REFLECTING NATURE: Garden Designs from Wild Landscapes

A photo essay exploring natural landscapes across the country and showing how they can be echoed in smaller garden settings, demonstrating that following nature's example leads to garden compositions that satisfy the mind and the eye. Of particular interest is examination of ten different American gardens designed in a Japanese style. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

The current horticultural trend of "naturalistic gardening" involves mimicking natural and wild areas and paying more attention to native plants. Two new books, offering two different approaches, explore this technique. In Reflecting Nature, the Malitzes (father and son) describe natural areas and discuss how these landscapes can be duplicated in the home garden. Most of their examples come from state parks in New England and Colorado, where they have photographed beautiful samples of nature's artwork, from waterfalls and other water features to meadows and forests. Although the descriptive prose is a pleasure to read and will be enjoyed by nature lovers, gardeners may be dissatisfied by the lack of practical advice and garden illustrations. Unfortunately, many of the examples here would be quite difficult to accomplish in many gardening situations. For larger collections. Lovejoy's Naturalistic Gardening may be more helpful for those who plan on applying these ideas to their own garden. Lovejoy's illustrations come from real gardens, and the full-color photographs should inspire anyone. Beginning with chapters on gardening in layers (a phenomenon occurring in nature) and plant placement, she progresses to individual naturalistic styles such as stroll gardens, city and suburb gardens, and tropical gardens. The only drawback to this exciting book is a distinct bias toward Northwest gardening. Still, Lovejoy's ideas about style and naturalistic design could apply to any garden. Recommended for most gardening collections.?Phillip Oliver, Univ. of North Alabama Lib., Florence
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The father-and-son team of Jerome and Seth Malitz aims to inspire gardeners inclined toward a naturalistic style of garden design in this panorama of richly detailed photographs comparing gardener-created landscapes with wild, natural settings. The Malitz partnership should provoke plenty of thoughtful ruminations with regard to the notion of transposing lyrical themes observed in the natural world to the landscaping and plantings of personal garden sanctuaries. Photographic vistas and stunning vignettes offer a wide range of models, from rocky environments in the high country to wetlands, meadows, forested locales, and glistening habitats where the movement of water or the placid surface of a pool will stimulate a wealth of ideas. Wintry climates, arid conditions, and tropical wonderlands adorned in lush flowers are represented here, providing abundant examples to encourage gardeners nationwide. Alice Joyce