Download or read book The Humane Gardener written by Nancy Lawson and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2017-04-18 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book The Less Is More Garden written by Susan Morrison and published by Timber Press. This book was released on 2018-02-07 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Big ideas for your small garden.” —Garden Design When it comes to gardens, bigger isn’t always better, and The Less Is More Garden shows you how to take advantage of every square foot of space. Designer Susan Morrison offers savvy tips to match your landscape to your lifestyle, draws on years of experience to recommend smart plants with seasonal interest, and suggests hardscape materials to personalize your space. Inspiring photographs highlight a variety of inspiring small-space designs from around the country. With The Less Is More Garden, you’ll see how limited space can mean unlimited opportunities for gorgeous garden design.

Download or read book Gardentopia Design Basics for Creating Beautiful Outdoor Spaces written by Jan Johnsen and published by The Countryman Press. This book was released on 2019-04-02 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “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”.

Download or read book A New Garden Ethic written by Benjamin Vogt and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2017-09-01 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a time of climate change and mass extinction, how we garden matters more than ever: “An outstanding and deeply passionate book.” —Marc Bekoff, author of The Emotional Lives of Animals Plenty of books tell home gardeners and professional landscape designers how to garden sustainably, what plants to use, and what resources to explore. Yet few examine why our urban wildlife gardens matter so much—not just for ourselves, but for the larger human and animal communities. Our landscapes push aside wildlife and in turn diminish our genetically programmed love for wildness. How can we get ourselves back into balance through gardens, to speak life's language and learn from other species? Benjamin Vogt addresses why we need a new garden ethic, and why we urgently need wildness in our daily lives—lives sequestered in buildings surrounded by monocultures of lawn and concrete that significantly harm our physical and mental health. He examines the psychological issues around climate change and mass extinction as a way to understand how we are short-circuiting our response to global crises, especially by not growing native plants in our gardens. Simply put, environmentalism is not political; it's social justice for all species marginalized today and for those facing extinction tomorrow. By thinking deeply and honestly about our built landscapes, we can create a compassionate activism that connects us more profoundly to nature and to one another.

Download or read book New Naturalism written by Kelly D. Norris and published by Cool Springs Press. This book was released on 2021-02-16 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Designing with Plants written by Piet Oudolf and published by Conran Octopus. This book was released on 2009-11-02 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Piet Oudolf's gardens excite the senses and stir the emotions. Representing a giant step forward from the conventional colour-themed border, this new approach to gardening gives just as much emphasis to form, texture, light and movement as it does to colour. Individual plants are used as harmonious elements in luxuriant and atmospheric plantings. Written in collaboration with Noël Kingsbury, Designing with Plants is an informative and visually breathtaking study of Piet Oudolf's planting theory and practice, and it provides all the advice necessary to create the same effects in your own garden.Beginning with the building blocks of planting design, a visual sourcebook of Planting Palettes illustrates some of the huge choice available in terms of form, texture and colour. The following chapter explains, with the use of planting plans and diagrams, how to combine these basic elements to create stunning and sculptural planting schemes. Theory is put into practice in Planting Moods in which stunning photography demonstrates how to create a particular feeling or atmosphere, and Year-Round Planting emphasizes the importance of choosing plants to give value throughout the seasons so that they contribute to the garden in death as well as in life. Rounding off with a detailed directory of key plants, Designing with Plants is destined to become an inspiration to all gardeners who wish to create, in Piet's words, 'an impression and an expression of nature'.

Download or read book Designing and Planting a Woodland Garden written by Keith Wiley and published by Timber Press. This book was released on 2014-12-21 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the creator of "one of the most exciting and innovative gardens in Britain today" With their moss-covered stones, towering trees, and pockets of quiet shade, woodlands have a romantic power unlike anything else. Whether your garden is currently open and sunny, or on the small side, you can capture that sylvan atmosphere with carefully chosen trees and shade-loving plants. In Designing and Planting the Woodland Garden, Keith Wiley explains how to combine plants in natural, self-supporting colonies. His hand-picked selection of unexpected collectables—shrubs, perennials, bulbs, ferns, and grasses—mingle with garden favorites to create fabulous effects in all seasons.

Download or read book The Water Saving Garden written by Pam Penick and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2016-02-23 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A guide to growing beautiful gardens in drought-prone areas utilizing minimal water for maximum results. With climate change, water rationing, and drought on the rise, water conservation is more important than ever—but that doesn’t mean your gardening options are limited to cacti and rocks. The Water-Saving Garden provides gardeners and homeowners with a diverse array of techniques and plentiful inspiration for creating sustainable gardens that are so beautiful and inviting, it’s hard to believe they are water-thrifty. Including a directory of 100 plants appropriate for a variety of drought-prone regions of the country, this accessible and contemporary xeriscaping guide is full of must-know information on popular gardening topics like native and drought-tolerant plants (including succulents), rainwater harvesting, greywater systems, permeable paving, and more.

Download or read book Understanding Garden Design written by Vanessa Gardner Nagel and published by Timber Press. This book was released on 2010-08-18 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Designing a garden is a complex task. Where do you start? What kind of skills do you need? What are the logical steps in creating a design? How do you communicate your ideas to a client, and how do you accommodate a client’s requests while maintaining the integrity of the project? The answers to these questions, and many more, can all be found in Understanding Garden Design. Most books on garden design focus on only one or a few aspects of garden design—choosing plants or creating a hardscape, for example. This comprehensive, accessible book lays out the entire process from start to finish in clear, precise language that avoids the pitfalls of “designspeak.” In fact, garden owners and clients of garden designers who want to understand more about the designer’s craft will be able to profit from the book’s lessons. Among the many topics covered are how to document a site, how to determine what a client needs and wants from the garden, how to take architectural features into consideration, how to think about circulation and lay out paths, how to use basic design principles, how to work with plants, and how to create a final design. Practical aspects are clearly laid out, including working with contractors and staying on top of the various phases of construction. This thorough handbook is profusely illustrated with helpful photographs and diagrams. A particularly interesting tool is the hypothetical garden plan that appears in each chapter to show how to apply the topics at hand. A practical, logical approach to the planning, design, and installation of a garden, this volume will be an invaluable resource for students, landscape professionals, and garden designers.

Download or read book Designing with Palms written by Jason Dewees and published by Timber Press. This book was released on 2018-03-07 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ÒIf you want to successfully add more bold fronds and a tropical style to your landscape,ÊDesigning With PalmsÊis the comprehensive book for you.Ó ÑGardenistaÊ Palms are a landscape staple in warm, temperate climates worldwide. But these stunning and statement-making plants are large, expensive, and difficult to install, resulting in unique design challenges.ÊIn Designing with Palms, palm expert Jason Dewees details every major aspect of designing and caring for palms. This definitive guide shares essential information on planting, irrigation, nutrition, pruning, and transplanting. A gallery of the most important species showcases the range of options available, and stunning photographs by Caitlin Atkinson spotlight examples of home and public landscapes that make excellent use of palms.

Download or read book Designing with Conifers written by Richard L. Bitner and published by Timber Press. This book was released on 2011-04-21 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With blue, green, and gold foliage and shapes ranging from spiky to weeping, conifers have the potential to be garden design stars. But they are commonly misused in gardens and landscapes, leading to looming spruces squashed against a house or rows of kettledrum-shaped yews along a sidewalk. When used correctly and creatively, conifers can be star players in creating beautiful, long-lasting plant combinations or serene backyard havens. Designing with Conifers shows readers exactly how to choose the best conifers for specific needs. Chapters cover shape, color, and conifers for specific sites and conditions, including front gardens, hedges and screens, topiary, dwarf conifers, shade gardens, Asian-style gardens, bonsai, and miniature railroad gardens. Also includes useful appendices that list of conifers for various problems and conditions, like conifers for areas plagued by deer and the best conifers for Christmas trees and Southern gardens. Each section is enlivened with gorgeous color photographs. Whatever landscape situation or challenge a gardener designer faces, Designing with Conifers shows how to make the best choice from this beautiful, useful, and versatile group of plants.

Download or read book Small Garden Style written by Isa Hendry Eaton and published by Ten Speed Press. This book was released on 2020-02-04 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A stylishly photographed guide to creating lush, layered, dramatic little gardens no matter the size of your available space--an urban patio, a tiny backyard, or even just a pot by your door. Petite gardens align with the movement to live smaller and create a life with less stuff and more room for living. But a more eco-friendly and efficient space doesn't have to sacrifice style. In Small Garden Style, garden designer Isa Hendry Eaton and lifestyle writer Jennifer Blaise Kramer show you how to use good design to create a joyful, elegant, and exciting yet compact outdoor living space for entertaining or relaxing. A style quiz helps you focus in on your own personal garden style, be it traditional, modern, colorful, eclectic, minimalist, or globally inspired, then utilize every inch of your yard by considering the horizontal, vertical, and overhead spaces. You'll learn how to design stunning planters and container gardens using succulents, grasses, vibrant-colored pots, and more. Hendry Eaton and Blaise Kramer recommend their favorite plants and decor for small gardens, along with lawn alternatives and inspiration for making garden accents such as a fire pit, front door wreath, instant mini orchard, boulder birdbath, patterned vines, perfumed wall, and faux fountain with cascading plants. However small your garden, Small Garden Style will transform it into a magical, modern outdoor oasis.

Download or read book Landscape Architecture written by Gang Chen and published by ArchiteG, Inc.. This book was released on 2011 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Absolutely fascinating! Informative, enlightening, and entertaining! This is one of the most comprehensive books on Planting Design. It fills in the blanks in this field and introduces poetry, painting, and symbolism into Planting Design. It covers in detail the two major systems in Planting Design: Formal Planting Design and Naturalistic Planting Design. It has numerous line drawings and photos to illustrate the Planting Design concepts and principles. Through in-depth discussions of historical precedents and practical case studies, it uncovers the fundamental design principles and concepts as well as underpinning philosophy for Planting Design. It is an indispensable reference book for Landscape Architecture students, designers, architects, urban planners, and ordinary garden lovers. What Others Are Saying About Planting Design Illustrated... "I found this book to be absolutely fascinating. You will need to concentrate while reading it but the effort will be well worth your time." -Bobbie Schwartz, Former President of APLD (Association of Professional Landscape Designers) and Author of The Design Puzzle: Putting the Pieces Together "This is a book that you have to read, and it is more than well worth your time. Gang Chen takes you well beyond what you'll learn in other books about basic principles like color, texture, and mass." -Jane Berger, Editor & Publisher of gardendesignonline "As a longtime consumer of gardening books, I am impressed with Gang Chen's inclusion of new information on planting design theory for Chinese and Japanese gardens. Many gardening books discuss the beauty of Japanese gardens, and a few discuss the unique charms of Chinese gardens, but this one explains how Japanese and Chinese history, geography, and artistic traditions bear on the development of each country's style. The material on traditional Western garden planting is thorough and inspiring, too. Planting Design Illustrated definitely rewards repeated reading and study; any garden designer will read it with profit." -Jan Whitner, Editor of the Washington Park Arboretum Bulletin "Enhanced with an annotated bibliography and informative appendices, Planting Design Illustrated offers an especially "reader friendly" and practical guide that makes it a very strongly recommended addition to personal, professional, academic, and community library Gardening & Landscaping reference collections and supplemental reading lists." -Midwest Book Review "Where to start? Planting Design Illustrated is, above all, fascinating and refreshing! Not something the lay reader encounters every day, the book presents an unlikely topic in an easily digestible, easy to follow way. It is superbly organized, with a comprehensive table of contents, bibliography, and appendices. The writing, though expertly informative, maintains its accessibility throughout and is a joy to read. The detailed and beautiful illustrations expanding on the concepts presented were my favorite portion. One of the finest books I've encountered in this contest in the past five years." -Writer's Digest 16th Annual International Self-Published Book Awards Judge's commentary "The work in my view has incredible application to planting design generally and a system approach to what is a very difficult subject to teach, at least in my experience. Also featured is very beautiful philosophy of garden design principles bordering poetry. It's my strong conviction that this work needs to see the light of day by being published for the use of professionals, students & garden enthusiasts." -Donald C Brinkerhoff, FASLA, Chairman and CEO of Lifescapes International, Inc.

Download or read book Beatrix Potter s Gardening Life written by Marta McDowell and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2013-10-08 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Richly illustrated and filled with quotations from her books, letters, and journals, Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life is essential reading for all who know and cherish Beatrix Potter and her classic tales.

Download or read book Designing Gardens with Flora of the American East written by Carolyn Summers and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The beautifully illustrated Designing Gardens with Flora of the American East approaches landscape design from an ecological perspective, encouraging professional horticulturalists and backyard enthusiasts alike to intensify their use of indigenous or native plants. These plants, ones that grow naturally in the same place in which they evolved, form the basis of the food web. Wildlife simply cannot continue to survive without them-nor can we. Summers provides guidelines for * The best ways to use exotic and nonindigenous plants responsibly * Easy-to-follow strategies for hosting butterflies, bees, moths, birds, and fish * Designs for traditional gardens using native trees, shrubs, vines, grasses, perennials, fruiting plants, and groundcovers as substitutes for exotic plants * How to control plant reproduction, choose cultivars, open-pollinated indigenous plants, and different types of hybrids.

Download or read book Professional Planting Design written by Scott C. Scarfone and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-04-06 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "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.

Download or read book Natural Landscaping written by John Diekelmann and published by Univ of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In response to demand from landscape architects and home gardeners, Natural Landscaping returns to print in an updated and expanded second edition. It is unique in its focus on plant communities; it approaches landscape design as the establishment of natural ecosystems, rather than mere planting of specimens. Emphasizing the natural landscapes of the northeastern United States and eastern Canada, this book o reviews landscaping principles and techniques o introduces native plant species for grasslands, forests, edge areas, and small wetlands o illustrates how to evaluate a site and plan for visual effect and maintenance o presents the issues involved in restoring bogs, ponds, and other wetlands o offers practical advice on reducing chemical use while still combating invasive plants o addresses social, legal, design, and planting problems often encountered on residential sites o discusses natural landscaping for public parklands, civic buildings, school grounds, and corporate properties