No comments about Leading Residential Landscape Professionals (Perfect Home).

1 comments about Roman Gardens: Villas of the Countryside.

1. One would think that a book titled 'Roman Gardens' would.... well, contain a little more gardens and a little less interior. I ordered this along with it's companion (Roman Gardens; Villas of the city), they are both currently on the way back from whence they came. Also - very disappointing - a lot of the photographs are out of focus and shot from bad angles. My ten-year-old takes better photographs.

No comments about Urban structures for the future.

1 comments about Gardening With Soul: Healing the Earth and Ourselves With Feng Shui and Environmental Awareness.

1. "Gardening With Soul" in its most basic form is a book about establishing a garden using Feng Shui techniques. Gardens have traditionally been a place of solace and recharging our energy levels. In this book Gaylah Balter takes us through the steps of planning that place of sanctuary and then creating it. From discussing the qualities of trees, plants, water and soil to a discussion of color coordination, use of rocks, insects, butterflies and wildlife it covers all you need to know to create a garden that is in harmony. I particularly liked the chart that provided a list of plants to be protected, the insects that attack them and the guard plant that will repel that insect.

   While useful for those who are not of the New Age mindset, the last half of the book includes a chapter on communicating with angels and fairies to help with your garden and an extensive section on Feng Shui. The Feng Shui section details various ways to lay out your garden that promote centering and harmony and is very good. For those who want to create a garden sanctuary this is an informative and recommended book.

1 comments about The English Flower Garden.

1. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN by William Robinson, was first published in 1883 and republished a number of times afterward. The current version available from Amazon is a reprint of the 15th Edition Robinson edited shortly before he died in the 1930s. This new reprint of the 15th Edition contains the "Botanical Revisions" prepared by Graham Stuart Thomas for the 1984 Edition, as well as a Forward by Henry Mitchell, and an introduction by Deborah Nevins.

   The book is set in old style type and contains numerous black and white illustrations--etchings of photos and prints of sketches. Some of them are a bit grainy, but many are not, and even the grainy ones have their good points. The content of each photo is quite interesting, and the sketches provide the "personal" touch one seldom sees in text books these days.

   In one print, taken at Gravetye Manor over 100 years ago, a climbing tea rose clings to a bamboo split-rail post fence surrounded by bush roses. The sunlight reflects from the walkway and warms the flowers and a huge clay pot sitting in a corner. In another photo, pots of 'Chimney Campanula' guard an old Jacobin chest sitting in a hall at Staunton Court. Sketches and photos are used to illustrate flowers all through the last half of the book--a flower dictionary with anectdotal and literary "blurbs" written by Robinson himself.

   Mitchell says Robinson "for all practical purposes invented gardening as we know it." Robinson's garden, 'Gravetye Manor' is a hop, skip and a jump from Sissinghurst, but few know of it's existence. Yet, Robinson is the "grandfather" of Sissinghurst, because Gertrude Jekyll who helped Mrs. Nichols design Sissinghurst, was Robinson's disciple. She literally followed in his footsteps and emulated his style.

   Robinson found most of the gardens of his day deplorable (19th Century Victorian). Those of the wealthy were modeled after the French and Italian formal plan, loaded with clipped Yews and bedded out every spring with ribbons of color provided by geraniums and marigolds. The walkways were lined with ornate scupture and surrounded by towering "imprisoned" evergreen shrubs and trees including clipped Yews which he loathed. He said these gardens reminded him of graveyards.

   His ideal was the cottage garden. He considered the garden a sacred space. He said one had to visit the houses of the poor to find truly beautiful gardens. Henry Mitchell reflecting on this says, "The thing that separates the true gardener from the mere architect or designer (and there is something extremely suspicious in the airs they give themselves nowadays) is that the gardener stands in awe before his violets, while others think of them in terms of [sic] plant materials."

   Robinson's ideas grew out of the Romantic movement of the late 18th and early 19th Century. His designs and thinking were reflected in the Arts and Crafts movement based on the importance of reconnecting to nature. His contemporaries in thinking were Ruskin, Morris, Stickly, Frank Lloyd Wright, and others we identify with this movement. If you're a Stickly, cantilevered, picturesque kind of person, you'll like this book.

1 comments about Kienast Vogt Open Spaces.

1. This book reveals an extraordinary body of landscape architectural work that is at least notably accomplished and, at its best, reflects a comprehensive expression and thorough understanding of the forces and elements that celebrate the confluence of nature and man. It is what Konrad Osterwalder -who selected Kienast as the "founder figure" of the landscape architecture program at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology- acknowledges as the act of entering into nature while retaining an awareness of cultural perceptions.

   Kienast's work is reflective of a marvelous simplicity of which Mies would be proud, and his use of materials -especially plants- manifests a managed and thoughtful approach, almost tender and certainly romantic. Grounded in horticulture and plants like so many European landscape architects, it is through Kienast's measured use of a broader palette of materials common to the landscape that his remarkable talent is most celebrated. Especially revealing are the observations of his peers, presented in short essays, that honor both the technical and aesthetic achievements manifest in Kienast's work. Captured in a variety of images, the seasonal impacts that interplay with Kienast's landscapes are an essential representation that pays just homage to the reflective brilliance of his expressive interpretations.

   The text shares Kienast's view that it is only through variety that a place can acquire an identity. The spirit of such places can emerge and be recognized only through emancipation of a satisfactory (landscape) design, relevant utilization, appropriate care, and healthy ecology: these criteria surelywere essential to the works of many great American landscape architects including Olmsted, Eliot, Farrand, Church, and others. The underpinnings of the bridge between contemporary European and American landscape architecture continue to be sustained through this text.

   This text places landscape architecture on a European meridian of great import to the larger discipline that carries its message well beyond European boundaries. It is an important work on a landscape architect who died too young (age 53, in 1998), with much work still to be accomplished. Perhaps others will follow a path parallel to Dieter Kienast: the landscape would surely be better for it!

5 comments about The Sanctuary Garden: Creating a Place of Refuge in Your Yard or Garden.

1. While this book may not have glossy photos, it is none-the-less a dreamer's guide to gardening and solved my biggest garden problem: how to make visitors stop and abide awhile in my garden.
   
   On home garden tours, I often watch people fall prey to a mindset of "strolling on a mission" as they move from one composed vista to the next, mentally recording pretty combinations or successful "scenes." I was saddened recently to see a beautiful pergola draped in exotic jade vine (Strongylodon macrobotrys) with people flocking to see the flowers, but not one person felt genuinely invited to sit inside. In my mind, a garden fails if it does not: A.) stop you in your tracks and B.) invite you to sit awhile, quietly and comfortably.
   
   One of my goals is to open my garden to such a home tour and discover people lingering, feeling transcendently at peace and at home. This book helped me find a way to transform the garden experience from people saying "pretty" to people having conversations in outdoor salons.
   
   I share the other reviewer's experience. I am a visual person and gravitate towards books with landscape plans and photos. I have a library shelf full of garden design books; Feng Shui, modern, Balinese, etc. and binders of ideas from magazine clippings. Yet this book did more to shape the garden experience I want visitors to have than any other.
   
   Each garden "room" should function the same way as the vibrant passages the authors use to open each section in the book: creating layers of engagement that invite you to reflect.
   
   I found myself evaluating designs with more than just an eye for cleverness or cohesiveness. This book is an invitation to center yourself before setting out to create a peaceful space outdoors.



2. I bought this book from a different web retailer because of the online description; I did not see it in the store first. If I had, I wouldn't have bought it, because it is a philosophy book about gardening. I tend to buy gardening books that have lots of photos or diagrams of examples. This book has no photos and only a few drawings. It is all text. If you are a "show me" kind of person like I am, then don't buy this book.



3. I LOVE this book. It's about so MUCH more than just digging in the dirt! I especially love the watercolor illustrations. We have always called our own backyard a sanctuary. Now, we are incorporating some of the bountiful ideas found in this cornucopia of garden delights.



4. This is a wonderful book! It is very inspiring, and the ideas are easy to follow, understand, and adapt to your own space and needs. I loved the descriptions of their garden/sanctuary at their home, and am inspired to try to create some sacred space in my own life. Thank you for a truly fantastic book!



5. Almost a "garden as metaphor," book, you won't find concrete advide about how to plant, or what to do about pests, etc. You will find an inspired pathway to spirit via the garden. The authors write with a clear, poetic voice about earth, wind, water and sunlight as manifestations of the soul. As an avid gardener, this is one of my all time favorites! It would make a terrific gift for anyone interested in the natural/spiritual worlds.

No comments about John Claudius Loudon and the Early Nineteenth Century in Great Britain: [Papers] (Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History of Landscape Architecture// Papers).

1 comments about The Stream Garden: Create Your Own Natural-Looking Water Feature.

1. The Stream Garden is a truly inspirational book designed to help the gardener design and create a stream garden. The photographs are superb and excellent examples. Clear direction is given for building the stream and there are plenty of plant suggestions to make the stream look natural. This book complements Water in the Garden by James Allison - which in my opinion is the best pond book on the market. Both of these books combine inspirational photographs with practical knowledgeable directions.

No comments about Placing Nature: Culture And Landscape Ecology.