Customer Reviews

Planting Design Illustrated

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Many books have been written on the subject of landscape design but, until recently, none had been written solely on the topic of planting design. Gang Chen, a licensed California architect (not a landscape architect), fills this vacuum with Planting Design Illustrated. He immediately distinguishes planting design for formal gardens from planting design for naturalistic gardens.

He begins with a discussion of the approach to planting design problems and then moves on to basic planting design principles. I particularly liked his drawing of texture design that illustrates the theory of contrast, this theory frequently discussed but rarely concretized. I also thought that his analysis of color theory was excellent, including the effect of factors such as the texture of the leaf, reflections from surroundings and the intensity of the light.

While massing is frequently cited as an important element in design, it is a concept that is rarely analyzed but Gang Chen defines it as the three dimensional quality of plants and relates its importance, in combination with emphasis on form, to the ultimate view. There is also an excellent discussion of the relationship between solid and void space, the type of pattern to be used, and the transition between them. This discussion includes spatial organization and contrast with analogous allusions to literature and art. In his examination of planting patterns, he says that "the secret of a good design is to achieve the balance between repetition and contrasts, between unity and changes."

The author is very erudite and uses his extensive knowledge of the arts to simplify and concretize what all designers know or should know, with many analogies to music, particularly in his discussion of rhythm.

Beneficial to every landscape designer and architect is knowledge of the history of landscape design. Most books written about formal garden design are based on Italian and French gardens but Gang Chen leads us further back in history, taking us through the evolution of formal garden prototypes while discussing how different cultures influenced that evolution. He demonstrates, with sketches, how formal gardens look from above and below and also how they evolved from hilly regions to flat ones. I was especially pleased to read of his belief that there should be unity of the building and the garden since this is an element that is often lacking in design.

While many books have been written about Japanese gardens and a few about Chinese gardens, none analyze naturalistic planting design. Gang Chen uses Chinese gardens as a case study in order to explore their cultural, symbolic, emotional and psychological aspects. These gardens serve as a subjective interpretation of the natural landscape found in China. He then demonstrates how Japanese gardens are a climatic and cultural adaptation of Chinese gardens as French gardens were of Italian gardens but distinguishes the differences between them and then compares them to the evolution of the English naturalistic gardens.

In his analysis of Chinese gardens, Gang Chen emphasizes the importance of two crucial concepts, plant iconography and Yi-Jing, to Westerners. Plant iconography is relatively easy to understand; it is the symbolism of plants and thus Eastern gardens frequently use fewer kinds of plant material than Westerners. Yi-Jing is a bit more difficult to grasp but critical to naturalistic design. It "focuses on the interaction between the designer's subjective ideas and the objective site conditions."

I found this book to be absolutely fascinating. You will need to concentrate while reading it but the effort will be well worth your time.

Gang Chen's book is a little masterpiece. It's definitely NOT a coffee-table book--it's the book you would want to actually read and follow in order for your plantings to resemble those you'd find in a coffee-table book! He delves into three thousand years of planting and garden design theory in order to illustrate the concepts and principles. The illustrations, in black and white, are more useful than anything I've ever seen in gardening or outdoor design books done in four-color. The amount of information and guidance in this book is really hard to properly explain in a review, it's that overwhelmingly good. I HIGHLY recommend this book, to both professional designers and "lay gardeners" who just want to figure out how to plant their own back yards.

As a gardener, I'm always on the lookout for good books on plants and design - Planting Design Illustrated has both. Chen organizes his material on planting design in a straight forward and logical manner, moving from basic design concepts to analysis of actual gardens. He richly illustrates his text with drawings and pictures. The design student/landscape architect will find his analysis illuminating as he derives and illustrates universal concepts from his analysis. The ordinary gardener will like the history sections, discussion on contrasting gardens and the tables on plant symbolism. I'll keep this one on my reference shelf for a long time.

As a long time consumer of gardening books, I am impressed with Gang Chen's inclusion of new information on planting design theory for Chinese and Japanese gardens. Many gardening books discuss the beauty of Japanese gardens, and a few discuss the unique charms of Chinese gardens, but this one explains how Japanese and Chinese history, geography and artistic traditions bear on the development of each country's style. The material on traditional western garden planting is thorough and inspiring, too. 'Planting Design Illustrated' definitely rewards repeated reading and study; any garden designer will read it with profit.

I enjoyed reading this book, especially the part comparing Chinese Gardens with Japanese Gardens and English Gardens. This book covers extensive information on planting design. I can see Mr. Chen put a lot of efforts and research into the subject and did an excellent job. It is also enjoyable to read the book as the pictures and the illustrations help me to understand any subjects discussed.

I am delighted with this book because I am a Master Gardener and I also an expert in Feng Shui. He has mentioned the role of symbolisim in relation to the planting and I feel that is also a great part of building your planting design. This book will help you set up your spaces easily and provide just the right pattern that will suit your property. I like his easy to understand photos of laying out areas in different forms and I especially liked the Motif pattern and I plan on using that in my landscaping designs this spring. Chen has captured all of the details that sometimes are forgotten by architects in designing our properties.

An architecture with more than twenty years of professional experience, Gang Chen turns his attention to landscaping with the publication of "Planting Design Illustrated", a comprehensive instructional guide specifically written for non-specialist general readers, as well as students of gardening and landscaping, and professional architectures who must consult with soils and civil engineers, as well as other professionals, in coordinating their buildings in the context of landscape designs. Occasionally illustrated with charts, designs, and photos, "Planting Design Illustrated" covers basic planting design principles and concepts (including the Formal Garden), then goes on to cover approaching a planting design problem, the relationship of plants and human beings when designing a landscaping project, plants and spaces, the developmental history and trends of formal gardens, naturalist planting design using Chinese gardens as a model, as well as the English style natural garden. "Planting Design Illustrated" also covers plant materials, cultural influences, aesthetic considerations, functional aspects and ecological factors of the garden. Enhanced with an annotated bibliography and informative appendices, "Planting Design Illustrated" offers an especially 'reader friendly' and practical guide that makes it a very strongly recommended addition to personal, professional, academic, and community library Gardening & Landscaping reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

This is a terrific book! What a nice suprise. Between all of the different areas of design covered, the pictures and the illustrations, I find myself reading it again and again and learning something new each time. The reference sections are also very useful and make everything so easy to understand. So many levels of those interested in Planting Design would find it helpful in many ways.

This book is extremely organized and well done. It sets up the fundamental framework of planting design. Not only does it discuss some commonly used plant materials in various gardens, it also uncovers universal principles and truth for planting design. Chen raises the bar by introducing plants' symbolic meanings into the planting design. The plant lists at the end of the book make it practical to apply the plants' symbolic meanings in landscaping.

"As a newcomer to the real estate development market, this book opened my eyes to the world of plant design. The author's guidance instilled a sense of confidence in me to be able to speak intelligently to my designers." - Donald A. Wilhelm, Author of This Time's a Charm; Lessons of a Four-Time Cancer Survivor