- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Rodale Books (Mar 7 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0875968368
- ISBN-13: 978-0875968360
- Product Dimensions: 28.3 x 22 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1.5 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #282,895 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
West Coast gardening guru Ann Lovejoy has gained a significant following, and deservedly so--she's a gifted teacher, a lyrical writer, and a passionate advocate of organic solutions to even the most daunting garden problems. Her Organic Garden Design School is meant for readers who still consider themselves students, but who are serious enough to "move beyond the beginner stage." A 36-page workbook concludes this glossy, lavishly illustrated volume. Workbook assignments include "Drawing a Map," "Testing Soil," and "Minding Your Mulch."
As a designer of gardens that are faithful to the natural world and don't require too much pruning or artificial control, Lovejoy invents her own terms. Her style resembles English gardening, except she warns against the nostalgic impulse many gardeners fall into, determined to create gardens from another era or another country. Lovejoy's an advocate of "gardening where you live," not forcing a dream of another place onto the landscape. She emphasizes native plants, designing around slopes or flaws, working with shade or sunlight as they appear. Perhaps most instructive are her "five senses" of the garden: the sense of welcome, enclosure, and entry, flow, and place. "Rather than physical attributes," she writes, "these are more subtle aspects that give each garden its own flavor and character." --Emily White
From Publishers Weekly
As gifted a writer as she is a gardener, Lovejoy is always a pleasure to read, and her lyric prose is at the heart of this inspired and inspiring volume for the intermediate gardener that offers a conceptually sophisticated, but eminently accessible (and entirely organic) method for creating naturalistic beauty. "I believe that gardens are more serene when they reflect what's found in nature," writes Lovejoy, who encourages readers to stay keenly attuned to their surroundings and "cooperate" with plants instead of trying to "control" them. Based on the same curriculum she uses in her Seattle classes, this excellent book leads readers through Lovejoy's principles to successful garden design, including "the five senses of the garden" (welcome, enclosure, entry, flow and place), plant layering, the "golden bowl effect" (a sunny central area surrounded by "plants and key trees for privacy") and "an informal rule of thirds" (one third evergreens, one third deciduous structural plants [trees and shrubs] and one third perennials). Maintenance and care of a garden that is as lovely as it is nearly self-sustaining are also covered, and the book includes a workbook that allows readers to gather site information in a logical way, set goals and create an overall garden plan. Lovejoy is consistently lively, and readers may find themselves as charmed by her singular turns of phrase (hydrangeas' "skeletal flowerheads seem to rebloom when heaped with snow") as they are by her horticultural wisdom. (Mar. 16)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
With new century dawning, we are beginning to discover a new way of gardening, a new way of thinking about our plants, and a new way of interacting with the natural world. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
With new century dawning, we are beginning to discover a new way of gardening, a new way of thinking about our plants, and a new way of interacting with the natural world. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ann Lovejoy's Organic Garden School,
By Mary Smith (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Ann Lovejoy's Organic Garden Design School: A Guide for Creating Your Own Beautiful, Easy-Care Garden (Hardcover)
This book changed my life! In a nutshell, I was focusing on perennials and color; after reading her book, I got into foliage and structure. I used to buy bushes and "hope" they wouldn't get too big, but her philosophy is to buy the right bush in the first place. I guess I just needed someone to tellme that! I have been gardening for about 15 years, and have read many books, but this is the first that actually made me do things differently! I love Ann's passion for gardening. I love this book!
5.0 out of 5 stars
clearly written,
By
This review is from: Ann Lovejoy's Organic Garden Design School: A Guide for Creating Your Own Beautiful, Easy-Care Garden (Hardcover)
I have enjoyed using this book as a good reference for my growing garden. Lovejoy's style is clear, she provides some worksheets in the back of the book, which I found helpful. I also noted her 'voice' in the book is not haughty or stuffy - she is friendly, and clear, which as an avid reader of garden books, I found refreshing. Her ideas are both simple and logical. I love this book.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Poorly organized but good information,
By "martin5064" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Ann Lovejoy's Organic Garden Design School: A Guide for Creating Your Own Beautiful, Easy-Care Garden (Hardcover)
Since I'm currently resolved to redesign my yard in the interests of increasing its ecological value and decreasing required maintenance, this "organic garden design school" SEEMED like the perfect book for me. And there is a lot of good information in here, about design considerations, planting tips, etc, some of which I've found nowhere else, and which have made the book worthwhile to me. HOWEVER, winnowing that information from the book was not very easy. Though the title suggests this is a textbook, it is really a long series of 1- or 2-page rambles about one or another aspect of the author's experience gardening her own yard (and one other yard). This work is poorly edited and organized, and there is a huge emphasis on just those two examples of garden design. To apply the lessons of this book myself, I needed more than anecdotes from two situations unlike my own. I needed some generally stated design principles, as well as some very specific techniques (e.g. how to build raised beds like the author's). While this information is in there, and some of it is quite illuminating, those gems occur nearly randomly within the 1- or 2-page rambles. If the book was titled something like "Design Thoughts," perhaps I wouldn't be so disappointed, but a "school" and a "guide," with all the clarity those words suggest, this book is not. A workbook section at the end of the book makes up for this by finally providing the reader with a definite guide for action. But it would have been a much more of a "school" and a "guide" if the workbook had been integrated into the chapters, rather than tacked on at the end.
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