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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!

1 comments about Park Guell.

1. The Park Guell was originally a real estate development in 1900s Barcelona. It was commissioned to the famous Catalonian architect, Antoni Gaudi, by Eusebi Guell. After they died, the park was reopened as a city park. The book explores the heavenly park built in "the manner of angels" by Gaudi.

1 comments about Midwest Landscape Design.

1. A well informed helpful guide to succesful gardening in the midwes

No comments about Lare Review Section C Vignettes: Site Design.

2 comments about Landscape Operations: Management, Methods, and Materials (3rd Edition).

1. Being a Landscape Architecture student I thought this book would be very good. I was sadly dissapointed after purchasing it and realizing that the author just touches on some of the important information and doesn't seem to go into any detail what so ever. Sometimes it seems as if the author doesn't even know what he it talking about. I think this was just a case of wanting another published book to add to the resume so he filled it with generalized information.



2. This book is not good. It touts covering the greenhouse/nursery business, there was a total of 9 pages covering nothing. I could not find any useful information regarding industry specific information other than how to build this and that. Most of the how-to information is outdated and highly generalized with lack of interest to codes, etc. If you are going to buy, buy used.

2 comments about Border Book (DK Living).

1. This is an awsome book to have if you like to decorate your yard with living things! Bushes,flowers,plants- you name it and it can be turned into a beautiful border. I have this in the large paperback version and let me just say...my yard sparkles with life. It is a wonderful and easy to understand guide to creating stunning borders around your home and yard. I bought one for my mother-in-law and she loves it. Can't go wrong with this item!!



2. This extremely well-conceived book gives planting plans for a variety of border situations (shady, sunny & stony, poolside, a very narrow space, etc.). It features drawings of each border in two different seasons, showing how the look will change as different plants come into bloom, photographs of each plant, and suggestions for varying each border by substituting plants which will give a different color scheme or look. A lot of information is packed into a concise format full of interesting planting ideas, making this an exceptionally useful and readable book.

1 comments about Sir Edwin Lutyens: Designing in the English Tradition.

1. Although this book was published in 2000, I was surprised to find no customer had yet reviewed it. It is a little different from other books on the work of Sir Edwin Lutyens.
   First of all, most of the photographs are in color, bringing the subjects to life in a way that was not possible in previous books, many of them relying largely on old photographs from Country Life magazine. Thus we get a much more real feeling of those classic Lutyen houses, nestling into their incredible English gardens (largely designed by Gertrude Jekyll) and see how the design is carried on through to the interiors. All the favorite Lutyens houses are there - Goddards, Orchards, Little Thakeham, Munstead Wood, Deanery Garden, Marsh Court and more.
   Another difference in this book is that it deals not only with the architecture but also with the design of the interiors, the architectural fixtures and accessories and the furniture, which in themselves are amazing - they bow to tradition, yet look to the future - and many have been borrowed by more than one modern designer.
   This book is well worth consideration.

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