No comments about Nature, Landscape, and Building for Sustainability: A Harvard Design Magazine Reader (Harvard Design Magazine).

No comments about The World beyond the Windshield: Roads and Landscapes in the United States and Europe.

No comments about Landscape And Images.

1 comments about Color Atlas of Turfgrass Diseases.

1. I bought this book hoping to increase my knowledge of turf grass disease identification. The book is very in depth and informative but most of the pictures are from golf courses in Japan. Since most of the disease I see is on residential properties, they dont look anything like the pictures in the book. Most of those were taken on putting greens on Japanese bent grass. Its a good book, but not if your working with tall fescue.

No comments about Interior Landscapes: Horticulture and Design.

4 comments about Secret Gardens of Santa Fe.

1. This is a beautiful book! I am designing a garden in Australia, this has given me so many ideas, from plant selection, colours, points of view and interest. Incorporating modern art and traditional building ideas. I hope you enjoy this too!



2. This is a beautiful book for artists and gardeners. Wonderful color combinations in landscapes & hardscapes, all accented with inspiring art pieces. Good text but...the photos say it all! (No offense to the author, I know writing is hard work.)



3. Santa Fe is a pretty tough place to garden. At 7,000 feet, the growing season is short, winds are high, and a five-year drought has made watering your garden politically incorrect.
   
   Nevertheless, serious gardeners persevere, and some of the better results are documented here. It helps to be rich, to have a private well, to have a gardener -- best if you have all three. The color photo reproductions here are simply splendid. The text ranges from OK to pretty good (but who buys flower-porn for the text?) Recommended for gardening and Santa Fe fans, who will surely drool over the lovely gardens, homes and art so beautifully portrayed here.
   
   Happy gardening,
   Peter D. Tillman
   Santa Fe



4. The photographs, in The Secret Gardens of Santa Fe, offer a glympse of a very special place in the western states. Sydney Leblanc does a fine--brief--job descibing the history of Santa Fe, and the reasons the gardens of this unique area do so well. Charles Mann has the touch when it comes to photography. He captures the mystery, the spectacular colors and design, and the fabulous art that adorns many of the gardens. A terrific book that makes one want to visit New Mexico, and see for one's self the magic of the high desert.

No comments about F.L.O.: A Biography of Frederick Law Olmsted.

5 comments about Golf by Design: How to Lower Your Score by Reading the Features of a Course.

1. Robert Trent Jones Jr. is a master Golf Course Architect - as anyone who has played one of his designs can attest first hand. This book gives strong insight into his thinking - and the thinking of course designers around the planet - on the subject of constructing every part of a golf course such that the golf course offers both enjoyment and challenge to all who experience the great game. But more than that - Robert Trent Jones Jr. offers his thoughts on recognising and reading the features of a course and the intention of its designer/architect - and how features give players clues on how the designer/architect intended a particular hole should be played. This information alone will lower your golf handicap.
   
   Including details on everything from the peculiarities of different types of grasses and how best to play from each, thru the different types of sand and their characteristics; and even discussing the advantages of carrying 3 wedges rather than two - this book is another Robert Trent Jones Jr. masterpiece. It should be required reading and a part of the library of every golfer who has ever loved the worlds greatest game, or anyone who is its student.



2. For whatever reason, there are only a handful of books available that address the problems of golf strategy specifically. Many of those turn out to be little more than lessons on how to hit a draw or fade, or to play out of rough. Only a few actually deal with the problem of hole designs and everything that comes with them.
   
   In this light, Golf by Design is a raging success. It offers a look into the thinking of the architect and sheds light on a great many areas of play that usually get swept under the carpet in favor of learning to hit 300 yard drives. What do different bunker placements and shapes do to define a course? What effect can grass types have on how a shot rolls? Where should a person be looking to find the best angle to attack a fairway or green?
   
   Since the time of this work's publishing, several similar volumes have come out, not the least those dealing specifically with architecture itself. Others, including Butch Harmon's Playing Lessons, mix in swing tips with strategies for golfers of differing calibers. It is possible, though, that a good overall book on golf, such as Golf Magazine's Complete Book of Golf Instruction, will include a great deal of information located here.
   
   Three things you will not find in other volumes, however, are details on the visual illusions used by an architect, the diagrams, illustrations, and photos found in this volume that do the best job of demonstrating a point of any book around, and lastly an insight into the RT Jones philosophy of course design. This last point may be of particular importance to a number of golfers, as their favorite courses may be a RTJ work.
   
   In the end, however, the fact that a working architect with his own interests at heart is the author keeps the book from having the impact that it could. Several jabs are taken at other architects here and there, some probably deservingly, but still making for an ugly display. The fact that the author is a skilled golfer himself comes out in one passage too many, where we see a guiding hand from the enlightened being offered to the poor initiate. However, Although many of the examples given do come from RTJ courses, this is nothing to fault the author for. Readily available material is the boon of any writer.
   
   If you have not read anything on golf architecture, and want to get an idea of what it is all about and how it affects your game, Golf by Design might be the right place to start. Anyone with some education in course design might be best served by saving up for a trip to a famous layout, as the hands-on experience will probably be more worthwhile.



3. RTJ II's Golf By Design provides a number of insights into the mind of the designer and how they view the elements that go into the design of a golf hole. I found the book to be more descriptive of how designers think and less prescriptive about what the player should do in terms of dealing with the various design elements (Butch Harmon's Playing Lessons is a much more strategic approach to playing individual holes). Many of the leading architects of this day and age have written similar books (Trent Jones Sr., Pete Dye, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Fazio ....) - consider this book RTJ II's contribution to this genre .....



4. I found this book playing a beautiful local Robt. Trent Jones, Jr. course that's in this book, The Orchards. He shows you the clues the designer has placed their to steer you to a respectable round.

   From the tee box to the fairway routing and bunker construction, to the style of course, i.e. links, prairie, desert, etc., this master architect using examples of his existing designs shows the risks and rewards of different strategies.

   I found that not only did this help me to play Robt. Trent Jones, Jr. courses, but other good architects layouts as well.

   Well worth the investment!




5. I play many different public courses and often times have trouble reading new courses, resulting in several shots wasted until I become familiar with the course.

   I found Golf by Design to be really helpful in giving me the insight to read a course right off the bat and often saving me the wasted shots. It has also helped me appreciate the design and layout of the course that much more.

   I would also recommend it to beginners as a great introduction into 'course management'

5 comments about The Garden at Highgrove.

1. This is a fabulous book and a treasure for garden lovers. It's nice for even amateur gardeners to have a selection of books on Sissinghurst, Giverny, and now Highgrove. I especially loved this book because of the unusual features including the stumpery, which is, quite simply, fantastic. The pictures are beautiful, and I even enjoy the winter scenes.(snow+England=Dickens for me!). The beautiful statues and sculptures are unique--and range from classical to modern;they all seem well-placed in this garden. I liked the way the Prince of Wales encouraged young stonemasons to give their castoffs to add to a wall that looks to be straight out of Alice in Wonderland.
   It's true that not of all of us can live like a Prince, but it apparent that his Duchy employs a number of people--and it seems he has been more than generous in opening his garden to visitors and fundraisers. If I knew how beautiful and inspiring this book was--or even that there was such a book--I would have bought it earlier (big regret). I anticipate many years of delightful viewing.



2. If The Prince's 1993 book "Highgrove: An Experiment in Organic Gardening and Farming" was a manifesto disguised as a picture book, this title is, comfortingly, just what it appears to be: a guided tour of The Prince of Wales' very impressive gardens at his country seat, Highgrove.

   Of course, there is still a strong bit of advocacy for an organic approach to gardening. But here, it doesn't edge into discussions of European agricultural policy or the historic despoiling of the British countryside. Instead, explanations of the organic method are an underlying, but essential, part of telling the garden's story

   The narrative of how the garden has developed over two decades is an interesting one, and any gardener will enjoy and be inspired by the beautiful photography. And although few of us are able to garden on the Prince's scale, there is still an awful lot in here we can learn from, adapt to our own uses, or blatantly poach -- from simple decorating and arranging ideas to complex schemes of crop rotation or building construction. Helpfully, Highgrove's head gardener, David Howard, includes a chapter explaining how the transition from traditional gardening to organic approaches began, and some of the key techniques he employs and lessons he's learned. This is followed by six entire pages of listings of various types of plants cultivated in the different gardens and illustrated in each chapter. This, especially, may prove to be a handy resource for many readers.

   If there's one noticeable drawback to this book, it's that there's no overall map or diagram showing where the various gardens are in relation to one another and the house. All I can think is that (assuming there is a reason for not including one) this may be for security purposes -- though that seems unlikely given the number of photographs already included. But after taking an otherwise thorough tour through the kitchen garden, the walled garden, the box garden, the fountain garden, across the terrace, past the sanctuary, under the rose arch, down the thyme walk (my favorite), along the serpentine hedge ... and all the rest, it would have been nice to have a comprehensive view of how it all fits together.

   After having read the earlier title about this garden, it was nice to return six or seven years later (in publishing time) and see how it's all progressing. As the quote on the back cover says, "The Prince of Wales has created at Highgrove one of the most admired gardens in the country," and from philosophy to planning to execution, it's a garden that through this book, we can learn things from or, if we prefer, simply sit back and enjoy.




3. To see a garden of this scale and design run completely organically is one the best arguments for the banishment of chemical garden practices around.
   This book is a great addition to any garden library, and if you do not already garden organically this may be the book that will convert you. That is assuming you have not read A Silent Spring.
   Also makes a handsome gift, dispite all the photos of Prince Charles looking very County.



4. I got this book earlier this year from Amazon U.K., wasn't out here yet, and really liked it. For your money you get a fairly recent photo tour of the grounds at Highrove, Prince Charles country home. There are a lot of pictures of plant life, details of some of the buildings and even some examples of outdoor sculpture. You even learn of a treehouse built for young Princes William & Harry as well as a garden seat given as a wedding present to the Prince and Princess of Wales (nice to know that the Princess hasn't been completely cleared away), two of many details that I haven't seen on television or read in some book or magazine article. I consider the book to be worth owning (just don't expect much gardening information), I just wish there could be a book tour of the interior of the house and other buildings to go with it.



5. I first read about Highgrove in a magazine article ( I think it was Town & Country) several years ago. I clipped the article and looked at the beautiful pictures again and again. When I saw the book, I knew I had to have it. When it arrived last week, I was not disappointed. The pictures of the gardens are beautiful, but the story of the garden's development is even more interesting. The prose is informative and easy to read. I also have a new respect for Prince Charles as a kindred gardener. While my gardens will never match the grand scale of Highgrove (my husband and I do all of the garden work on our five acres while working full time jobs), I have found lots of inspirational ideas that I plan to incorporate in my flower gardens. This book has already given me many hours of enjoyment and I know that I will turn to it whenever I need a gardening fix!

1 comments about The Garden Lover's Guide to the West.

1. Featuring 114 gardens from thirteen western states, Kathleen McCormick's The Garden Lover's Guide To The West explains how gardens of these Western states ranging from the diverse climates of Alaska and California to Nevada and Wyoming, are often situated in spectacular natural settings and are the most varied of any geographic region of the United States. An experienced garden writer and certified master gardener, McCormick provides a vivid and informative guide to the best gardens of the West including those of grand estates, botanical gardens, city parks, and private gardens open and available to the general public. Profusely illustrated with full color photography, The Garden Lover's Guide To The West is an ardently recommended addition to any personal or academic collection of gardening and horticultural reference guide books.