No comments about Shading Our Cities: A Resource Guide For Urban And Community Forests.

No comments about Victoria Moments in the Garden.

1 comments about Lare Review, Section C Sample Exam: Site Design.

1. These books are good for reviewing for the LARE. They are a good example of how the test questions are worded and how the test is set up. The only things I studied for the exam was these books and Time Saver Standards and I passed all of the sections on the first try except for one of the graphic sections and that was just because I made a couple stupid mistakes.

1 comments about Reflections of the Spirit: 2Japanese Gardens in America.

1. Maggie Oster is one of the best kept secrets in the world of photography today. We share her wonder as she makes us stop and see the miracle of growing things, and the art created by a thoughtful mind and a patient hand. The gardens she shows us are some of the most magical places on earth, serene yet vibrant, still and quiet yet energized with life and promise. Don't treat this like a "coffee-table" book - give yourself over to her "magical mystery tour"!

No comments about Hawaiian Gardens are to Go to, A Treasury of Tropical Plants and Gardens.

No comments about The Lure of the Japanese Garden.

No comments about A Guide to the National Road (The Road and American Culture).

2 comments about Taylor's Weekend Gardening Guide to Topiaries and Espaliers: Plus Other Designs for Shaping Plants (Taylor's Weekend Gardening Guides).

1. This is a great beginner's book on how to create topiaries & espaliers. The book is in full color with lots of photos. Instructions are clear and easy to follow. In each section appropriate plant types are discussed.

   First, frameless topiaries are described. Designs included are lollipop, poodle, spiral, & corkscrew trees. The book then shows how to make empty frame topiaries. Included are circles, hoops and spirals.

   Then it shows you how to make a moss-filled bunny. Following this method you can make almost any shape imaginable. Several kinds of espalier shapes, and how to make them are then show.

   Finally, knots, mazes, pleaching, pollarding & coppicing are covered. Proper tools and shaping hedges are explained as well. Be aware that most plants used are for warmer climates (zone 6 or above).




2. This is the first negative review I've written, and I feel badly about it. I was so anticipating the arrival of this book.

   The instructions, which I was eager to get, were only the most general, basic things I already knew even though I'm a raw beginner. I was particularly interested in espalier and pleached allee directions and was hoping for a book with lot of focus on these. A couple of short articles available on the Net were much more informative and illustrated each step very clearly.

   The list of recommended plant materials was limited. With a little research on the Internet, I obtained a much more extensive list suited to my area.

   The photos were the best part, although they could have been improved, too.

   The most positive statement I can make is that the price was most reasonable, and perhaps that is why this book was so lightweight, more for browsing than using for instruction.

   I'm ordering another book from Amazon, hoping for better instructions--and hopefully, I'll be able to write a glowing review!

2 comments about The Contemporary Guesthouse: Building in the Garden.

1. i was most impressed by this truly valuable publication - a must for anyone's library interested in efficient design, architecture and entertaining.



2. This book is consistently wonderful. As a collection of small scale architectural works, it illustrates that small in size can be large in ambition and accomplishment. Sirefman uses the guest house to represent an important cross section of contemporary architecture, and the book is a gem.
   
   The guest house (as a "type") is generally considered second string to the main house architecturally, but this collection argues that it doesn't have to be. The guest house's transitory, secondary nature allows it a freedom that a primary house does not have. The projects in the book have playfulness, eccentricity, quirks, and drama (sometimes all at once) that are immediately compelling. But the dialogue between main house and guest house is not the primary emphasis of the book - instead the best projects here are visual essays about the guest house's place in the garden. Many projects here play with the question that F L Wright asked Philip Johnson at the Glass House: "Well, are we inside or are we outside?"
   
   High points include the luminous and dazzling Mountain Tree House by Mack Scogin, or the brooding, poetic entries from two Japanese architects (Satoshi Okada, Atelier Hitoshi Abe).
   
   The selection of projects is refreshingly international. Although weighted toward the New York area, the most compelling projects are far from the madding crowd - coming from Mittagong, Australia, Dillard, Georgia, or Duluth, Minnesota. It's an interesting statement on the current dispersal of design talent that what's shown here from Oklahoma City, for example, is more accomplished than anything on the pages by New York architects.

No comments about Landscape Architecture: An Illustrated History in Timelines, Site Plans and Biography.