Small Period Gardens: A Practical Guide to Design and Planting

People are becoming as conscious of historical style in gardening as they are in interior decoration. In this book, Roy Strong looks at the history of gardening from the point of view of recreating a small garden in a particular style. The illustrations include paintings, prints and photographs.

Strong, a British garden historian, is author of A Small Garden Designer's Handbook (Little, Brown, 1989) and similar titles. Here he provides a quick history of landscape design in Europe and the United States from the late Middle Ages to the post-World War II period. For each era he describes important gardens that reflected the prevailing fashion, illustrated with contemporary depictions and photographs of modern reconstructions. He explains how to incorporate design elements from each period in small urban or suburban settings. Garden plans suggest appropriate plants, garden structures, pavings, etc., for a wide variety of formal and informal designs, including several from American history. A similar book is Elizabeth Banks's Creating Period Gardens (Preservation Pr., 1991), but Strong's garden plans make his the preferable title for general gardening collections.
- Beth Clewis, Prince William P.L., Va.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.