The Book of Garden Design


Book Description

Step-by-step guide to creating garden designs that includes instructions for blueprints, using patterns, and measuring.




The Planting Design Handbook


Book Description

Since the first edition was published in 1992, Nick Robinson's The Planting Design Handbook has been widely used as a definitive text on landscape architecture courses throughout the world. It remains one of the few titles written by a practicing landscape architect and educator who is also a horticulturalist and accomplished plantsman, and which deals with the application of planting design on a large scale in landscape architecture and urban design projects. The Planting Design Handbook is distinctive for its elegant integration of an ecological approach with an understanding of visual and spatial composition. It emphasizes the role of vegetation layers and designed plant communities in complex and diverse plant assemblages for all kinds of sites and uses. This expanded and comprehensively updated third edition still provides a complete examination of principles and practice of design for public, institutional and private landscapes. It takes account of developments in theory and practice, especially in the use of perennials, and reflects a variety of media and approaches current in landscape architecture and design. All chapters have been revised and re-written to ensure updated references and new references have been added. Many new photographs of planting and projects around the world have been included, with examples of current professional drawings to illustrate the design process. It is generously illustrated, including a colour section and the beautifully detailed line drawings of the Chinese architect and painter Jia-Hua Wu.




Gardentopia: Design Basics for Creating Beautiful Outdoor Spaces


Book Description

“Gardentopia is that rare marriage of the art of landscaping and the technical knowledge of how to compose a landscape—boiled down to readily understood and easily executed actions. This book puts you in the driver’s seat and shows you how to chart the course to your own personal garden utopia.” - Margie Grace, Grace Design Associates Any backyard has the potential to refresh and inspire if you know what to do. Jan Johnsen’s new book, Gardentopia: Design Basics for Creating Beautiful Outdoor Spaces, will delight all garden lovers with over 130 lushly illustrated landscape design and planting suggestions. Ms. Johnsen is an admired designer and popular speaker whose hands-on approach to “co-creating with nature” will have you saying, “I can do that!’ This info-packed, sumptuous book offers individual tips for enhancing any size landscape using ‘real world’ solutions. The suggestions are grouped into five categories that include Garden Design and Artful Accents, Walls, Patios, and Steps and Plants and Planting, among others. Whether you are an experienced gardener or a landscaping novice, Gardentopia will inspire you with tips such as ‘Soften a Corner”, “Paint it Black”, and “Hide and Reveal”.




Elements of Planting Design


Book Description

Complete coverage of the art and science of planting design This comprehensive guide provides clear, step-by-stepinstructions for creating a planting composition, from preplanningand developing a preliminary design to implementing the final plan.It enables designers to strike a balance between technicalissues-such as regional vegetation requirements, soil grade,and climate, noise, and erosion control-and aestheticconsiderations, including color, form, and seasonal variation. Generously illustrated with more than 300 line drawings andphotographs that reinforce and clarify the material in eachchapter, Elements of Planting Design: * Offers a full overview of the ecology of planting design * Provides in-depth information on plants as design elements * Covers planting design for large- and small-scale residentialand commercial sites * Includes challenging study questions and sample projects




Professional Planting Design


Book Description

"This is a great reference book for planting design, which is an arena where so many of us are hugely challenged. Information in it is well written, engaging, useful, accessible, and original." -- Holly H. Shimizu, Executive Director, United States Botanic Garden "A unique blend of classic planting-design principles and ecological plant-selection criteria." -- Scot Medbury, President, Brooklyn Botanic Garden "After reading the book, you will be able to experiment with nature and use its myriad of facets to make your own original statement. You will be ready to take risks and design exciting and original gardens." -- From the Foreword by James A. van Sweden, Oehme, van Sweden & Associates A comprehensive guide to the "high art" of designing mixed bed plantings When done successfully, mixed beds represent the pinnacle of planting design -- a living work of art in which small trees, shrubs, perennials, grasses, bulbs, tropicals, and groundcovers combine to create a true feeling of place. Professional Planting Design initiates you into the principles of planting design and helps you develop the ability to think about the planting design process, so that you can develop your own effective compositions that sustain multi-seasonal interest. Richly illustrated with photographs and drawings, Professional Planting Design covers the basics as well as the advanced concepts of planting design including: selecting plant characteristics, types of mixed bed plantings, structuring and composing mixed beds, creating mixed palettes for seasonal variation, designing in elevation and plan view, and choosing plants. You'll find coverage of design, landscape architecture, and horticulture interwoven throughout the guide, along with detailed steps for developing mixed bed planting compositions at a variety of scales for projects on both residential and commercial sites. Clear and concise yet thorough, this book will supplement your talent with the knowledge you need to create harmonious mixed plantings in the landscape that will provide continual interest throughout the seasons.




New Naturalism


Book Description

Recreate the wild beauty and thriving ecology of meadows, prairies, woodlands, and streamsides in your own garden. In New Naturalism, horticulturist and modern plantsman Kelly D. Norris shares his inspiring, ecologically sound vision for home gardens created with stylish yet naturalistic plantings that mimic the wild spaces we covet—far from the contrived, formal, high-maintenance plantings of the past. Through a basic introduction to plant biology and ecology, you’ll learn how to design and grow a lush, thriving home garden by harnessing the power of plant layers and palettes defined by nature, not humans. The next generation of home landscapes don’t consist of plants in a row, pruned to perfection and reliant on pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides to survive. Instead, today’s stunning landscapes convey nature’s inherent beauty. These gardens are imbued with romance and emotion, yet they have so much more to offer than their gorgeous aesthetics. Naturalistic garden designs, such as those featured in this groundbreaking new book, contribute to positive environmental change by increasing biodiversity, providing a refuge for wildlife, and reconnecting humans to nature. In the pages of New Naturalism you’ll find: Planting recipes for building meadows, prairies, and other grassland-inspired open plantings even in compact, urban settings Nature-inspired ways to upgrade existing foundation plantings, shrub beds, and flower borders to a wilder aesthetic while still managing the space Inspiration for taking sidewalk and driveway plantings and turning them into visually soft, welcoming spaces for humans and wildlife alike Ideas for turning shady landscapes into canopied retreats that celebrate nature Creative ways to make an ecologically vibrant garden in even the smallest of spaces New Naturalism approaches the planting beds around our homes as ecological systems. If properly designed and planted, these areas can support positive environmental change, increase plant and animal diversity, and create a more resilient space that’s less reliant on artificial inputs. And they do it all while looking beautiful and improving property values.




Plants in Design


Book Description

"The idea for Plants in Design emerged from Brad E. Davis' and David Nichols' love for plants and well-designed landscapes, and a frustration with the lack of concise information organized for those creating plant compositions. Most landscape and garden design texts focus either on design principles or on plant materials. The unique design of this book provides a palette of options organized by mature size and scale, covering many genres of plants from grasses to herbaceous perennials, woody shrubs and trees, and even annuals and interior plants. All of these genres are necessary for consideration when composing a well-designed landscape. Plants in Design combines two fundamental components of landscape and garden design: (1) principles and uses of plant material (color, line, texture, etc.) in design, and (2) resource information for analyzing and selecting a broad range of plant materials, from annuals and ground covers to shrubs and trees, for Southern landscapes (USDA hardiness zones 6 to 9). Introductory chapters will discuss plants and their uses in creating outdoor landscapes in settings ranging from small-scale applications (courtyards, walkways, etc.) to medium- and large-scale projects (streetscapes, parks etc.). The book includes many native species that should be used more in designs to benefit native wildlife and also points out the dangers of many non-native plants widely used in the past and now threatening natural ecosystems. A large audience of designers and homeowners will be interested in a well-organized book on designing with plants, without the confusing obscurities found in so many horticultural books that list cultivars and varieties impossible to locate in the nursery industry. The text features 500 Southern landscape plants organized into 13 categories, ranging from large trees to ferns and flowering annuals. Plant accounts include such things as scientific and common names, hardiness zones, flowers and fruit, growing conditions, and pests and diseases. Color photographs (approximately 1,750) will depict plant shape, form, characteristics, and landscape use, both for identification and to envisions how individual plants might appears in a composition. The book includes more than black-and-white drawings, a hardiness zone map, glossary, bibliography, index and design use table for quick reference"--




Planting Design


Book Description

Gardeners learn how to design beautiful naturalistic gardens that can adapt to the changing needs of perennials, trees, shrubs and the changing landscape. Superimposed images show the growth of a designed landscape over time.




The Humane Gardener


Book Description

In this eloquent plea for compassion and respect for all species, journalist and gardener Nancy Lawson describes why and how to welcome wildlife to our backyards. Through engaging anecdotes and inspired advice, profiles of home gardeners throughout the country, and interviews with scientists and horticulturalists, Lawson applies the broader lessons of ecology to our own outdoor spaces. Detailed chapters address planting for wildlife by choosing native species; providing habitats that shelter baby animals, as well as birds, bees, and butterflies; creating safe zones in the garden; cohabiting with creatures often regarded as pests; letting nature be your garden designer; and encouraging natural processes and evolution in the garden. The Humane Gardener fills a unique niche in describing simple principles for both attracting wildlife and peacefully resolving conflicts with all the creatures that share our world.




The Basics of Planting Design


Book Description