Herbs in the Garden [Hardcover]

Rob Proctor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1997

Offering a bounty of ideas for using herbs in the garden, this guide suggest planting them almost everywhere, from splendid borders to humble foot-paths, from background walls to terrace and patio displays. Filled with beautiful photographs, the book provides a wealth of new ideas for gardeners and herb lovers alike.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Rob Proctor and David Macke are the coauthors of Herbs in Pots: Artful and Practical Herbal Containers.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Interweave Press (December 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 188301025X
• ISBN-13: 978-1883010256
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,306,312 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lauren Springer Ogden worked in public gardens on both sides of the Atlantic before receiving her master's degree in horticulture from Penn State. At Denver Botanic Gardens, she designed the Watersmart and Romantic Gardens. An award-winning writer and photographer, she is a contributing editor for Horticulture magazine and author of The Undaunted Garden, named one of the 75 best American gardening books of the last century by the American Horticultural Society, and coauthor of Passionate Gardening: Good Advice for Challenging Climates, which received the 2001 AHS Book Award. Lauren's gardens have been featured on television and in many publications, including The New York Times, Sunset Western Landscaping book, and The Collector's Garden. She is a popular speaker in the United States and Canada. Lauren and her husband Scott Ogden, also a horticulturist and writer, design and consult around the country. They garden together in Fort Collins, Colorado and Austin, Texas. Please visit their website at www.plantdrivendesign.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pure Inspiration for the home gardener., October 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Herbs in the Garden (Hardcover)

I read the book cover to cover twice in the first week and am now reading it again. Herbs in the Garden is pure inspiration. The title may be misinterpreted by those who have not seen the book. The focus is not on herbs, but rather on how herbs, vegetables, flowers and shrubs may be used together in garden design, or as the subtitle says, "The Art of Intermingling". The book is a breezy walk through the authors' garden, starting with a discussion of foliage as the framework, then working onward through their use of cottage and border gardens, their shade and dryland design (totally avoiding the use of the trendy term "xeriscaping") and concluding with containerized planting ideas.

Written in a casual, conversational style with humorous anecdotes and comments, the strength of the book lies in its geographic versatility. The authors describe their garden but don't dwell on the horticultural requirements of the plants. This allows them to focus on design - how the hardscape and plantings interact - and on the practical knowledge they have gained in years of digging and growing. Gardeners anywhere can adapt the suggestions to fit their own locales.

The book's strength, the lack of horticultural specifics, may also be a source of frustration for some. I kept a reference book handy to look up plants that I was unfamiliar with. This allowed me to quickly determine if an intriguing plant was appropriate for my climate. A beginning gardener, familiar with only a limited number of plants, might find this annoying. A reference chart at the back of the book that does give some information.

Overall, Proctor and Macke have written a delightful book. It reads like a novel, has lovely photographs and will plant dreams of backyard paradises in the minds of garden fanatics. It gave me a bad case of "gardener vision".