Customer Reviews

Grasses: Versatile Partners for Uncommon Garden Design

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Grasses by freelance gardening writer Nancy J. Ondra is a beautiful and practical guide to raising ornamental grasses in one's garden. Filled cover to cover with excellent color photographs by life-long gardener and gardening photographer Saxon Holt of aesthetic and splendid grasses, the profusely illustrated text presents the reader with a wide choice of colored grasses to best accentuate the beauty of one's garden and how to best select choice plants for wet, dry, hot, or shady sites. Highly recommended for personal and professional gardening, horticultural and landscaping reference collections, even non-gardeners will appreciate the dazzling, coffee-table book quality photography of this singularly elegant yet practical guide.

Grasses. They add so much wonderful texture to perennial collections and the landscape. They add terrific movement, catching the smallest breezes, defying the strongest winds and I wanted them in my garden however I knew so little about them. Then along came this terrific book by Nancy J. Ondra with photographs by Saxon Holt. Everything about this book is appealing.
I appreciate the way it is laid out in four sections; Getting to Know Grasses, Color Palettes, Seasonal Usage and Selecting for Location. Ms. Ondra is a font of information without overloading your brain and as a Grasses Novice I find that useful. The photography by Mr. Holt is truly beautiful, with most of the photographs taken in combinations with other plant materials so you can get the feel of the various Grasses in the landscape. Section Four (p.94) really helps you get down to the nitty-gritty of making the appropriate selections for various soils and exposures. This is the sort of book to use year in and year out and I think would be useful to professional and advanced gardners as well as beginners. You get a lot of bang for your buck with this volume. Highly recommended!

This book is full of great photos of grasses in gardens, and I find it inspirational. It shows grasses mixed with other common perennials in situations most gardeners could replicate in their own gardens. The author includes growing tips and site preferences for many different species.
There are some books you always reach for on a certain type of plant, and this is the one I find myself always reaching for on grasses. I happen to be a Master Gardener who loves ornamental grass gardening.

I borrowed this book from the library. I highly recommend this book for anyone who plans to use a lot of grasses when landscaping. The photos are wonderful and the information about the grasses is very useful. One chapter is titled Color Palettes; it has photos & info about grasses in colors groups such as "golds & bronzes", "cool blues & quiet grays", Dark-leaved & Variegated. The Problem Solver chapter is divided into sections such as "Hot, Dry Sites", Moisture-Lovers, Shade-Lovers, Ground Covers & Low Maintenance. I have a very small yard with little space for grasses so I am not going to purchase this book but I would definitely buy this book if I had more space for landscaping.

Love this book, wonderful pictures, but --- I find myself looking for a comprehensive chart / list that gives an overview -- so that you can make gardening choices easier ... examples; height, color, cool/warm, best conditions, clump or creep, zones --- well you get the point . . .

I easily own 30+ gardening books, and am always on the look out for something new & special. This one absolutely fits the bill. It is hands down my favorite grasses book, and in the top 5 of design/inspiration books for me. It has so much to offer - the pictures are gorgeous, the grasses showcased offer an incredible array of textures & colors, the descriptions are thorough, different plantings recommended per dry/wet/hot/shaded sites are incredibly helpful. I live in the Rocky Mountain Region & found that it had excellent suggestions for all zones. You'll love it!

I approached gardening from two aspects; what will grow in my 5 acre dryland, sandy Michigan garden and what plants can I use in my handmade papers. Ornamental grasses make for wonderful inclusions in my handmade papers!

The book was my first introduction to ornamental grasses some 10-11 years ago. This was the first of many books on grasses that I have bought and store in the small bookshelf above my bedstead. It has become my "go to" book on grasses. When winter comes, the snow blows and I am unable to no longer dig in the dirt this is one of the first books I grab to read and reread and reread.

This is the book that first keyed me into the differences between clumping grasses (say yes!) and invasive grasses (a no no!) From this book I learned to mix grasses with certain perennials for year season-round interest, to plant many grasses together for a greater impact, to NOT bother to amend the soil as ornamental grasses actually prefer poorer soil and so on.

Using this book as my guide I planted Micanthesis Senthesis around my round hottub deck as a living screen one of the most effective areas I have in my garden and definitely the most commented upon place in my garden.

This book gave me an introdution this authors way of gardening and has inspired me to follow her additional writing in both magazines and books.

I like a book filled with color photographs of actual gardens, displays, combinations, ideas and inspiration and this book does not disappoint.

I love this book. Anything you want to know about grasses you will find in it.

I bought this book to learn more about the variety of grasses available. I do not like how the book lacks practical information about planting and usage. There really needs to be a section that lists out all of the plants by their latin and regular use names, along with the Zones they live best in, planting advice for spacing and time of the year to plant, and how to care for the plant (ie when to shear them down, and how far down). The book gives some good ideas for decorating the landscape using grasses, however you really need a secondary book to look up the practical use of these plants.