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book review

New Garden Design: a book review

August 15, 2009 by Ilona Erwin

New Garden Design, Inspiring Private Paradises

by Zahid Sardor and Marion Brenner

This book was written for and about Californian gardens, especially those in Northern California. I’ll tell you that right off the top.

That is not to say that gardeners from other locales can take nothing away from reading this book, because there are components of it that transcend place, but by and large it will have little that Midwestern or Northeastern gardeners may directly take for their own.

It is an artistic book, with large well-done photographs, masterful plant combinations and sculptural details both in hardscaping and garden placed art objects.

For all gardeners there are inspirations in placing sculpture in the garden, giving sense of place, flights of whimsy, and creating your own stamp on your landscape.

The landscapes are those around San Francisco for the most part, with the plant material that grows perfectly in those environs: lavender, olive trees, succulents. It also features the all-season outdoor spaces that California is famous for.

For those who can’t grow those plant materials, spend half their year with inclement weather, and do not have vineyards or mountains in their borrowed views, a lot of interpretation is in store.

That makes this book less of a resource for us in Northern cold climates, but it is certainly a nice addition to the coffee table stack.

I think what I personally most liked was the guidance it gives in adding art to the garden and melding house, garden, and the character of the surrounding land. The writing style was as smooth and artful as the photos, which made it a pleasure to read. It is a rich experience to walk within these featured gardens through the narrative of their owner’s stories and the knowledgeable picking out of each ones highlights.

If you have desert conditions, or coastal ones similar to California, you have a treasure trove of some innovative gardens and plantings.

Tags: Northern California

Filed Under: An Armchair Gardener, Garden book reviews Tagged With: book review, California, garden art

Book Review: The Kitchen Garden

July 22, 2008 by Ilona Erwin

The Kitchen Garden, A Practical Guide to Planning & Planting

This review may now be found on the Garden Librarian site, the repository for all my garden book reviews.

I believe readers will find it simpler to locate reviews, and if you are looking for books related to specific topics such as veggie gardening how-to or landscape design, they will be categorized for comparison.

That makes a lot more sense then digging through the journal posts to find something you want.

So, if you need to find a book related to Kitchen gardening, go here.
If you are interested in the topic of Kitchen Gardens, go here.

Filed Under: garden basics, Garden book reviews, Vegetable garden Tagged With: book review, vegetable garden

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Oh, hi there!

I was a garden blog pioneer, and began writing on this blog in 2003. Before that I had begun a garden website that has been at its own domain since 2006, Ilona's Garden.

I still love writing, gardening, and art after all these years, although travel and grandchildren have become a big part of my life, now.

Standouts

Do You Grow Herbs? 10 Reasons To Love Them

There are so many ways to enjoy herb plants, that they are not for herb gardens only. Think about tucking them into the landscape, into containers or into your home. I do I enjoy thee? Oh, Herb, Let me count the ways! 10 Ways I Enjoy Herbs (and you can, too!) In companion plantings, herbs […]

10 Cool Season Annual Flowers To Plant

Shirley poppies and Bachelor Buttons Not every garden writer alerts you to the fact that annuals can have seasons that are shorter than other choices. For places like Ohio which have hot summers, there are common annuals that only do well when our weather is cooler, such as in early summer. Those flowers sort of […]

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