The American Woodland Garden: Capturing the Spirit of the Deciduous Forest [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Rick Darke (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2002

North America's eastern half, roughly from the Midwest to the Atlantic, was once a great deciduous forest. Although centuries of human intervention have cleared much of the land, the timeless forest remains in the spirit of the place. Today, even the shortest period of human neglect allows for the resurgence of the process of forest creation. The greatest gardens — and happiest gardeners — in this area will be those that take into account the nature of the land.
In his unique, and often thought-provoking new book, award-winning author Darke promotes and stunningly illustrates a garden aesthetic based on the strengths and opportunities of the woodland, including play of light, sound, and scent; seasonal drama; and the architectural interest of woody plants.

While written from a compelling and fresh perspective, The American Woodland Garden never strays from the realistic concerns of the everyday gardener. Information on planting, soils, and maintenance provides a firm foundation for horticultural accomplishment. An alphabetical list of woodland plants offers useful advice for every garden, emphasizing native trees, shrubs, vines, ferns, grasses, sedges, and flowering perennials that fit the forest aesthetic. More than 700 of the author's stunning photographs show both the natural palette of plants in the wild and the effects that can be achieved with them in garden settings. Many of the most striking photos in the book were taken at classic gardens that are paragons of an ecological style.

The American Woodland Garden is a clarion call to a new awareness of our relationship to the natural world. This book will take its rightful place among the classic works that have influenced our concept of the American landscape.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

With a fine book on ornamental grasses to his credit, Darke turns to summoning forth the spirit, beauty, and natural order of a woodland in the gardens he creates in its image. Darke defines a "Forest Aesthetic," bringing intensity and passion to his revelations of seasonal rhythms and the lyric qualities of light occurring in deciduous environments. Decades spent studying a Pennsylvania locale, Red Clay Creek, form the basis of a subsequent chapter in which Darke melds an authentic ecological stance with the desire to create a garden sanctuary. Identifying aesthetic elements in the most subtle of manifestations, from a tiny dormant bud to dramatic silhouettes of fallen tree trunks, Darke shares a reverie on nature and observations of an applicable artistry. As responsible stewards of the land, gardeners can look to Darke's unorthodox design manual to transcend trite solutions with a wise and vital philosophy, and with its cache of inspiring photographs, this is sure to inspire all who garden east of the Rocky Mountains. Alice Joyce
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"A must-have for anyone interested in woodlands and gardening."

Bristol Herald Courier (Bristol Herald Courier )

"A gallery of breathtaking images of native woodlands in all seasons...This is an inspiring reference that synthesizes ecology and horticulture, presented by a philosophical author with an artist's eye."—Virginia Small, Fine Gardening, January/February 2003 (Virginia Small Fine Gardening )

"An accomplished work of epic proportions. ... Wherever you garden and no matter how extensive or small the woodland you tend — even if it is just a single birch tree — The American Woodland Garden offers the most comprehensive, inspiring, and thought-provoking advice you are ever likely to find within the confines of a single volume. As the text on the inside jacket correctly claims, this book is destined to become a classic."—Bob Purnell, Gardens Illustrated, December 2003 (Bob Purnell Gardens Illustrated )

"Reads like a memoir. It's also a visual showcase, with more than 700 of Darke's exceptional photographs gracing its pages, all documented with an attention to detail gardeners will appreciate ... A valuable reference for those who seek to follow Darke's call to 'capture the spirit of the deciduous forest' in their own spaces."—Moira Sheridan, People Places Plants, Spring 2003 (Moira Sheridan People Places Plants )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 378 pages
• Publisher: Timber Press (August 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881925454
• ISBN-13: 978-0881925456
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 10.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #162,889 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rick Darke is President of RICK DARKE LLC (www.rickdarke.com) a Pennsylvania USA-based consulting firm specializing in landscape ethics, photography, and contextual design. Darke's work blends art, ecology, horticulture, and cultural geography in the creation, conservation, and management of livable landscapes.

A broadly knowledgeable field ecologist and horticulturist, Darke's professional experience includes 16 years as Longwood Gardens' Curator of Plants, during which he studied and photographed a great array of world ecologies including those of South Africa, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the Canary Islands, and northern Europe. He continues to travel both hemispheres in search of ideas to sustain and enrich the global garden. His work has been profiled on National Public Radio, in The New York Times, in Garden Design Magazine, and in BBC Gardens Illustrated.

Darke's approach to landscape design and management is grounded in first-hand observation of regional ecologies and cultural landscapes. He has studied and photographed North American plants in their habitats for more than 35 years, and this work is reflected in his books including The American Woodland Garden: Capturing the Spirit of the Deciduous Forest (Timber Press, 2002),which was profiled on National Public Radio and also received the American Horticultural Society's Book Award, the Garden Writers Association Golden Globe Award for book photography, the National Arbor Day Foundation's Certificate of Merit.

Darke is recognized as one of the world's experts on grasses and their use in public and private landscapes. His book, The Encyclopedia of Grasses for Livable Landscapes (Timber Press, 2007)includes over 1000 photos of grasses in global landscapes, and is the most complete reference on this subject. It has been published in French (Editions du Rouergue, 2007) and German (Verlag Eugen Ulmer, 2010)

Darke recently wrote the foreword for the updated and expanded edition of Doug Tallamy's shape-changing book, Bringing Nature Home: How you Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants (Timber Press, 2009)

Rick's most recent book project is The Wild Garden: Expanded Edition (Timber Press, 2009) In addition to the complete text and illustrations from William Robinson's revolutionary classic, this expanded edition includes new chapters and over 100 color photos by Darke, placing the concept of wild gardening in the context of modern ecological design.

Darke has contributed illustrated chapters to two multi-author books to be published in early 2011. The New American Sustainable Garden (Timber Press, 2011)includes Rick's chapter on Balancing Natives and Exotics in the Garden. Fallingwater (Rizzoli, 2011) includes his chapter Wright in the Woods: The Nature of Fallingwater's Landscape.

Darke is a frequent lecturer on a broad array of topics relating to gardens and diverse global landscapes. His programs utilize state of the art digital presentation technologies and typically integrate video. For further information visit his website www.rickdarke.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This one's a keeper, February 6, 2003

By 

Valerie Adolph "Coast Journal" (Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The American Woodland Garden: Capturing the Spirit of the Deciduous Forest (Hardcover)

The American Woodland Garden: Capturing the Spirit of the Deciduous Forest. Rick Darke

This is one of the most powerful books about our natural world that I have read in a long time. When I picked it up I expected nothing more that a pleasant read and some attractive photographs. This book contains far more. The author manages to combine science-based knowledge of forest ecology with the eye of the artist and the insight of a philosopher. I haven't enjoyed a tree or garden book in years and I don't even live on that side of the continent.

More than half the population of the U.S. lives on land that used to be one vast deciduous forest. Only a patchwork of remnants remains. Rick Darke, author of "The American Woodland Garden" has attempted the difficult task of writing and photographing a portrait of this forest and offering a guide for those who consider creating a woodland garden both for beauty and for their conservation value.

The photographs alone make this book a worthwhile purchase, especially those of the photographic study of one stretch of Red Clay Creek in Pennsylvania. The author portrays, in photographs and notes, the natural patterns and processes of this tiny section of creek that he passed daily on his way to work. He writes "What began as a simple exercise in observation has proved to be one of the most essential elements in my education as a gardener." The resulting series of photographs is both simple and profound. Most of us know little stream beds like this; often we pass them routinely in our day-to-day commuting. We seldom pause to record the details - a flower is in bloom, a branch has fallen, the way one tree's foliage complements another. But for the author there were complex lessons to be learned, not least of which was the inevitability of change in the forest. Not only seasonal changes, but the effects of high winds, heavy rain and, of course, the hand of man.

Make sure to read the preface to understand the author's frame of reference (I often skip it, thinking `same old, same old') but this one conveys you comfortably into the realm of the forest and into the author's world view. His first chapter "A Forest Aesthetic - The Eye of the Artist" shows you the colour cycles and architecture of the forest, while the second chapter is the aforementioned study of the woodland stream. The third and fourth chapters relate the spirit of the forest to the spirit of a woodland garden. The final, and longest, chapter details the plants of the woodland.

For the gardener or designer the lesson, beyond a deeper understanding of the woodland itself, is not to copy the forest but to reflect it, to make the most of colours, patterns and processes and to celebrate the spirit of the forest and bring it closer.

It would demean this book to call it a coffee table book, although the large format and superb illustrations would earn it a place on any coffee table. But by all means put it on your coffee table, because you will want it handy to pick up again and again as you keep returning to take this spiritual journey again and again with the author.

66 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Perfect Addition to Your Garden Library, April 30, 2003

By 

C. J. Brown (Long Valley, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The American Woodland Garden: Capturing the Spirit of the Deciduous Forest (Hardcover)

I LOVE this book! I have a pretty extensive library of gardening books, but after relocating to the Northeast and starting landscaping projects here on our wooded lot, I felt I needed more references before going any further. Very few books I've looked at do an adequate job of dealing with shade and woodland gardening with the focus on planting native species. There are a great many very pretty books, with boring, dry or even worthless text, but this book utilizes very readable material and photographic compositions that are helpful AND beautiful. The use of photos of grouped plantings, as opposed to individual specimen photography made it far easier visualize possibilities in my own landscaping projects, and I especially liked his photos contrasting various garden views from one season to the next, emphasizing the idea that the beauty of our woodland landscapes aren't just about the obvious drama of spring or fall, but the unique structure and color of each phase of the year. I feel Mr. Darke did a fantastic job with both his text and photography, providing the ideal balance between beauty and practicality, creating a lovely, readable book that also serves as a great gardening reference.

69 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Personal Look at the Northeastern Forest, September 13, 2002

By 

gfweb "gfweb" (pa USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The American Woodland Garden: Capturing the Spirit of the Deciduous Forest (Hardcover)

Rick Darke has produced another gem. Darke's approach is unique; part Edwin Way Teale and part Gertrude Jeckyl, he looks at woodland beauty from many aspects; both for the love of it and in order to reproduce it in the garden. The book has four main sections, an appreciation of natural plant arrangements in the forest, a study of a small section of a woodland creek over many years, application of natural design principles in established gardens and a description of horticulturally useful forest plants. Each section is lavishly illustrated with beautiful and well-reproduced photographs.

In the first unit, the author looks at natural woodlands and natural gardens from the point of view of an artist and gardener. His goal is to define those natural combinations that are pleasing and translate them to culture. His discussion of color was particularly novel and helpful.

The second section follows the changes wrought by nature in a section of the Red Clay Creek in SE Pennsylvania. Not merely a catalog of events, this exercise in observation reveals how natural beauty evolves over time and through the seasons.

In the third section, a number of public and private gardens are used to illustrate the authors vision of the narural garden.

Finally, the last part of the book describes the main plants in the northeastern forest. It contains a wealth of cultural and aesthetic information.

Each section alone is worth the price of this handsome volume. This is a garden book to savor and to learn from.