Customer Reviews

Climbing Gardens: Adding Height and Structure to Your Garden

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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.

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.

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.