2 comments about Gardens of Longevity In China & Japan.

1. Gardens of Longevity is a beautiful book which illustrates why some landscape design immediately looks spectacular and feels "right", while most landscape design feels dead. The book relies upon the iconography of landscape paintings and gardens in Japan and China, but the principles apply to all types of design (painting, sculpture, architecture, as well as landscape).
   
   By analyzing original works of art and comparing them with western copies, the author explains the principles of allowing the dragon through. Those familiar with some branches of fung shui will understand that this means, in crude imagery, letting the good "chi" through and deflecting the bad "chi." However, what sounds like trendy gibberish to most scientific types, actually finds visual proof in this book.
   
   I am a successful practicing architect, who marries the design of landscape with my buildings and urban designs. This book comes closer to explaining how to do this, and why some landscapes (natural and human-made) are so spectacular and most are humdrum or worse than any other book I know of on this subject.
   
   The book also contains many examples to explain Chinese landscape painting to westeners which give us the aesthetics to "see" and then value an aesthetic tradition different from that of western Europe.
   
   Incredibly, one example from the book, on a larger, geological scale, illustrated by the river drainage of China, explains why the country is killing the dragon which has sustained it for thousands of years, by damming and polluting the Yangtze, Yellow, and other rivers.
   
   I can't say enough good things about this book. It's just marvelous. I have gone back to it many times to refresh my knowledge and to review the examples.



2. I would like to read the digist about book. I am interested in rock in garded in China.

2 comments about Contemporary Photography and the Garden: Deceits and Fantasies.

1. Thomas Padon's fine book/catalogue (made to accompany a traveling exhibition of the works included) is one to please a diverse audience: garden lovers, art history devotees, and those addicted to the art of fine photography will all find this very special book one of endless pleasure.
   
   The concept of the garden as the subject for a photographic essay is a unique one and the artists whose works range from the old concepts to the contemporary and utilizing all manner of camera techniques are some of the best in this field. This is not simply collected garden shots but rather images of the mysteries both immediately accessible and those more occult that require time and repeated exposure to appreciate. The dialogue of the book is provided with fine essays not only by Padon but also by such fine and creative minds as Robert Harrison, Ronald Jones, and Shirin Neshat.
   
   But in the end the book is about pictures and these rare images are captured by such disparate artists as Catherine Opie, Sally Mann, Len Jenschel, Jack Pierson, Sally Apfelbaum, Daniel Boudinet, Peter Fischli and David Weiss to name but a few. The gardens are represented by locations from India, Japan, Europe, North and South America and are selected to investigate the symbolism both spiritual and cultural that these wondrous images capture.
   
   Every aspect of this book is set with loving care and is worthy of the libraries of everyone in love with the secret treasures of the Garden. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, December 06



2. I bought this book because I am much into garden and flower fotography myself. Anyway I think this book is interesting to everybody looking for new ideas in photography, in general. It is just amazing to see how different can be the approches to a same subject. You go from almost impressionistic views, to ultrasharp images, to compositions that recall maybe cubism in showing all different sides of the garden at the same time. If you like photography, buy it. You will find it deeply stimulating. And of course the photos are amazing and the print is just excellent.

1 comments about Early American Gardens: "For Meate or Medicine".

1. I have been researching the history of gardening in America and have not found a better rescource than Ann Leighton's books, specifically Early American Gardens: For Meate or Medicine. This book is full of good facts and is very readable. Covering the colonization of North America from its earliest years, this book goes into detail on primary sources as well as recent scholarly efforts. This book will be useful for anyone interrested in gardening (especially if making an historic garden on your own property) or in history (especially if you are bored reading about political history).

No comments about Earthscape a Manual of Environmental.

No comments about English Literature: Opening Up the Canon. Selected Papers from the English Institute, 1979 (Selected Papers from the English Institute).

No comments about Wilderness by Design: Landscape Architecture and the National Park Service.

1 comments about Bold Romantic Gardens: The New World Landscapes of Oehme and Van Sweden.

1. Photographer Susan Rademacher Fry presents almost two dozen landscape projects by Wolfgang Oehme and James van Sweden in a coffee-table sized book. The photos are technically excellent and effectively communicate the naturalistic language O&vS use in their projects.

   There is much emphasis on using native plants and plants that make sense in the context of the garden.Large grasses figure prominently in many of the designs. And many feature rudbeckias and sedums. The goal seems to be to knit a building seemlessly into its enviroment using appropriate garden elements.

   When it's a penthouse terrace, a sculpture or fountain and a single plant may suffice. By the shore it's giant mounds of grass waving in the sea breeze. In a wooded setting by a mountain stream the emphasis is on rocks and water.

   A number of sites are presented with sketches of the plans. Explanations, though very brief, are clear and helpful.

   At times one can't help but feel that the book is a very large, expensive, illustrated cirriculum vitae for the landscape architects; but it is clearly much more. Their love of their art comes shining through. Don't miss the compendium of of 'favorite plants' at the end of the book.

   And remember that fifteen years later one of the principles stated his regret that he'd planted quite so many rudbeckias.

1 comments about A Guide to Site Planning and Landscape Construction, 4th Edition.

1. If there was a "no star" rating, I would use it for this book. I tried using it for a school research paper, and all I got from it was frustration. It is horribly written: a majority of the topics are are not dealt with in depth (very vague) and the index is miss-keyed. For a 4th edition it also might be time to use current photos that are color, and not from the 1960's. My advise is to spend your money on Kevin Lynch's books instad of this one.

No comments about Container Topiary.

1 comments about William Turnbull, Jr.: Buildings in the Landscape (Architectural Monograph (San Francisco, Calif.), 3.).

1. This is a big, beautiful book portraying the works of an architect who strived not to design monuments with a signature style, but instead create wonderful places that fit their landscape. The book chronicles twenty of Turnbull's projects beginning with the Sea Ranch Condominium (with MLTW) and ending with Turnbull and his wife's own weekend retreat, Teviot Springs Vineyard. All but one of the projects (Sea Ranch Athletic Club)are residential, which reflects the nature of Turnbull's career. The book contains essays by Mary Griffen (Turnbull's wife and business partner), William Stout, Mitchell Schwarzer, and Donlyn Lyndon. Turnbull's buildings contain innate beauty, sensitivity to site, and the ability to bring common, conventional construction to a high art. Morley Baer's black and white photography is powerful and captures the wonderful subtleties in Turnbull's sometines simple and conventional structures that are truly "GOOD" architecture.