The Scented Garden [Spiral-bound]

Richard Bird (Author), Jonathan Buckley (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2003

Imagine enjoying the smell of sweet-scented honeysuckle vines hanging from your porch trellis or walking on a delicious carpet of fragrant thyme. These are just two of the 20 simple, sweet-smelling projects offered by garden expert Richard Bird in The Scented Garden. The photographs by Jonathan Buckley cover designs for beds and borders, climbing plants, container planting and paths and walks. With easy-to-follow templates, 200 step-by-step illustrations on fold-out pages and concealed wire-o binding for laying flat while working on projects, Richard's ideas are not only inspirational, but extremely practical.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Richard Bird is author of many books including "Fences and Hedges" and "Beds and Borders" (both Ryland Peters & Small). A lecturer in much demand, his particular expertise lies in herbaceous plants and alpines, as well as in creating and maintaining a well-designed garden.

Jonathan Buckley is a well-known photographer specializing in gardens and plants. His many books include "The Kitchen Garden".

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"The Scented Garden" and "The Kitchen Garden," by renowned gardening author Richard Bird, are the next two titles to join the successful Garden Project Workbook series published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang.

Scent adds an extra dimension to the garden, bringing pleasure, as well as aromatic associations and memories, to the garden experience. "The Scented Garden" provides twenty unique projects that allow all gardeners to make the most of a wide range of scented plants: those which release their scent when the leaves are brushed against or crushed and those which have a stronger scent in the early morning or in the evening. "The Scented Garden" is specially designed to help any gardener position plants perfectly for maximum enjoyment. With careful planning it is possible to fill your garden with sweet intoxicating aromas throughout the year.

The projects in "The Secret Garden" cover a wide range of garden situations, including: planting an aromatic border of cutting glowers, building a honeysuckle porch, growing a sweetly scented window-box display, and lining a woodland walk with scented flowers.

Well -illustrated and clearly explained in step-by-step instructions, "The Scented Garden" can help all gardeners to surround themselves with heavenly fragrances. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 112 pages
• Publisher: Ryland Peters & Small (April 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841724335
• ISBN-13: 978-1841724331
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 6.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,512,004 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pleasant, unusual workbook for designing scented outdoor spaces, July 6, 2008

By 

Jill Florio "Reuse, reduce, recycle!" (Verde Valley, Arizona) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Scented Garden (Garden Project Workbooks) (Volume 10) (Hardcover)

This unusual workbook is a pleasure to browse, sure to get gardenphiles excited about planning pleasing aromas for their flower beds. Gorgeous photos by Jonathan Buckley entice the reader to plan out projects both alluring and diverse: projects include Herb Path, Scented Wall, Carpet of Thyme, Catmint Walk, Sweet Pea Obelisk and Chamomile Seat. Are you drooling, yet?

Good, clear information instructs the gardener to avoid clashes of scent to make each walk around the garden an "olfactory safari". Bird also advises spreading out the seasonal flowerings so you'll have scents to enjoy each month of the growing season. A plant directory in the back of the book tells you what plants smell the best and provides tips on how to grow them.

Using the fold-out instruction pages, I laid out my own Honeysuckle Porch. It was easier than I thought. By the end of the season I expect my sweet clingy vine to cover my entire patio with leaves, flowers and scent.

Some good tips from the book:


* Place an outdoor seat near your garden displays so you can actually SMELL the fruits of your labor.
* Keep mint well-pruned so it doesn't run rampant (unless you like that)
* fragrant flowers tend to have subdued hues, so mix in colorful annuals with your rosemary and lavender.
* It's possible to make a night-scented border, using white flowers pollinated by moths. Plants in the Nicotania genus are a good start for a dusky garden.
* While "knot gardens" are among the earliest forms of decorative planting, they are also among the most long-lived features in any planned garden. Keep them well-trimmed while they mature.
* You don't have room for a garden at all? Even containers and window boxes can host scented plants. Stick with narcissus, pelargoniums, hyacinths and primulas, in their scented varieties. Culinary herbs work too.