1 comments about Start-to-Finish Paths & Walkways (Ortho Books).

1. Start-To-Finish Paths & Walkways is a straightforward how-to guide to designing, planning, and building functional and decorative brick, stone, wood, concrete, grass, or natural materials paths and walkways as part of a planned landscaping of the home. Step-by-step instructions, full color illustrations, tips, tricks, techniques, exacting measurements, guidelines on tool usage and much more fill the pages of this excellent and highly recommended guide specifically designed for do-it-yourself projects by the non-specialist general reader.

5 comments about Taylor's Master Guide to Landscaping.

1. This book has helped me come up with a plan for the rough land that I have purchased with my new home.



2. This is the most often used book I continually return to for landscaping reference and guidance. It's well written and will have you on the way to improving your landscape after the first read. One reviewer mentions Rita is opinionated. This is true. So you'll have to read around some of the opinions and decide for yourself what holds true for your property.
   
   If you need just one landscaping book, I would highly recommend this book. It has a great balance of ideas, pics, & text. It is well structured and organized.



3. I admire Rita Buchanan's style.

   In a time of the pre-digested, summarized 'Idiot's Guides', she addresses landscape design in a methodical and logical progression. The text doesn't get bogged down in species' names and planting plans, but instead opens our minds to the larger questions of overall goals and needs. As such, I have found this to be the perfect companion as I plan my garden, opening my mind to the wider possibilities that I hadn't considered.

   Having said that, you might be disappointed if you are looking for a book to 'dip into' for rapid solutions. I have found this book more rewarding if you have 30 minutes to spare with a comfy chair and cup of coffee, rather than just a 3 minute break.




4. The book is what its title says and that's good - a master guide to landscaping. While I respect Ms. Buchanan's opinions on matters of landscaping since she obviously is versed enough to complete this well done and comprehensive book, it seems to me that her opinions sometimes get in the way of common, useful, tried and true landscaping practices. Example: On page 229 she adamantly states, "...Disregard anyone who tells you to set hedge plants in a zigzag pattern...", yet the picture above depicts just that and, quite frankly, it's commonly recommended to do so. As a designer, I do use that technique for hedge planting because it creates a billowy effect and it's more visually interesting, in many instances. The point is, that statement is an opinion that may not be based on anything more than personal taste.

   Having said that, it's an excellent and in-depth guide to the extensive field of landscaping and a very good book just to see what her educated opinions might be. Keep an open mind and refer also to other more task-specific books and expertise when faced with landscape challenges. This book certainly will entertain one with its views, many of them interesting and useful.




5. An incredibly complete guide to landscaping your home with many illustrative photographs and diagrams. The author covers everything from the setting up landscaping goals to the techniques of putting in edgings, paths, fences and on to choosing and caring for plants. The author does not pull her punches, coming out, for example, clearly against landscape fabric. Although information on the plants themselves is limited, it is an excellent overall gardening book that can be supplemented by more detailed plant guides.

1 comments about Golf Course Design (Academy Editions).

1. A must for students of golf course architecture. A remarkable book.

   Geoff Shackelford

No comments about The Planting of New Virginia: Settlement and Landscape in the Shenandoah Valley (Creating the North American Landscape).

No comments about Jens Jensen: Maker of Natural Parks and Gardens (Creating the North American Landscape).

No comments about The Illustrated Gertrude Jekyll: Colour Schemes for the Flower Garden.

1 comments about Ecological Aesthetics: Art in Environmental Design: Theory and Practice.

1. Landscapes leave their imprint on human beings. It's the basic intention of this book to make the reader understand landscape as a phenomenon situated between the two (seemingly) opposite poles of nature and culture and, to make us experience the necessity for a sustainable ecological preservation and development of nature through the intervention of art. This is evidenced by a multitude of examples with great illustrations, easy to grasp in the first chapters of the book and becoming increasingly complex and diverse thereafter, particularly in the last part which deals with integrative landscape art. As important and meaningful as the illustrations are the essays compiled in this book. In many respects they provide the fundament for understanding the various images and provide access to the ideas of ecological aesthetics. Although the book may primarily be directed towards artists, art and cultural scientists it is eventually a stimulus for reflexion and an aesthetic joy also for people who, like me, are not active in the art business.

2 comments about The Wild Lawn Handbook: Alternatives to the Traditional Front Lawn.

1. This is a great book that has great pictures and wonderful information on how to choose and start an alternative lawn. I give it 5 stars because it truly provides what it touts, perhaps with a little extra unnecessary information.
   However, EASY LAWNS by Brooklyn Botanic Gardens gives all you need to know at half the price. It, too, has nice pictures. It is smaller and a paperback where WILD LAWN HANDBOOK is a hardcover.



2. There are quite a few books out now about why we shouldn't stick with the traditional grass lawn, but this is the best one I've seen to explain the practical alternatives, with inspiring photos and helpful appendices. Ms. Daniels is really concerned with the aesthetics as well as the politics of environmentally friendly yards. I recommend it to all my friends who are thinking about getting rid of some or all of the grass. A "9" just because I wish it had more pictures

No comments about Denatured Visions.

1 comments about Feast Your Eyes: The Unexpected Beauty of Vegetable Gardens.

1. I was a little disappointed in this book. It is primarily a history of some famous gardens which have been covered more completely elsewhere. The photos are for the most part very old and not as clear as they should be, and there were not enough of them. There are a couple of interesting topics such as an outline of the use of victory gardens during WWI & II, and a small section on Aztec gardens created in a marsh. Otherwise not worth it. I was looking for something more like 'Creative Vegetable Gardening' by Joy Larkom - but this was not it.