2 comments about Gazebos and Trellises: Authentic Details for Design and Restoration (Historic Landscape Detail).

1. "Gazebos and Trellises : Authentic Details for Design and Restoration (Historic Landscape Detail S.) (Hardcover)" is a series of 200 rather small plates of historic structures that garden designers, preservationists and landscape architects may find of marginal use. The author's renderings mainly derived from field and library research of East Coast structures are unemotional, 1-point perspective, flat representations that I find undemonstrative and difficult on the eye.
   
   In the back of the book are three pages listing plants and Vines from: Colonial Times and Republic 1700-1820 - Later Times 1820-1875 - to -Modern. Included in the list is Gloire de Dijon, 1853, - Gardenia, 1899 - and Souvenir de la Malmaison, 1893; among my personal favorites.
   
   The author's rendering style is so dispassionate that his plates of Mount Vernon, Montpelier, and Monticello seem foreign to me.
   
   There is an inadequacy of books on garden trellis and gazebos in general; and a paucity of anything of this genre. Nonetheless, I remain unenthusiastic about the content and cost of this book.



2. Peter Joel Harrison provides a valuable service to architects, designers, preservationists, landscapers and homeowners by researching, recording and presenting the details of historic homes and gardens. His books, full of accurate drawings of historic fences, gates, gazebos, trellises, pavement and garden walls, are tools for anyone who's restoring an 18th or 19th century home or landscape and inspiration for anyone who hopes to infuse some of yesterday's charm into a new building. This book presents fascinating garden buildings in all of the styles of America's architectural heritage. If you're looking for a gazebo or pool house to match your period home, this is the book to start with.

1 comments about The Garden Lover's Guide to Canada (Garden Lover's Guide).

1. This is one of an excellent series covering both North America and Europe. This particular volume is larger than the European volumes (194 pages as opposed to 144 pages in European guides), but the regional maps are very inferior and of limited use. The paper is also much thicker and therfore heavier to bring around. There are no bird's eye views of the quality one sees in the European series and while the photographs are colourful and plentiful, as we expect from this series, most are not acknowledged. There is an index but no glossary or biographies. Most of the gardens featured appear to be public parks and gardens, which is fine except that there are also first class private gardens in Canada open to the public. For example the Milner gardens in BC, created by the late Veronica Milner from the 1950s surely deserves a place in this book - I could name others. Faults notwithstanding, this is a worthwile addition to the series, all of which I possess.

2 comments about Decorating Your Garden: Inspired Ways to Use Ornamental Objects and Furnishings Outdoors.

1. I've got 5 pages bookmarked for inclusion in our gardens! That should say it all, but just in case, here goes.

   There are a lot of books with garden decorating ideas out there, but it's rare that you find a book of this caliber. The ideas, the photography and the writing are all exceptional.

   I strongly recommend this book for anyone who loves spending time in their garden.




2. Lots of gorgeous color photos showing ways to spice up your garden with objects such as steel wire garden furniture, mirrors, and other unique items. What fun. -Linda Fry Kenzle, author of Gathering

No comments about Victoria Moments in the Garden.

1 comments about Landscapes and Gardens for Historic Buildings: A Handbook for Reproducing and Creating Authentic Landscape Settings: A Handbook for Reproducing and Creating ... for State and Local History Book Series).

1. This is an excellent starting point for the beginner. It builds a proper base in a very practical, hands on way. Favretti is a well-known expert in Southern historic garden circles. He's created historic landscapes himself and comes at his subject with a great deal of experience.

No comments about America's New Downtowns: Revitalization or Reinvention? (Creating the North American Landscape).

No comments about Desert Plants: A Curator's Introduction to the Huntington Desert Garden.

No comments about The Living Landscape, Second Edition: An Ecological Approach to Landscape Planning.

No comments about Toward Legacy.

2 comments about Ferruccio Vitale: Landscape Architect of the Country Place Era.

1. This book is beautiful. The art director should be chastized, though, for overlaying the cover text on a portion of a photo that should have shown a majestic tree, balancing the majestic tree on the left.
   
   I did not find the writing terribly compelling, but I am not an academic.
   
   Buy it for the pictures and you won't be disappointed.



2. Ferruccio Vitale: Landscape Architect of the Country Place Era, covers a critically important, previously unpublished period in the history of landscape architecture. It defines and illustrates, for the first time to my knowledge, the European design philosophy that formed the roots and shaped the art of contemporary landscape architectural design.

   The book describes through words and beautiful historic photographs, significant gardens, public parks and landscapes. It presents the professional developments of landscape architecture at the beginning of this century and the amazing accomplishments of Vitale in the advancement of landscape architecture as a profession.

   This book should appeal to landscape architects, architects and designers throughout the nation.