Garden Design: A Book of Ideas - Hardcover

Howcroft, Heidi; Majerus, Marianne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1770855246 ISBN 13: 9781770855243

Publisher: Firefly Books, 2015

Synopsis

Author Marianne Majerus was one of three photographers for the seminal book by Prince Charles, HRH The Prince of Wales, Highgrove: A Garden Celebrated, published in 2014, which Camilla Swift of Gardens Illustrated praised for its photographs, "images so breathtaking I want to jump into them."

In Garden Design: A Book of Ideas, she and Heidi Howcroft have created a stunning guide to designing gardens of all types. Ideal for all gardeners and landscape architects this book inspires and encourages while giving practical advice and clear instruction for creating a beautiful garden in any setting.

Any experienced gardener knows there is no single way to design a garden. Personal style and creativity are what make gardening exciting and produce an enjoyable garden. In this outstanding reference the concise text, 600 inspirational photographs and 24 real-life case studies can help anyone create a dream garden.

Incisive advice takes the reader through the entire process: assessing the garden situation, developing a design, installing the components, and finally, dressing the space. The brilliant color photographs show an enormous variety of gardens and their elements in detail, varying from large and small, to urban and rural, covering a wide range of styles, including contemporary, modern, city, Mediterranean and natural. There are plant recommendations throughout the book.

Garden Design profiles existing gardens to illustrate important considerations that will factor into the final result, such as, Where is Your Garden? What Do You Want From Your Garden? and Knowing Your Soil.

Here is a brief sampling of the contents:

• Structure (e.g., Paths, Enclosures)
• Materials (e.g., Stone, Timber)
• Steps and Ramps (e.g., Outdoor Staircases)
• Enclosures and Barriers (e.g., Hedges, Gates)
• Shaping the Garden (e.g., Mounds, Slopes)
• Greenery and Flowers (e.g., Trees: Scene Stealers; Working with Color Stems, Berries, Foliage)
• Shade (e.g., Light up the Dark with White Flowers)
• Flowers (e.g., Paint with Plants, Borders For All Seasons)
• Vegetables (e.g., No-Dig and Raised Beds)
• Furnishings (e.g., Fountains, Loungers, Lighting)
• Difficult Plots and Tricks of the Trade (e.g., Tiny Spaces and Odd Proportions).

Creating a garden is part common sense and part instinct but almost everybody needs some help to achieve the garden of their dreams. Garden Design: A Book of Ideas inspires and motivates but it also provides practical guidance.

About this title

About the Author

Heidi Howcroft is a landscape architect and the author of 20 gardening books. She lives in Somerset, England.

Marianne Majerus is one of the world's finest garden photographers. She is a regular contributor to House and Garden and The Wall Street Journal. She has illustrated more than 50 gardening books and won International Garden Photographer of the Year 2010. In 2015 Marianne Majerus won the award for the UK Garden Media Guild 'Book Photographer of the Year' for Garden Design: A Book of Ideas.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

Every garden, irrespective of whether it is a crate on top of a barge or parkland surrounding a country mansion, is a personal piece of paradise, tailor-made for the individual. Making a garden goes far beyond the instinct to grow food for the family and is a desire to embellish and enhance one's personal space.

Some gardens are meticulously planned, while others just happen. There are no hard-and-fast rules for their design. It is all about personal taste, so who is to judge what is good or bad? But while our imagination knows no boundaries, the garden certainly does, and appreciating where these lie is the difference between a great design and one that is run of the mill. The first step is to establish basic parameters. Much of this is common sense, recognizing that it is better to work with, rather than against, nature.

A fundamental part of a landscape architect's education is the design process, which begins with the site analysis and culminates in the finished garden. Following these same steps will help you decide whether to go it completely alone or enlist the help of a professional designer. A design is rarely immediately apparent; in most cases, deciding on one is a matter of diligently working through a list of requirements and gathering information. Method, not magic, is the key.

The starting point is devising a brief: what you want from the garden and whether it needs to be formal or informal; the desired level of maintenance; whether the whole garden or just a section is to be designed; available funds; and if the work is to be completed in stages or all at once. The size of the garden is just as important as its setting, with designs for a 'blank canvas' garden belonging to a new build and the revamp of an existing mature garden, for example, being completely different.

Before charging in with a bulldozer or pickaxe, look at your garden through the windows of the house, from the sofa or the kitchen. Observe what there is now and try to visualize what you would like to see in the future. Pinning a picture of a favourite garden to the window and looking at it and your garden simultaneously does help you decide if that style is either a "fit" or just a romantic notion. Creating mood boards and gathering photographs of other gardens, images of garden furniture, and details of plants and paving are all a huge help in the decision-making process, as are pictures from various angles of the site itself. It is often at this point that the decision is made either to go it alone or employ an expert. When seeking advice, consult members of professional bodies, such as the Landscape Institute and the Society of Garden Designers. Beware of cowboys who promise paradise for nothing; there is always a catch.

A site survey in which topography, heights, boundaries, existing features and vegetation are shown to scale is invaluable when designing. Armed with this information, together with your brief and mood boards, preliminary sketches can be made. These can then be narrowed down to favorites and developed further into an overall design. Living with and looking at the design and fine-tuning details over a period of time pays dividends. Staking out the outline of paths and patios, even using stepladders draped with sheets to give an idea of the volume of large shrubs, are all useful tools to see if a design could work.

Like a suit, a garden has to fit, have a shape yet be comfortable. But while it is possible to try on clothes before making a commitment, it is a different matter with gardens. Garden open days are a great way of getting to know other gardens. Few people garden on a grand scale, so these domestic, private retreats are perfect for getting a feel for your likes and dislikes and deciding on a style. Taking a broad view and looking at gardens abroad or from the past can also be inspiring -- it is all a matter of interpretation.

Without the marvelous work done by landscape architects, architects, garden designers and owners, as well as the gardeners who maintain the exemplary schemes, we would not have any material to show you in this book. Thank you to all of you for providing such a wealth of ideas. There is a garden out there to suit every one of us; it is merely waiting to be discovered.

Edition details

• Publisher: Firefly Books
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1770855246
• ISBN 13: 9781770855243
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 320