Gardens by Design [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Noël Kingsbury (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2005

Garden planners, home gardeners, and landscape designers will be turning to this
exceptional book for expert advice from the world's leading garden makers including Beth Chatto, Piet Oudolf, James Van Sweden, and Julie Mois Messervy. In this beautifully illustrated collection, Noël Kingsbury gathers their ideas on the entire design process — from choosing a garden style through planning its layout to maintaining its look over time. Encouraging a fluid approach to creativity, Gardens by Design will assist designers at all levels to understand the mechanics of plant combinations, to seek out cutting-edge and exquisite plants, and to nurture their garden's development, growth, and maintenance over time.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Gardeners looking for advice from a who's who of top designers will revel in the insights Kingsbury has collected. Having put together a circle of creative thinkers, Kingsbury draws out from each individual a rich dialogue filled with ideas and concepts that will have readers thinking about exactly what it is they want in a garden. To personalize and give character to a space, either with the help of a hired professional or on your own, one must not only look at practical considerations, but also clarify needs and desires. This guide should help in understanding the relationships between house, grounds, and garden style. The aesthetic notion of a formal approach versus a naturalistic asymmetry is illuminated, and such elements as paths and borders, plant choices, and water features are discussed; and all suggestions are shown in a profusion of color photographs. A great sourcebook that promises to inspire budding green thumbs while stimulating those with experience. Alice Joyce
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"The photographs are not only beautiful but serve to illustrate the ideas, as do all the others throughout this handsome, well-designed book."—Michael Cunningham, Horticulture, July 2006 (Michael Cunningham Horticulture )

"A refreshing and illuminating change from the usual garden design book which is the voice of just one person, Noel Kingsbury's Gardens by Design has tips, insight, and wisdom from some of the most respected and creative garden designers in the English-speaking world."—Catriona Tudor Erler, American Gardener, June 2006 (Catriona Tudor Erler American Gardener )

"This book will be one you will keep on the shelf and refer to often." Debra Teachout-Teashon, Rainy Side Gardeners, July 19, 2006 (Debra Teachout-Teashon Rainy Side Gardeners )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Timber Press (August 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881927414
• ISBN-13: 978-0881927412
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 9.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #847,588 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Noel Kingsbury is internationally known as an innovator and writer in the garden world. He has worked on both private gardens and public spaces developing nature-inspired planting, and has written about garden design, green roofs and the politics of gardening. A great believer in using science to inform our gardening, Noel completed a PhD with the University of Sheffield in 2008. His latest book is 'Garden Designers at Home'. He lives and gardens in the Welsh Borders near Hay-on-Wye.

Noel writes for the UK and US garden press and has written some 20 books, as well as taking on design projects himself. He gardens in the Welsh borders, where he looks after a four acre plot, mostly a semi-natural meadow but with lush borders of perennials and a productive vegetable area. Like many leading European gardeners he's very much in love with American prairie plants.

With Tim Richardson he co-hosts 'The Vista Debates', a monthly forum for the discussion of garden and landscape issues, at London's Garden Museum.

His most recent book is a bit of a departure, a popular science history title - the story of plant breeding, in agriculture as well as gardening.

www.noelkingsbury.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars very basic, March 21, 2007

By 

H+E (Albuquerque, New Mexico United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Gardens by Design (Hardcover)

Althought the photos are beautiful and the book does give some overview of the work of some prominent designers in the field today, the advice given is very basic. It's sort of on the line of "create an axis" kind of advice. Still, it's a pretty coffee table book, and something to look at when inspiration is lacking, or a winter dreaming book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Garden designs, November 18, 2009

By 

R. O. Girton "Oakley Park" (Milwaukie, OR 97222) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Gardens by Design (Hardcover)

Now this is a book that every serious garden designer needs to read.
To quote Penelope Hobhouse in her Forward, "This is much more than a how-to reference book: it looks at principles of design in considerable depth." Further, "...he(the author)allows the contributors (world class designers)to express their own philosophies and the reader is enriched by their individuality."
The many, many photos alone in this book are as informative to the viewer as the text is to the reader. This book is well worth the price.