1 comments about The Private Gardens Of Charleston.

1. If you haven't had the opportunity to see the beautiful gardens of Charleston in person, then this book should suffice until you can get there. Twenty-five private gardens are presented here with color photos and an essay for each. All of the elements that make these gardens so special - brick walls and pathways, neat boxwood hedges, colorful flowers like azaleas and camellias, fountains, wrought-iron gates and cobblestoned courtyards - are on delicious display. Various garden styles are represented here - classical, contemporary, an atrium garden and the garden of a palm collector are just a few examples. The author's own garden, featuring neat brick-edged beds filled with roses and perennials is included.

2 comments about People Places: Design Guidlines for Urban Open Space, 2nd Edition.

1. The book is excellent, but the extra $15 I paid to view the book online before it arrived was not worth the money. (only chapter titles and brief excerpts came up, or nothing at all would come up... disappointing)



2. I read this book as part of a research project I was doing about the design of college campuses. I found it to be extremely helpful in my project and I plan on refering to it in the future; I am pursuing a Master's of Landscape Architecture. What I liked about this book is two-fold:

   1. Each chapter is a self-contained guide to designing a plaza, park, campus, or playground with people in mind. This important to me becuase I try to focus my designs around the people who will be using them. Each chapter gives useful design tips and helps about the given topic.

   2. This book was academic while remaining readable. The authors refer to studies relevent to the topic at hand, but do not become bogged down in theoretical nonsense.

   I recommend buying it to anyone who would like a well-organized general design reference book. I would not recommend it to anyone who needs in depth information on any specific topic covered in the book. Check it out from the library if that is your intent.

No comments about Sites Unseen: Landscape and Vision.

1 comments about Sports Fields: A Manual for Design Construction and Maintenance.

1. As a lawn care business owner we are always looking for new learning opportunities. There is so much info on field maint. This is a great book. I think it was well worth the price.

1 comments about Sunset Midwestern Landscaping Book.

1. Beautiful photos and great discriptions. So many ideals for your landscaping. Lots of questions answered.

No comments about With People in Mind: Design And Management Of Everyday Nature.

5 comments about Best Plants for New Mexico Gardens and Landscapes: Keyed to Cities and Regions in New Mexico and Adjacent Areas.

1. I feel like i wasted my money on this book. it has not helped me pick plants for where i live and i plan to sell in a garage sale!



2. This is by far the most thoroughly researched and thought out book on landscaping and gardens/plants of any book for any region I have found. What is great is that it is for us and not for Texas or Arizona or Colorado. These states have plenty of mention in other publications...The author even took to the time to research what grows in each town first hand, not by just looking at a USGA map for plant hardiness. I have recommendeded this book to many people interested in landscaping here in New Mexico and I guard mine like it was gold. Don't lend it out, you may not get it back.



3. I bought this book primarily for the plant listing, and am disappointed. After looking through it, I reviewed the title of the book and realized that it is not actually billed as a xeriscaping guide. There are some xeric selections, but lot of these plants grow great in New Mexico only if you water them like crazy. Some of them shouldn't be planted here at all, such as silver maple (browning at the edges of the leaves by the end of July, not just in my yard, but elsewhere in my neighborhood too), and salt cedar (a significant environmental hazard even within the Albuquerque metro area).
   I liked the first part of this book the best - the general overview of gardening in New Mexico is informative and easy to read. The final section of the book, city-by-city plant guides, is just not very useful to me since I only garden in Albuquerque.



4. Xeriscape doesn't mean ugly. This book will help you find plants that are pretty and that won't take up a lot of water. IT's a great book.

   This is our reference book for when we are adding something to our yard. We have a full acre that we are working on (slowly!) and this book has helped us every step of the way.

   The color pictures make it easy to see exactly what a plant looks like. The color pictures also help when you are trying to find the name of the tree in some yard that you thought was pretty. The information it has on each plant is very useful- it gives you the area it will grow best in (example: Albuquerque or statewide in the shade or statewide up to 800 feet elevation). The other thing that makes this book a good buy is the plant list for different areas. For example, there is a plant list for Gallup/Grants area. These lists give you trees, grasses, shrubs, flowers and more that will grow well in your area.

   This is the best resource out there if you live in New Mexico and want to have a lovely landscaped area.




5. Keeping plants alive in New Mexico is very difficult. If you're thinking of buying this book you already know this. If you do buy it you'll find out how to solve all of your yard and garden problems. This book tells you everything you need to know to successfully surround your home with attractive plants instead of the tiresome and difficult to maintain bluegrass lawn or gravel pit one sees so often in New Mexico.

   Most importantly, the book lists plants suitable for every inhabited part of New Mexico. If you've learned to garden in Gallup but want to know what to plant in Deming or Santa Fe, this book is for you.

   The plant lists and photographs make this book an essential money and water saving gardening tool for the New Mexico gardener. Buy it for yourself and give a copy to to your new neighbors!

4 comments about Golf Has Never Failed Me: The Lost Commentaries of Legendary Golf Architect Donald J. Ross.

1. Although the only real written work Ross has left us, it is a wellspring of information regarding his thinking on good (and bad) course design. There are also comments regrading how the game was played in his day and a number of other informative and enlightening segments.
   
   The overall style of the book is a collection of short comments on concepts, courses, and techinques of course building. As such, it lacks the flair that we see in other books written by the same generation of architects to illustrait a greater story (as with, for example, Macdonald's Scotland's Gift). Even so, Ross' character comes out.
   
   In addition to the rare look we get at the thinking of a master course architect, there are also numerous photos and design sketches that bring into clear view what is being discussed.
   
   Lastly, for those hoping to hunt down a Ross course near you, there is an index of Donald Ross designed courses and clubs included.
   
   It should be kept in mind that this is a book for the architecture crowd. People looking to "shave off a few strokes" will need to look elsewhere. It is hoped, though, that this book will be available before the 2005 US Open at Pinehurst, as there will no doubt be an increased interest in Ross and his courses.



2. In the introduction to this book, Donald Ross's daughter says, ". . .he approached every new course with the idea that the golf player, champion or duffer, should complete his round challenged by the layout and enriched by the beauty of nature."

   In his career, Donald Ross designed more than 400 courses in the United States. His most famous is Pinehurst No. 2, considered one of the ultimate tests of tournament golf.

   This book was created from an old manuscript Mr. Ross wrote in 1914 that was never published, intended as a guide to future golf architects, supplemented with other published commentaries by and about Ross.

   Mr. Ross had an unusual background for a golf course architect. In a time when engineers usually designed and built the courses, he had served as the pro and greenskeeper at Dornoch in Scotland, after training at St. Andrews with Old Tom Morris and at Carnoustie. The lure of much higher income and the opportunity to build lots of golf courses drew him to the United States with his first job of rebuilding Oakley in Watertown, Massachusetts.

   Here are some of the ideas he shares in the book:

   "These are my standards to laying out a golf course.

   Make each hole a different problem.

   So arrange it that each stroke must be made with full concentration and attention necessary to good golf. Build each hole in such a manner that it wastes none of the ground at my disposal, and takes advantage of every possibility I see."

   A sandy loamy soal is best, with very little humus. This gives you better playing conditions and a longer season. Long Island and Cape Cod are best.

   Avoid clay soils because they are hard to drain. Unfortunately, most land around major cities is clay soiled. Favor fan-shaped and oblong tracts of land so that the clubhouse can be returned to with little wasted land after 9 holes.

   Start out with two or more easy holes.

   Favor par 4s unless people insist on par 5s. Par 4s make a better test, especially 425-450 yard ones.

   On par 5s, provide two paths to the green -- one for reaching in 2 and one for reaching in 3.

   "Select your putting green locations, if possible, to give desirable undulating surfaces."

   "Make all the short holes difficult."

   "The holes should be trapped so that par golf depends on skill rather than physical strength."

   "Bunkers should so be placed as to be clearly in view, and in such locations as to make all classes of golfers think."

   He recommends designing from the land, rather than on paper. He also suggests building the best few holes the land will allow, because golfers are attracted and retained by memories of great and challenging holes. He ends humbly with "I am not much of a writer. I find my thoughts run far ahead of my hand and figures when I sit down to write."

   There are about 60 pages in the book that will be valuable to architects and greenskeepers, but will not do much for golfers. You may choose to skip those.

   The book lists the known Donald Ross courses, and has many beautiful black and white photographs and illustrations.

   One of the pleasures of reading this book for me relates to having played on many Donald Ross courses, and belonging to a country club (Brae Burn in West Newton, Massachusetts) that has a Donald Ross course. The book features 3 photographs from our course (the 1st, 2nd, and 17th holes). I will certainly have many new thoughts whenever I play this course after reading this interesting book. To golf's pleasures, I can now add thinking about what the architect was trying to accomplish.

   I also came away with a greater appreciation for Donald Ross, because he was trying to make golf more challenging and less frustrating for the average club golfer like me. This made me want to play many more Donald Ross courses in the future. I hope you have that reaction, too.

   Use this book to help you pick courses that will improve your enjoyment of golf!

   What else do you enjoy doing where the designer or architect makes a difference to you?

   If you like this book, there is a new book out with color photographs of 18 of Mr. Ross's finest holes that you should see entitled: Golf as It Was Meant to Be Played which I also reviewed.




3. Donald Ross was the pivotal figure in the establishment of golf as a recreational sport in the U.S. His courses remain as challenging today as they were during his times.

   This book gives the reader insights into how to view a course with a critical eye. And after reading it, one can quickly identify the trademark features of a Ross design and perhaps score a little better on it.

   The book also provides a comprehensive listing of courses.

   --The man who is going to play every Donald Ross course.




4. This book is timeless. Written over fifty years ago the text and accompanying photos and sketches are well done. If you want to understand a Donald Ross Golf Course then you need to read this book.The photographs are from a time gone by - you can picture yourself there.

No comments about Designing the Landscape: An Introductory Guide for the Landscape Designer.

2 comments about The Gas Station in America (Creating the North American Landscape).

1. This book covers a wide range of issues related to the development of gas stations in America. Its primary focus is to show how the idea of the gas stationed developed and how it changed the cultural and physical landscape of America. There are wonderful pictures in here that show a wide range of gas stations and layouts around the city. It is also an excellent corporate history of oil companies and their role in serving as gas stations. It takes a look at the break up of Standard Oil and its subsidiaries to the mom and pop operations that ran across the country. The idea of product placement is loosely tied in throughout the book and I think the authors are forced to stretch to far to place it here. The book takes on a very academic quality with that discussion and for the general reader it will be a waste of time. As a historian I did not find it useful and I enjoyed the discussion of how these stations developed. Overall this is one of the best sources out there on how the gas station evolved and an excellent look at urban history.



2. I think that this book really is a great resource to people who are interested in American history and how an industry can evolve over the decades. The information regarding the retail petroleum industry itself was a little bit thin. I would have liked to see how the industry boomed when cars became a necessity to Americans and how the gas station industry handled that. The pictures in the book make the book very likable even to the everyday person picking up the book off of a coffee table. It takes older American's back to their younger days of $.05 gas and younger American's to a time when gas wasn't over $2.00 a gallon. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to a person who is interested in the industry of retail petroleum and the evolution of the gas station we all use!