No comments about Garden Paths: Inspiring Designs and Practical Projects.

No comments about Landscape Plants in Design: A Photographic Guide.

1 comments about Arts and Crafts Gardens.

1. Wendy Hitchmough's "Arts and Crafts Gardens" is not a bad book, but it is an annoying book. It meets none of the objectives most people would have in buying it: It isn't big enough or have enough pictures to be a big book of beautiful examples. It doesn't have enough about the principles of arts and crafts gardens, or how the principles of the arts and crafts movement were applied to gardens to guide someone who might want to build one. It isn't organized historically so you can see how arts and crafts gardens were invented out of Victorian gardens that went before. It doesn't present a sociological analysis of who built arts and crafts gardens, what they thought they were doing and what we can make of it in retrospect.
   
   In fact, the text is a mess. It seems to be semi-random observations about gardens, the arts and crafts movement, the nineteenth century, Gertrude Jekyll and related topics. The only coherent chapter is "A Sense of Place," which isn't about gardens at all! It's mostly about the architecture, furnishings and living arrangements of Hvittrask, an arts-and-crafts masterpiece compound in Finland.
   
   I'm still looking for a book that can really tell me about arts and crafts gardens.

1 comments about New Orleans: The Making of an Urban Landscape.

1. New Orleans is an "inevitable city on an impossible
   site" is what Pierce Lewis said in his book Making Of An Urban Landscape.
   
   I would add to that "an inevitable party on an impossible site by illicite and illogical people.'
   
   Most of what is there now was not there prior to WWII. The early settlers (1699) understood the land and built appropriately.
   
   If anyone is to blame it is the French! But it is a most wonderful book about the growth and development of a wonderful city.

No comments about The Donnell and Eckbo Gardens: Modern California Masterworks (Environmental Design Archives at the University of California, Berkeley Series).

No comments about Fertilizers: Olin / Eisenman.

5 comments about Artificial Rock Waterfalls: Rock Making Techniques for the Professional And the Hobbyist.

1. It's too bad the only book on this subject is so weak because it's a fun subject. The author is a person who's made many big installations of waterfalls and zoo environments. But alas, English is not his first language, I think it's cement. He seems to have been published while bypassing a ghost writer, an editor, a beta tester and a proof reader.
   
   It's mostly a promotion for the author's businesses. It's clumsy in how it lays out what's really not a very complicated process. I've found pages on the Web with more useful information, better photos, better writing and actual recipes for cements than you'll get here.
   
   Example of the writing, a sidebar in one chapter:
   "IMPORTANT NOTE: Go overboard with anticipating a two feet extension outside the job area after making allowances for it to fill in crevices, the depth of the pond, irregular shapes, etc."
   
   Another sample:
   "Mixing fiber with concrete will greatly help in making sure it 'stacks' easier and looks more 'natural' in the environment."
   
   or this definition of Laitance from the Glossary:
   "a residue of weak and non-durable material consisting of cement, aggregate fines, or impurities brought to the surface of over wet concrete by the bleeding water"
   
   You'll also find valuable tips like this one: "Before beginning to paint, decide what colors to paint your rock."
   
   The photos are amateurish, shadowed and incomplete. The illustrations are nice.
   
   A glaring absence is a discussion about the aesthetics of stone, the design possibilities, the beauty and expression possible when one creates in the medium of the Almighty himself, rock and stone. Nor is a mention made of the different types of stone to mimic and what those might be and how about some photos of a variety of the earth's geologic forms to, at the very least, stimulate some ideas in the mind of the reader and at the most provide a directory of stone types and places to look further in geology. In Kinkade's world there is one type of stone. The kind you buy in preformed panels from his fake rock company.



2. I got the book because I was already planning a project. This text book has everything you need to know to make it happen.



3. You can build a rock waterfall not just for a pond but for a swimming pool, spa, or garden; especially with the step-by-step ideas and instructions in Artificial Rock Waterfalls: Rock Making Techniques For The Professional And The Hobbyist. Produce fountains and falls which look entirely natural, blend it into an existing theme or environment, and understand the materials and construction techniques of different layers in a guide which is loaded with photos of the step-by-step process. Discussions of design alternatives, electrical and plumbing options, and more provide everything you need to gain an idea and the knowledge to follow through.



4. A very informative book, full of information that most of the construction trade regards as closely guarded secrets. Plenty of imagery to go along with well written techniques and methods. Could include more information on different types of rock surfaces (not much there on rocks and boulders with natuarally rounded surfaces) Still, highly recommended.



5. Chapter 1 - Planning and Design takes the reader through site planning and design of your rock and water feature including the concept drawing, plan view and elevation view. The author emphasizes having a clear concept and drawing of what you intend to construct. This detailed planning is of primary importance for a satisfactory outcome.

   
   Chapters 2 and 3 deal with the water part of the rock and water feature. Beginning with the mechanical system and water flow considerations, through plumbing and pumps and finishing with filtration and purification, these chapters help the reader plan these systems.
   
   In chapter 4 we begin the construction of our project with the pond and the foundation for the structure. Chapter 5 covers building the armature for the rock structure with rebar and wire mesh and also illustrates alternatives such as using steel studs, plywood and EPS construction instead of rebar.
   
   Chapter 6 covers the scratch coat, and the texture coat illustrating the making of and use of latex skins to impart a realistic texture to the surface.
   
   Chapter 7 gives painting techniques for finishing the structure to closely resemble natural rocks - a most important part of making artificial rock look like naturally occurring rock.
   
   Chapter 8, the final chapter, takes the reader through step by step construction of a rock feature.
   
   This book is lavishly illustrated with color photos and black and white drawings throughout so that the processes being explained are visually illustrated.
   
   The back of the book contains 3 pages of materials suppliers as well as a 9 page glossary of terms, something that should be most welcome, especially for beginners.
   
   All in all this book is well written and illustrated and obviously comes from many years experience in the field.

1 comments about From Folly to Follies: Discovering the World of Gardens.

1. Hardcover, 238 pages, 11" x 14", color pictures.

   The book is chock-full of stunning Gardens, Landscapes, and ARCHITECTURE, ARCHITECTURE, ARCHITECTURE! Palladian bridges, monuments, and mystical grottos all in beautifully landscaped settings. There are fantastic larger-than-life statues. A cascading waterfall as far as the eye can see. It amazes me how some of these structures (& gardens) were ever created in the first place...and at what a cost!

   This book will be a good addition to the art books on your coffee table.

No comments about Landscape Architecture Theory: An Evolving Body of Thought.

No comments about The Muses of Gwinn: Art and Nature in a Garden Designed by Warren H. Manning, Charles A. Platt & Ellen Biddle Shipman.