Customer Reviews

P. Allen Smith's Garden Home: Creating a Garden for Everyday Living

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a beautiful book filled with eye candy but, better yet, full of practical advice for anyone ready to design a garden. Smith was smart and patient when he set out to design his own garden in Tennessee. Here he shows how the gardens of his childhood and most importantly, visits to the great gardens of Europe, helped influence and shape his design philosophy.

Smith uses the popular concept of "garden rooms" to illustrate twelve principles - Enclosure, Shape and Form, Framing, Entry, Focal Point, Structures, Color, Texture, Abundance, Whimsy, Mystery and Time. Each of these are illustrated with lush photos of Smith's own garden as well as his clients gardens.

The last section of the book discusses techniques and ideas on how to plan and construct your garden. Lists of plants are provided for specific situations.

Overall, a well designed, photographed and written book.

I hate to be the fly-in-the-ointment, but I didn't care for P. Allen Smith's Garden Home. I ordered it because I thought the photos would be spectacular and it sounded like a terrific how-to-guide.

While P. Allen has some fine principles, especially when discussing gardens as exterior rooms, the book was lacking in the how-to element, instead focusing on concepts (most of which seemed too basic), and the pictures were not as stunning as I had hoped. The photos seem sparse for such a large book--I like my gardening books either popping with colorful photos or full of botanical info. A tremendous amount of the writing is spent discussing color wheel concepts which I found boring and unnecessary. What I did like were P. Allen's drawings, they're terrific and I wish his editors had included more.

I also was put off by his continual reference to Lady Elizabeth Ashbrook, one of his noble acquaintances. Had the book been a tribute to her I might have felt it was in keeping, but the references were jarring. And I couldn't make the connection to the subtitle "A Garden for Everyday Living". As my irritation with the Lady Ashbrook references grew I found solace in P. Allen's remarkable hairdo.

All in all, P. Allen Smith's Garden Home is a fluffy "celebrity book" and if you are looking for inspirational books, then you might prefer his Container Gardening--which not only has more beautiful photos, but is a better hands-on guide.

Good general gardening, landscaping books--Garden Transformations by Bunny Guinness is an especially inspired read and despite the low-budget cover on my copy, it has beautiful pictures and actually gives step-by-step pictures. Another good picture book is Great Escapes by Judith Miller, which features architecture and plantings.

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in gardening or landscape design. The sub-title is "Creating a garden for everyday living" and the writer takes the concept of "garden rooms" a step further than most designers. Dividing a garden into so-called "rooms" is not a new concept and it's easy enough to see that a vast garden such as, say, Sissinghurst is much more manageable when divided into smaller units.

It's not as easy, though, to visualize an ordinary city garden in terms of rooms. The writer helps us make this transition by using his own city garden as an example. This spans two city lots, so it's wider than most, but he shows how he has taken each axis and divided it, yet allowed each room to flow into the next. In the first part of the book the writer explains how he went about planning them and how each of the rooms developed.

The second section of the book defines twelve principles of design and gives examples and illustrations of each. These clearly and simply presented principles - from color to shape and form and not forgetting whimsy and mystery - offer down-to-earth and practical ideas.

The third section, which for some reason is printed on different paper and has no illustrations other than sketches, offers more of the writer's thoughts on the application of the twelve design principles.

The content of this book is well thought out and well presented, and the color photographs in the first two sections are generous and relevant. My quibbles are - first, the strange presentation of the third section as if the book designer decided to make it as dull as possible so no-one would read it. Second, the fact that in the list of U. S. gardens to visit there isn't a single one listed from the Pacific Northwest.

Two other things bothered me. The first is the writer's glee at associating himself with Lord and Lady Ashbrook of Arley Hall in England (Local boy makes good!! Entertained by nobility!!) The second is having the writer's photograph prominent on the front cover. Yes, he's cute, and yes, I like eye candy as much as anyone else, but that was a bit much. Whatever sells books, I guess, but I felt it cheapened a very valuable addition to the gardener's library.

In this elegant new book, Allen has made grand garden designs easy to understand, and even easier to achieve in the garden. I love the juxtaposition of the traditional English perennial borders with the front yard of his home in Little Rock! I found the book to be inspiring - can't wait for spring. Hard to imagine it his first book... looking forward to more.

The concept of a garden home is long overdue. This is a very practical guide to creating a garden home. The photography is outstanding and usually only available for a much higher price. This could change the way American use their homes and surrounding space.

P. Allen Smith has a wonderful, warm and colorful way of expressing his love of gardening. The book has beautiful photos of various types of garden settings and wonderful ideas for you do follow. Since I am a first time gardener, I am looking forward to Spring so I can try some of his ideas and suggestions. He gives some great gardening tips for those of us who are just getting started. It also makes a great coffee table book!

Wow! Allen definitely makes complicated gardening look easy and exciting in his new book. I love the way he compares rooms in a garden to those in a house. His suggestions on color are so inspiring. Allen's lifelong passion for gardening is so obvivous through his work. I am so ready for warm weather so my family and I can begin our outside rooms!

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in gardening or landscape design. The sub-title is "Creating a garden for everyday living" and the writer takes the concept of "garden rooms" a step further than most designers. Dividing a garden into so-called "rooms" is not a new concept and it's easy enough to see that a vast garden such as, say, Sissinghurst is much more manageable when divided into smaller units.

It's not as easy, though, to visualize an ordinary city garden in terms of rooms. The writer helps us make this transition by using his own city garden as an example. This spans two city lots, so it's wider than most, but he shows how he has taken each axis and divided it, yet allowed each room to flow into the next. In the first part of the book the writer explains how he went about planning them and how each of the rooms developed.

The second section of the book defines twelve principles of design and gives examples and illustrations of each. These clearly and simply presented principles - from color to shape and form and not forgetting whimsy and mystery - offer down-to-earth and practical ideas.

The third section, which for some reason is printed on different paper and has no illustrations other than sketches, offers more of the writer's thoughts on the application of the twelve design principles.

The content of this book is well thought out and well presented, and the color photographs in the first two sections are generous and relevant. My quibbles are - first, the strange presentation of the third section as if the book designer decided to make it as dull as possible so no-one would read it, and second the fact that in the list of gardens to visit there isn't a single one listed from the Pacific Northwest.

Two other things bothered me. The first is the writer's glee at associating himself with Lord and Lady Ashbrook of Arley Hall in England (Local boy makes good!! Entertained by nobility!!) The second is having the writer's photograph prominent on the front cover. Yes, he's cute, and yes, I like eye candy as much as anyone else, but that was a bit much. Whatever sells books, I guess, but I felt it cheapened a very valuable addition to the gardener's library.

This well-designed, well-written book is an excellent book on garden design principles. I thoroughly enjoyed the first section, in which P. Allen gives us an intimate tour of his own beautiful garden home. This is not only inspiring but also an excellent teaching tool, as "a photo is worth a thousand words" and serves to underscore the design principles set forth in the remainder of the book. His garden is so gorgeous, but I wondered how out-of-reach it is for us 'normal folks'- - until I noticed that he mentions that he repeatedly uses "workhorse" plants that are relatively problem-free/easy-to-care for. He loves his roses, for example, but seems to have chosen many heirloom varieties known for their resistance to blackspot and diseases (ie the venerable 'New Dawn'). And his lush garden home didn't spring up overnight, of course- - it was over 10 years in the making, and he shares some of its growing pains. Before reading this book, my image of P. Allen was that he was too finicky/persnickity/too "too" for my tastes, but in exploring this delightful book I have revised my opinion of him completely. The guy likes what he likes and knows his stuff, but I no longer find that off-putting. Finally, others have referenced his recollections of the Ashbrookes as being hoity-toity; might we cut him some slack and instead interpret his recollections as his OWN deeply inspirational/aspirational experiences and these aristocrats as fond friends/gardening soulmates. We all have places and people who are dear to us, and perhaps in the telling our enthusiasm is misinterpreted. I truly enjoyed this book and recommend it highly; it is written in pleasant prose and is not a 1-2-3 do this, do this, do this instructional manual but rather an aspirational guide that sets forth solid design principles beautifully illustrated largely through the author's own property.

If you're wondering how to make your yard really work for you, and do everything you want it to do - entertainment, beauty, functionality, and making the most of your yard, this is a great book.
P. Allen doesn't seem to be in touch with people who have children's yard space issues, but he knows gardens!