Design for Gardens [Hardcover]

The essential elements of good garden design--form, layout, and balance between colors and textures--are all thoroughly covered in this newest book by landscape architect and writer Hudak (Gardening with Perennials Month by Month). An opening chapter on garden innovations through the centuries leads the way to chapters on evaluating, planning, and designing one's own garden. Hudak pays particular attention to individual details such as incorporating water features, fences, hedges, terraces, etc., and devotes detailed sections to each. He then discusses specific types of plants, such as evergreens and perennials, and shows how these plants should effectively be used in the landscape design. A concluding chapter gives a personal account of how the author developed his own garden over the course of five years. An appealing aspect of the book is that it does not focus on any geographic area, so the advice can be used by any gardener. Generously illustrated with photographs, many from the author's own garden, this book should be an essential purchase for garden collections.
-Phillip Oliver, Univ. of North Alabama Lib., Florence
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

When embarking on the goal of making a garden, it is all too easy to gather an assemblage of plants from mail-order nurseries or garden centers. Yet the more challenging, often perplexing subject of garden design must still be addressed. Hudak's visually enticing guide commences with a historical overview of the art of gardening. Taking inspiration from that introduction, readers can follow along as Hudak proceeds through essential design practices: evaluating the site, deciding on a style, and identifying those unique features that will transform the space into a distinctive sanctuary. Subsequent chapters encompass how to map a plan, create aesthetic unity, and select plant material. Gardeners can look to this distinguished landscape architect and horticulturist to both provide a wealth of ideas and impart the practical information that will help pave the way to creating a lovely new or refurbished garden space. Alice Joyce

Contains a lifetime of practical experience. -- Carol Stocker, Boston Globe, December 14, 2000

Design for Gardens provides the noted landscape architect's valuable insights on evaluating a site, altering its topography and choosing special features and plants to 'get it all together' to create a garden that is consistently beautiful as well as very personal. -- The Avant Gardener, March 2000

The best I’ve ever read . . . the book I will give to new brides, new homeowners and to my own daughter. -- Mina Otis, Westwood Press, January 25, 2001

The perfect mix of information and inspiration for all landscape designers. -- Architects & Designers Book Service, Fall 2000

Without hesitation, I recommend this book to [anybody] designing a new garden or wanting to change an existing [one]. -- John E. Bryan, Gardening Newsletter, April 2000

Successful garden designs offer a careful arrangement of form, texture, proportion, and color harmony. In these pages, the renowned landscape architect and horticulturist Joe Hudak provides an overview of design innovations through the ages and concludes with a personal account of his own five-year-long garden renovation project.

How many homeowners recognize that their yard could use a makeover, but, since they are not Martha Stewart, have nary an idea where to start? And how many design books are filled with inspirational photos and lengthy plant lists, but somehow omit how to achieve those results from the dirt-with-the-contractors-trucks-tire-marks-still-in-it stage? Joseph Hudak has taken his decades of experience at garden design and distilled them into this thoughtful, practical, common-sense book.

Joseph Hudak is the author of the popular Shrubs in the Landscape, Trees for Every Purpose, and the original Gardening with Perennials Month by Month. Mr. Hudak was the plant materials instructor for 20 years in the Department of Landscape Architecture at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, and also taught for five years at the Radcliffe Seminars Program.