Climbing Gardens: Adding Height and Structure to Your Garden [Hardcover]

Joan Clifton (Author), Steven Wooster (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2003

All gardens need height to make them come alive in three dimensions and to extend the planting area. Climbing Gardens explores all the varieties and uses of climbing plants to create unique garden spaces that preserve privacy, increase the feeling of space, and create unusual gardens and moods.

• Includes a whole range of vertical structures from simple trellises and tepees to elegant arbors and obelisks
• Explores creative ways to maximize space in a small garden
• Provides inspiration for all types of gardens, formal as well as kitchen gardens, plus lots of ideas for patios, porches, roof terraces, and balconies
• Offers a comprehensive and descriptive list of climbing plants to help gardeners make the right choices for their garden needs
• Illustrates and describes numerous projects step-by-step
• Features five chapters on a range of styles - formal, urban, living, romantic and potager that cover a wide variety of sites.

Illustrated with more than 150 inspiring photographs of gardens in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Passion flower. Chocolate vine. Golden trumpet. With names like these, who wouldn't want a garden bursting with climbing plants? Used for scent or screening, romance or relaxation, climbing plants also add a dimensional element otherwise missing from gardens that exist solely at ground level. In the language of garden design, this is known as "verticality," and Clifton shows how to achieve it through the felicitous combination of breathtaking plants and eye-catching support structures. These can be as commonplace as arbors and trellises or as unconventional as teepees and obelisks; woven together from exotic bamboo or forged from industrial steel. Enhanced by Steven Wooster's stunning photographs, Clifton's elegantly produced guide explores various thematic interpretations for climbing gardens, from romantic to urban, casual to formal. Along with detailed lists of suitable perennials, annuals, evergreens, and even vegetables, Clifton offers step-by-step instructions in a comprehensive resource for those wishing to take their gardens to new heights. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

Enhanced by Steven Wooster's stunning photographs, Clifton's elegantly produced guide explores various thematic interpretations for climbing gardens. (Carol Haggas Booklist 20030612)

Clifton's inspiration book is a helpful guide to the myriad forms that can e used to support climbing plants. (Jennifer Sergent HGTV.com 200312)

Clever book... step-by-step instructions for building trellises, tepees, obelisks and topiary frames. (Roses 20030426)

Zowie! I had no idea that exploring the third dimension, height, could be so wonderful, so theatrical. (Sherry A. Firing Globe and Mail 200305)

Beautiful, detailed photos grace the pages and provide inspiration to transform a garden using height. (Susanna Reid Neil Sperry's Gardens Magazine 20030514)

A how-to-guide that includes techniques ranging from using climbing plants to erecting vertical structures. (Floral and Nursery Times 20030426)

Fascinating ideas to add height to your garden. (Stuart Robertson Montreal Gazette 20030622)

For every style or situation -- formal, romantic, urban -- there's inspiration on every page. (Beth Botts Chicago Tribune 20030918)

Knowledgeable, readable text. For those who want to grow up, so to speak, this is a useful guide. (Robert Howard Hamilton Spectator 200307)

Offers both inspiration and information... text is thorough, offering some history, design theory, how-to, and why-to... terrific close-up photos. (Renée Beaulieu The American Gardener 20030912)

More than 100 color photographs... showcasing vertical structures from simple trellises and tepees to elegant arbors and obelisks. (Dianne Keller Smith Columbus Dispatch 20040604)

Creative ways to make your garden unique and inspirational... step-by-step projects, and numerous photographs. (Denver Post )

A myriad of inventive ways to add height to your garden... The photographs are excellent and the instructions are clear. (Shirley Remes Kane County Chronicle )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Firefly Books (March 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1552977137
• ISBN-13: 978-1552977132
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 9.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,471,203 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Using vertical space, March 4, 2004

By 

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

This review is from: Climbing Gardens: Adding Height and Structure to Your Garden (Paperback)

The writer's aim is to make you think of your garden as "a three dimensional space, filled with color, texture, and a dynamic form which you can walk through, look at and feel." She encourages the reader to consider the vertical dimension of a garden using both plants and man-made features.

Most of the book focusses on man-made structures and their use in different garden styles from formal to romantic, and urban, and they also include the potager garden.

The most useful aspect of the book is the detailed instructions for making vertical elements such as an obelisk and a gazebo. The photographs throughout are gorgeous, although they tend to feature gardens far larger, lusher and more ornate than most of us aspire to.

The section on plants points out the importance of understanding each plant's means of attachment before selecting it for a specific site. Some have tendrils, for example, which will twine around wood or wire. Some need sturdier supports and some plants will sucker onto a wall. Choose wisely!

There is not much new in this book , but the photography is beautiful and the instructions might help you add a new vertical structure without great expense.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Add a new dimension to your garden, September 6, 2003

By 

Harold McFarland (Florida) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Climbing Gardens: Adding Height and Structure to Your Garden (Paperback)

Although I have enjoyed gardening for some time it never occurred to me to create a climbing garden. In "Climbing Gardens: Adding Height and Structure to Your Garden" author Joan Clifton provides solid advice on how to create such a garden. This is not just a rose trellis type of climbing garden, there are a myriad of forms a climbing garden can take and she illustrates and discusses several of them. The book is illustrated with beautiful photographs of garden trellises, walkways, arches, and other structures covered with flowering foliage. On a more practical aspect it contains some more practical ideas such as the photograph of an archway covered with fruiting squash plants. It even has a few pictures and ideas for one of my favorite vines - wisteria. With instructions on how to build structures such as an obelisk or a living arbor, the book is very complete and a recommended read for anyone looking to add a new dimension to their garden by adding height and other structure.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Using vertical space, March 4, 2004

By 

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

This review is from: Climbing Gardens: Adding Height and Structure to Your Garden (Hardcover)

The writer's aim is to make you think of your garden as "a three dimensional space, filled with color, texture, and a dynamic form which you can walk through, look at and feel." She encourages the reader to consider the vertical dimension of a garden using both plants and man-made features.

Most of the book focusses on man-made structures and their use in different garden styles from formal to romantic, and urban, and they also include the potager garden.

The most useful aspect of the book is the detailed instructions for making vertical elements such as an obelisk and a gazebo. The photographs throughout are gorgeous, although they tend to feature gardens far larger, lusher and more ornate than most of us aspire to.

The section on plants points out the importance of understanding each plant's means of attachment before selecting it for a specific site. Some have tendrils, for example, which will twine around wood or wire. Some need sturdier supports and some plants will sucker onto a wall. Choose wisely!

There is not much new in this book , but the photography is beautiful and the instructions might help you add a new vertical structure without great expense.