Best Garden Design: Practical Inspiration from the Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show - Softcover

Young, Chris

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1554079942 ISBN 13: 9781554079940

Publisher: Firefly Books, 2010

Synopsis

A showcase of the best ideas, trends, styles and techniques from the stars of the world-famous Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show.

Best Garden Design is an inspirational sourcebook that identifies the most attractive, practical and portable ideas from hundreds of gardeners and designers and analyzes how those ideas can work in any garden.

Interviews with gold medal-winning designers outline their individual design styles. Each design is then examined on a smaller scale to focus on the details and finishing touches that complete a design and help
transform everyday gardens into showstoppers.

The author gives gardeners the very best medal-worthy gardening advice from the Royal Horticultural Society, the United Kingdom's leading gardening charity, dedicated to advancing horticulture and promoting good gardening. Best Garden Design addresses virtually every aspect of creating a garden worthy of the Chelsea Flower Show, including:

• Lighting
  
• Topiary
  
• Seating
  
• Decking
  
• Water features
  
• Kitchen gardens
  
• Artful recycling
  
• Growing old roses
  
• Better baskets
  
• How to position garden art
  
• Reshaping a patio
  
• Perfect perennials
  
• Herbs
  
• Drought

Not even the most dedicated visitor to the Chelsea Flower Show could amass this many notes of such value.

About this title

About the Author:

Chris Young is a garden designer, author, deputy editor of The Garden magazine and formerly an editor of the Garden Design Journal, the publication of the Society of Garden Designers.

Alan Titchmarsh is a horticulturist and gardening expert with a long career in broadcasting. He has written 40 gardening books.

Review:

At first glance a book featuring highlights from the Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show held annually during six days in May on the grounds of the Royal Hospital in London might appear to be of little interest to American gardeners. However, this beautifully designed and stunningly illustrated volume will delight a very wide, diverse international audience ranging from individual gardeners to nursery professionals and garden designers unable to join the more than 150,000 visitors each year at the Great Spring Show. Author Chris Young, deputy editor of The Garden magazine, is a trained garden designer whose writing enthusiastically conveys the scope of the show, the excitement it generates, and the practical inspiration and advice it offers to even beginning gardeners.... Readers of this book enjoy 10 chapters focused primarily on selected aspects of the show from 2004-2009.... Even armchair gardeners will appreciate this stimulating book suitable for all public and
academic libraries. (Julienne L. Wood American Reference Books Annual 2010 2011-03-01)

If you didn't get the chance to attend the Royal Horticultural Society's Chelsea Flower Show in May don't worry. Highlights of the annual London event are captured in "Best Garden Design: Practical Inspiration From the Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show." Photos capture garden designs that run from classical to whimsical to "magical and mad." The book is meant to be a source of inspiration, whether one has a small terrace garden, an estate or anything in between. (Cleveland Plain Dealer 2010-11-04)

The author of this inspiring book on contemporary landscape design, British gardener Chris Young, has chosen as his source for this lavishly illustrated work the temporary garden displays at the Chelsea Flower Show.... Filled with ideas and tips from experts, the text is naturally exciting for dedicated gardeners: it covers a wide range of garden styles from bucolic cottage gardens and formal spaces to the latest examples of sustainability. All is not ornamental: there is a lengthy chapter on utilitarian plantings to satisfy those who want to grow their own crops. Even though the diverse plantings in thrilling combinations are the highlights of the show, readers will benefit from the latest ideas in hardscape materials, lighting methods, water features, and artistic exhibits incorporated into garden scenes. (National Garden Clubs 2010-11-01)

Best Garden Design is a valuable source for ideas on working art, paths, water features and other ornamentation into backyard landscapes. (Kimberly L. Jackson Newark Star-Ledge 2010-11-04)

For well over 100 years, England's spring social season has revolved around the Chelsea Flower Show... For all of us who can't afford that leap across the pond, the Royal Horticultural Society has brought the show's fabulous ideas to America by way of a truly outstanding new book: Best Garden Design: Practical Inspiration From the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. My gauge of a book's value is how much of its content is doable in real-life situations. I give this one an A-plus. The full-color book is well worth the expense because of its stellar content... The lover of modern style will find this book a real treasure trove. A plethora of innovative walls and partitions segment space, screen views and control microclimates. Combine this with spatial solutions for outdoor living in small homes, and the book becomes vital to every urban dweller, whether they live in a house or apartment. If highbrow English gardeners can do it, so can we. (Maureen Gilmer Chicago Sun-Times 2010-11-30)

The Chelsea Flower Show in England is the World Series of garden design and a vacation that gardeners save up for. But this volume is more than a ticket for armchair travel: It deconstructs photos of the often-fantastic designs to help readers figure out what exactly makes them appealing and what ideas they might use in an actual garden. (Chicago Tribune 2010-12-14)

I'm quite clear that I am unlikely to ever visit the Chelsea Flower Show, the epitome of garden shows held in London, England, every year since 1912. But with Best Garden Design by Chris Young, any gardener can receive practical inspiration on bringing a fresh, exciting look to one's own garden. Young presents tips from the expert designers who showcase at Chelsea, as well as case studies on particular designs showing why they work and how to achieve something similar. Nova Scotian gardeners will have to adapt somewhat for plant hardiness, but there are enough delightful variations in design, from post-modern to classical, that any reader should take away something from this book. (Jodi DeLong Halifax Chronicle Herald 2010-12-05)

For almost a century, the Royal Horticulture Society's Chelsea Flower Show has been the botanical ticket of the year in Great Britain. Landscape designer Young (deputy ed., The Garden magazine) culls the best ideas from the last five years' worth of entries, arranges them by categories such as entrance paths or sustainability, and then deconstructs them for home gardeners. He includes sections on types of plantings, e.g., perennials, herbs, kitchen gardens, and old roses, but the emphasis is on design via such factors as topiary, decking, garden art, and lighting. There are some great ideas for home gardeners here, but the book works best as a source of inspiration rather than a hands-on guide to the nuts and bolts of landscape design, for which Vanessa Gardner Nagel's Understanding Garden Design or Judith Adam's Landscape Planning are preferable. A good choice for armchair gardeners who enjoy British-flavored botanical treasures or for experienced gardeners searching for new ways to
freshen up a tired home landscape. (John Charles, Scottsdale Public Library, AZ Library Journal 2010-11-15)

This book will give readers new eyes to transform their home and garden into models of affordable, sustainable beauty. (Maureen Gilmer San Angelo Standard Times 2010-12-01)

This book surprised me. While the fantasy factor is high (after all, this is Chelsea, my dear), there are some novel landscaping ideas here that anyone can copy -- especially in the section on walls and walkways. (Sonia Day Toronto Star 2010-12-01)

About this edition

• Publisher: Firefly Books
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1554079942
• ISBN 13: 9781554079940
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224