Customer Reviews

The New Traditional Garden : A Practical Guide to Creating and Restoring Authentic American Gardens for Homes of All Ages

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I picked up a copy of The New Traditional Garden and was delighfully surprised. Instead of a typical modern gardening book with the same old options of plants and landscaping styles, Michael Weishan explores gardening within an historical context which gives the reader a new perspective on what a garden could and should be. Being a child of the 50's I had never considered what the gardens of our forefathers and mothers had meant to them, nor had I understood the value of taking the environment of the garden into account, including the structures on the property, and creating a unified, holistic, and rich presentation. I especially enjoyed the examples of what not to do (and found I had done quite of few of those!) I also found that it was hard to read the book for any length of time without becoming so inspired that I wanted to get out the gardening tools and set to work immediately. Thank you Mr. Weishan for shedding a whole new light on gardening and gardens!

Finally we have a difinitive work on the traditional American garden. This book returns to the beauty and practicality of the early American garden and tells you how to create it. While you get the information on all the aspects that go into this creation you are not overloaded with a lot of unnecessary planting instructions. I was very impressed with the great multitude of pictures and references and the vast amount of knowledge they contained. I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to the new and the old gardener and to anyone that has an interest in things that grow for both food and beauty.

The New Traditional Garden is unlike most books in my garden library. It begins with a wonderful history of gardening for the first settlers and includes much garden history. The book is enjoyable and inspiring as suggested by the other reviewers. But I also found it to be a bit disorganized in its attempt to present a different side of gardening. For example, each chapter includes a subject such a Unity, or Practicality with some interesting discourse relating yesterday's gardens and lifestyle to today's. There is a Historic garden featured, certain plant culture is discussed and a How-to and perhaps a driveway makeover etc. are thrown in for good measure. I would rather have seen more flow to the book's organization, but the author is a publisher of a magazine and perhaps this format, back and forth between subjects, keeps a reader interested. Also I understand the author's viewpoints in the chapter on Stewardship. What better place to state your opinions and call others to take political action than in your own book? But this is not something that I look for in a guide to traditional gardening. As with every gardening book that I have, there are favorite sections which I refer to again and again, and other sections which are of no use to me. Overall, this book is different and takes a "new" look at the "old" things of gardening. It has earned a spot on my crowded book shelf. I especially plan to refer to the extensive Historic plant compendium when I expand my garden (again) this fall.

Weishan has created an astounding book for anyone interested in traditional gardening styles, old house gardens, or anyone who simply wants to improve the design of their garden. Extremely well-written and researched, this book is a pleasure to read even for the gardening novice. Truly one of the best gardening books of the decade.

I found this book to be quite different from most other gardening books I have read. Even other books on historic plants and gardens often don't go into the detail Mr. Weishan does on why historic gardens were designed as they were. It's always useful to understand the "why" if you're going to utilize a design style. I think the book would be especially helpful for someone landscaping a historic house.

My only complaint is that after awhile, Mr. Weishan comes off as rather pompous. Apparently, if a yard was planted after about 1950 it isn't worth looking at. No good points at all. While it is true that many modern yards are not well landscaped and the plants don't relate well to the structures... I'm sure that has always been true. The historic landscapes he discusses are primarily (though not all) the landscapes of wealthy people. I'm sure there were many landscapes of those periods that were not so well done as the examples he has. While I enjoyed the book and found it useful, I would have enjoyed it more with a few less sneers at houses and yards less than 50 years old. Old doesn't automatically mean beautiful and well-designed. New doesn't automatically mean ugly and poorly designed.