful viewing.



2. If The Prince's 1993 book "Highgrove: An Experiment in Organic Gardening and Farming" was a manifesto disguised as a picture book, this title is, comfortingly, just what it appears to be: a guided tour of The Prince of Wales' very impressive gardens at his country seat, Highgrove.

   Of course, there is still a strong bit of advocacy for an organic approach to gardening. But here, it doesn't edge into discussions of European agricultural policy or the historic despoiling of the British countryside. Instead, explanations of the organic method are an underlying, but essential, part of telling the garden's story

   The narrative of how the garden has developed over two decades is an interesting one, and any gardener will enjoy and be inspired by the beautiful photography. And although few of us are able to garden on the Prince's scale, there is still an awful lot in here we can learn from, adapt to our own uses, or blatantly poach -- from simple decorating and arranging ideas to complex schemes of crop rotation or building construction. Helpfully, Highgrove's head gardener, David Howard, includes a chapter explaining how the transition from traditional gardening to organic approaches began, and some of the key techniques he employs and lessons he's learned. This is followed by six entire pages of listings of various types of plants cultivated in the different gardens and illustrated in each chapter. This, especially, may prove to be a handy resource for many readers.

   If there's one noticeable drawback to this book, it's that there's no overall map or diagram showing where the various gardens are in relation to one another and the house. All I can think is that (assuming there is a reason for not including one) this may be for security purposes -- though that seems unlikely given the number of photographs already included. But after taking an otherwise thorough tour through the kitchen garden, the walled garden, the box garden, the fountain garden, across the terrace, past the sanctuary, under the rose arch, down the thyme walk (my favorite), along the serpentine hedge ... and all the rest, it would have been nice to have a comprehensive view of how it all fits together.

   After having read the earlier title about this garden, it was nice to return six or seven years later (in publishing time) and see how it's all progressing. As the quote on the back cover says, "The Prince of Wales has created at Highgrove one of the most admired gardens in the country," and from philosophy to planning to execution, it's a garden that through this book, we can learn things from or, if we prefer, simply sit back and enjoy.




3. To see a garden of this scale and design run completely organically is one the best arguments for the banishment of chemical garden practices around.
   This book is a great addition to any garden library, and if you do not already garden organically this may be the book that will convert you. That is assuming you have not read A Silent Spring.
   Also makes a handsome gift, dispite all the photos of Prince Charles looking very County.



4. I got this book earlier this year from Amazon U.K., wasn't out here yet, and really liked it. For your money you get a fairly recent photo tour of the grounds at Highrove, Prince Charles country home. There are a lot of pictures of plant life, details of some of the buildings and even some examples of outdoor sculpture. You even learn of a treehouse built for young Princes William & Harry as well as a garden seat given as a wedding present to the Prince and Princess of Wales (nice to know that the Princess hasn't been completely cleared away), two of many details that I haven't seen on television or read in some book or magazine article. I consider the book to be worth owning (just don't expect much gardening information), I just wish there could be a book tour of the interior of the house and other buildings to go with it.



5. I first read about Highgrove in a magazine article ( I think it was Town & Country) several years ago. I clipped the article and looked at the beautiful pictures again and again. When I saw the book, I knew I had to have it. When it arrived last week, I was not disappointed. The pictures of the gardens are beautiful, but the story of the garden's development is even more interesting. The prose is informative and easy to read. I also have a new respect for Prince Charles as a kindred gardener. While my gardens will never match the grand scale of Highgrove (my husband and I do all of the garden work on our five acres while working full time jobs), I have found lots of inspirational ideas that I plan to incorporate in my flower gardens. This book has already given me many hours of enjoyment and I know that I will turn to it whenever I need a gardening fix!

No comments about Dieter Kienast.

1 comments about Urban Design: Street and Square, Third Edition.

1. This book is basically a huge summary of all the Urban Design books writen in the past 100 years. Its nice to have it all in one place, the book is organized well and is a great reference to have in any professional library.

No comments about Offices of Hideo Sasaki.

No comments about Uncommon Ground: Architecture, Technology, and Topography.