No comments about From Streetcar to Superhighway: American City Planners and Urban Transportation, 1900-1940 (Technology and urban growth).

2 comments about Creating Small Formal Gardens.

1. This is an excellent how to for formal gardens. It has a good balance of well done pictures, text and diagrams. Whether you are trying to create a simple herb garden or large complicated parterres and mazes, this book breaks it down without dumbing it down.
   
   The photos and text cover semi-formal styles, like English border gardens, cottage gardens and small backyard spaces. There are good images of knot gardens done in different types of plants and on different scales. There are a number of rose garden styles and herb garden styles. It also covers adding water features, like reflecting pools and ponds into a formal setting. Additionally it has shrub gardens and how to sculpt them.
   
   There is a good chapter of illustrated diagrams. It has 18 basic layouts. Each one with relatively detailed instructions on how to create the desired effect. Including suggestion on how to layer the plantings for visual effect. How to mow the lawn to achieve patterns. Suggestions of brick walkway designs. Alternative hedge trimming patterns. And what plants to use. It also suggests what the annual maintenance is for each different style of garden. Which gives you a great idea of what you're getting yourself into!
   
   After the layouts there is an index of recommended deciduous shrubs and trees, evergreen shrubs and trees, fruiting and flowering trees, foliage plants, etc....it gives zones and light requirements. And it indicates what each plant would be best suited to. Plant names are all in Latin. The index isn't extensive, it only covers 4 pages, but it does give easily attainable plants.
   
   The last pages of the book give illustrations of shaping hedges (with clever ways of keeping them perfectly flat), laying out a perfect knot garden, creating different topiaries, and how to espalier fruit trees.
   
   I love this book, and use it often to show my customers different ideas for their spaces.



2. At first I thought this book would be too sophisticated for a non-professional such as myself - I was wrong! There are many great ideas which I plan to use this summer in my own garden. The author illustrates many garden plans, I have decided to borrow plans from several of them. He also explains tips on how to use symmetry, how to create illusions using height and space, etc. He also explains the history of formal gardens which I found interesting. Another useful feature of this book is the listing of suggested plants for formal gardens and their light requirements. This is the first book I have ever ordered which I picked up and read immediately.

4 comments about Trees for Urban and Suburban Landscapes.

1. This book was written for professional tree managers but in laymen's terms. Gilman gives each tree one page, laying out the pros and cons of each tree in terms of suggested uses and future maintenance. It's easy to evaluate trees and learn about new ones.
   Gilman is well respected among arborists and his "how-to" sections are a mini college-level course in arboriculture. There are also many useful lists.
   As a retail nursery owner I see many tree books from glossy coffee-table volumes to pocket handbooks. This is the book I refer to most often. It's expensive but well worth it for anyone serious about spending money on trees.



2. Essential for anyone serious about trees in the urban landscape.



3. in my original review i stated this book did not have color pictures -- i was wrong about that, it does have small color pictures of each tree.



4. this is the most informative tree book i have found. not a picture coffee table book-- it has no color pictures, but excellent details on choosing plants and cultural needs.

2 comments about Champion in a Man's World: The Biography of Marion Hollins.

1. Marion Hollins is by far one of the most accomplished persons in American history. Her story is motivating and incredible. For anyone who doubts their ability to succeed, this is a must read.



2. Marion Hollins' life story is an amazing series of accomplishments, crowned by her design work at Cypress Point and Pasatiempo Golf Clubs. This is a 'must read' for Central Coast people who want to learn more about how Marion's dedication and determination influenced the formation of Pebble Beach and Pasatiempo during the '20s and '30s. Her tragic ending at an early age leaves the reader wondering what more she could have accomplished had she lived a bit longer.

1 comments about Frederick Law Olmsted and the Boston Park System.

1. Cynthia Zaitzevsky leaves nothing out of this heavily-illustrated explanation of how and why Boston's Emerald Necklace parks were constructed. In addition to the history, she includes draft plans, planting lists, and a full survey of all the architecture and bridges orginal to the park system. After reading of all these accomplishments, you will want to visit the parks to see what remains today.

1 comments about Key Moments In Architecture.

1. This book offers a fairly comprehensive overview of the development of the city from the first stepping stones of Jericho, the Ziggurat at Ur, and Babylon, to the city of the future and the never ending search for utopia. It's a broad history and it's also the foundation for the understanding of ourselves. Cities are "a curiously potent compound of buildings and people. The way people create, use and interact with the fabric of their urban concentrations make for a single entity." This book uses the "medium of architecture" to take a very informative look at that single entity. It's also a well illustrated look with over 200 photographs and drawings - at least one per page and most in full color.

   There are chapters on Greek, Roman, and Islamic styles which touch on domes, columns, vaults, arches, and the first attempts at urban planning. Next we see the contrasts of dark Medieval architecture and its Gothic cathedrals with Renaissance Italy where churches were less grand but the vaulted domes were no less glorious. Emerging from classicism we look next at style and Baroque architecture and then comes an emphasis on the importance of structure. Other chapters look at how the experience of empire influenced style. This is the period beginning in the early 19th century when many of the great cities were laid out and some of the worlds best known landmarks were erected. Finally there is discussion of the International styles of Expressionism and Modernism and following that Post-modernism. Add in short fact files on architectural details as well as mini profiles on some important names in the field (Brunelleschi, Bernini, Wren, Frank Lloyd Wright, Gropius, Mies, Graves, and Sir Norman Foster) and you have here a well planned and thoughtful book.

   Urban planners, geographers, designers, and of course architects will thoroughly enjoy this book. So will those of us who simply want to know more about the built environment we see around us everyday. The book says it best: "architecture is the visible and tangible expression of our society's taste, culture, politics and preoccupations. City architecture, quite simply, is a continuing monument to what we are."

1 comments about A Woman's Hardy Garden (American Gardening Classics).

1. This wonderful book is rightly considered a classic among gardening books. Though it was originally published in 1903, it is still a marvelous resource for the modern gardener. The book starts out with gardening basics, such as soil preparation (the beginning of any garden), laying out the garden, seeds-beds, and planting. Then, the author begins her examination of the flowers that were popular in her time, covering annuals and perennials, and the moving into biennials, roses, lilies, and bulbs. At the end, she turns back to the practical, with a discussion about water for the garden, walkways and other decorations, and finally insecticides (OK, this is rather out-of-date) and tools. The conclusion is also worth reading, containing Ms. Ely's thoughts and several interesting garden diagrams.

   This is an excellent book, and a wonderful resource. It puts so much knowledge together is a readable and interesting format. I highly recommend this book to you. [As a companion to this book, please let me recommend An Island Garden by Celia Thaxter.]

No comments about Great Gardens (Best of Fine Gardening).

No comments about Urban space: A brief history of the city square.

5 comments about An Island Garden.

1. Celia Thaxter tried poetry and fiction, but it is hardly a surprise that this book carries her mark on literature today. A woman possessed by the beauty of flowers, she planned and nurtured her garden year after year on a windswept island off the Atlantic coast of Maine and New Hampshire. Her friends and visitors included a small group of distinguished artists and authors. To those not terribly interested in flower literature, An Island Garden will impress anyway by the sheer passion and stamina of the author.



2. This book is well-written and has beautiful color illustrations by Childe Hassam. It will appeal to gardeners especially, and also bird-lovers and those who are smitten with the coast of Maine. It comes in a slipcase, with an attractive gold-embossed cover and an introduction by Tasha Tudor.



3. Sorry folks, Tasha Tudor didn't write the introduction to this fine book. Allen Lacey wrote it. That doesn't detract from the book, but it does correct the listing above.

   The illustrations are photoengravings of the original stone lithographs. Stone lithographs (chromolithographs) can take up to 30 stones to reproduce the color of the original. Chromolithographs, like wood engravings, are an original art form in and of themselves. They are, naturally, the size of the book itself, and not meant to substitute for the original paintings.

   This is an exquisite little book, issued in a slip case, and makes a nice gift for those interested in the asesthetics of gardening.




4. In the closing years of the Nineteenth Century, Celia Thaxter (1835-94) lived on Appledore, one of the Isles of Shoal off the coast of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Contemplating the lovely garden that she had created there, she decided to write down her thoughts and share them with us. Taking the form of a yearlong calendar, she walks us through her experiences in her garden, as she tends it and protects it throughout the year.

   This is an absolutely wonderful book! Celia obviously loved her garden and all of the green growing things around her. This love shines through the narrative, such as when she wrote, "He who is born with a silver spoon in his mouth is generally considered a fortunate person, but his good fortune is small compared to that of the happy mortal who enters this world with a passion for flowers in his soul."

   As I said before, this book covers a year in the life of Celia's garden, but is not written as a simple chronology. Instead, the book covers Celia's work and her thoughts, moving from advice to poetry with a wonderful casualness. The boxed edition of this book is handsomely decorated, with Childe Hassam's illustrations setting just the perfect tone for it. This book makes a wonderful gift for the gardener in your life, and I can't recommend it enough!




5. Reading An Island Garden by Celia Thaxter has become a yearly ritual for me, to inspire and prepare me for yet another hopeful year of gardening. Ms. Thaxter's intimacy with the pleasures and plagues of each variety of perennial, biennial or annual she grows (mostly of the old-fashioned varieties) is astounding. This book has become a guidebook for me in replicating an old-fashioned "grandmother's" garden. Her poetic descriptions of her "flower children" and fervor in protecting them is both endearing and amusing. At times, it seems as though she is joking when she describes the lengths at which she'll go to ward of the pests which threaten her Island garden. Reading an Island Garden will bring you back to the gentle times of the Victorian Era and is especially perfect seaside or verandah reading. This is definitely for people who love their gardens and consider them as human as a member of the family!