Garden Walls, Fences, and Hedges


Book Description

Put up the right wall, fence, or hedge, and it will have more impact on your yard's appearance.




Garden Boundaries


Book Description

Provides a thorough grounding in basic garden landscaping skills and offers a range of projects to show how to put them into practice. For both experienced and novice do-it-yourselfers, this book covers a wide range of different garden boundaries: trellises, walls, fences, gates, screens, living boundaries, hedges, and entrances. With twenty stylish and varied projects, this book suits all tastes and budgets, and enables you to create boundaries that you can enjoy for years to come. The specially commissioned photography and step-by-step text make this book both inspiring and easy to use.--From publisher description.




The Front Garden


Book Description

The front yard is the stepchild of landscape design, ignored in the current enthusiasm for gardening. Typically, with its high-maintenance lawn and overgrown foundation planting, the front yard doesn't enhance the house or provide useful living space for the homeowner. Yet as new properties become smaller and old ones grow shadier, the front garden may be the best place to grow vegetables or flowers, to sit outside in comfort and privacy, or even to swim or play tennis. Mary Riley Smith, a landscape designer who has often dealt with poorly planned and underused front properties, has filled this book with creative ways to make your own front garden beautiful and functional. She shows how to design paths, driveways, and parking areas and how to camouflage unattractive but necessary structures. For privacy, she describes the different virtues of fences, clipped hedges, and loose, flowing hedgerows. When it comes to planting in front of the house, the choices are surprising: instead of a lawn, you might create a colorful cottage garden, an edible landscape, a drought-tolerant meadow of regional native plants, a sea of ornamental grasses, or even a romantic orchard. All of these landscapes, and dozens more from all parts of the country, are illustrated with beautiful photographs. THE FRONT GARDEN concludes with nine case histories, including the landscape designers' plans, that will give you even more ideas for turning your front yard into a beautiful garden.




Creative Ideas for Walls, Fences, Hedges and Boundaries


Book Description

This creative and informative book explores the ways in which barriers can be used to add style and character to the garden. The first half of the book looks at boundary choices, from traditional fences, walls, hedges, trellises and railings, to screens and natural boundaries. The second section of the book looks at the finishing effects that can be applied to off-the-peg or existing boundaries to customize them with your personal style, add a decorative theme, or blend them in with the property and its surroundings.




Notes from the Garden


Book Description

A hands-on gardener, Henry Homeyer gives practical advice on how to garden, whether building a hot box, transplanting peonies, defeating the deer, growing ladyslipper orchids and shiitake mushrooms, or keeping the birds out of the berry bushes. Each month covers a range of topics relevant to the season: starting seedlings, edging and mulching, gardening with children, getting rid of invasive plants, pruning , planting shrubs for attracting and feeding birds, putting the garden to bed, growing houseplants, . . . These are just a few of Homeyer's 69 short "reflections and observations" on matters of interest to amateur, dedicated, and armchair gardeners alike. Homeyer grew up in the 1950s learning about organic gardening from a grandfather who used manure tea and compost, not 10-10-10, herbicides, and DDT. For him, organic gardening is not a political position, but a common sense approach to having the best soil and the healthiest plants. Of special relevance to denizens of zones 3-5, the climatic belt which includes New England and runs across southern Canada and west to the Rockies, each of the twelve chapters (one for each month) contains several pieces combining technical information, practical tips, personal reflections, and more than a little humor. An unusual feature is Homeyer's interviews with other gardeners. Meet Joe Mooney, the aging wizard of turf at Fenway Park. Spend an afternoon in the garden with Jamaica Kincaid. Visit Jean and Wes Cate, growers of heirloom vegetables at Fox Run Farm. Learn more about the White House gardens from chief horticulturist Dale Haney. Or marvel at Marguerite Tewksbury, an 85-year-old organic gardener who single-handedly runs a farm stand, drives her 1950 Ford Ferguson tractor, and weeds her 6,000-square-foot vegetable patch with a full-sized rototiller. "She doesn't say that keeping active and eating organically keeps her healthy and vigorous, but I have a feeling that it does," writes Homeyer.




Deer-Resistant Design


Book Description

“Fear deer no more! The best source I’ve seen on the topic!” —Tracy DiSabato-Aust, award-winning garden designer and best-selling author Deer are one of the most common problems a gardener can face. These cute but pesky animals can quickly devour hundreds of dollars’ worth of plants. And common solutions include the use of unattractive fencing and chemicals. In Deer-Resistant Design, Karen Chapman offers another option—intentional design choices that result in beautiful gardens that coexist with wildlife. Deer-Resistant Design showcases real home gardens across North America—from a country garden in New Jersey to a hilltop hacienda in Texas—that have successfully managed the presence of deer. Each homeowner also shares their top ten deer-resistant plants, all welcome additions to a deer-challenged gardeners shopping list. A chapter on deer-resistant container gardens provides suggestions for making colorful, captivating, and imaginative containers. Lushly illustrated and filled with practical advice and inspiring design ideas, Deer-Resistant Design is packed with everything you need to confidently tackle this challenging problem.




Landscaping for Privacy


Book Description

The area around your home is your haven, your sanctuary, your refuge from the noise and irritation of traffic, eyesores, and nosy neighbors. Or at least it could be if there was some sort of barrier between your front yard and the sidewalk, or if you didn't have to stare at the back of the neighbors' garage when you want to relax on your patio. Landscaping for Privacy brims with creative ideas for minimizing or even eliminating the nuisances that intrude on your personal outdoor space. Scores of real-world examples show you how to keep the outside world at bay by strategically placing buffers (such as berms or groups of small trees), barriers (such as fences), and screens (arbors or hedges, for example) around your property. And the helpful plant lists tell you precisely which varieties to choose in order to enhance your sense of seclusion. If you've ever felt frustrated by the lack of privacy whenever you step outside your home, this inspiring book will steer you toward an achievable solution.




A Way to Garden


Book Description

“A Way to Garden prods us toward that ineffable place where we feel we belong; it’s a guide to living both in and out of the garden.” —The New York Times Book Review For Margaret Roach, gardening is more than a hobby, it’s a calling. Her unique approach, which she calls “horticultural how-to and woo-woo,” is a blend of vital information you need to memorize and intuitive steps you must simply feel and surrender to. In A Way to Garden, Roach imparts decades of garden wisdom on seasonal gardening, ornamental plants, vegetable gardening, design, gardening for wildlife, organic practices, and much more. She also challenges gardeners to think beyond their garden borders and to consider the ways gardening can enrich the world. Brimming with beautiful photographs of Roach’s own garden, A Way to Garden is practical, inspiring, and a must-have for every passionate gardener.




Your House Your Garden


Book Description

A garden designer reveals the secrets of his trade with practical guidelines on how to enhance an old garden, hide an eyesore, and create a new masterpiece, along with tips on proporations, materials, and styles.




The Complete Kitchen Garden


Book Description

A design and recipe resource with “all the tools to plan a productive garden before seeds ever meet the ground” (The Wall Street Journal). Based on seasonal cycles, each chapter of this indispensible book provides a new way to look at the planning stages of starting a garden—with themes and designs such as the Salad Lover’s Garden, the Heirloom Maze Garden, the Children’s Garden, and the Organic Rotation Garden. More than 100 recipes—including a full range of soups, salads, main courses, and desserts, as well as condiments and garnishes—are featured here, all using the food grown in each specific garden. “There’s no reason a vegetable garden must be an eyesore, banished to the corner by the garage. . . . The Complete Kitchen Garden . . . combines design advice, garden wisdom and recipes.” —Chicago Tribune