Small Spaces, Beautiful Gardens [Hardcover]

Keith Davitt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 2002

This book will teach the reader how to make beautiful, liveable gardens for small yards and city lots by using imaginative design to create the illusion of space. The author brings twenty years of landscape design experience to provide the homeowner with virtually all the practical and hands-on advice they will need in order to transform a small property into a place of great beauty and enjoyment. Packed with information, Small Space Beautiful Gardens includes real-life garden profiles, tips and tricks on how to visually enlarge your garden, and hands-on projects which tackle some of the particular issues faced by the owner of a small garden.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Keith Davitt's Small Spaces, Beautiful Gardens celebrates the possibilities for awkward, undersized garden parcels, demonstrating convincingly that no space is too small to make a big impact. Lacking dimensionality, most small gardens can be taken in visually with one glance. Davitt offers solutions for creating a sense of spaciousness and surprise, even in the most cramped, unlikely location.

A landscape designer, builder, photographer, and writer, Davitt draws on 16 projects from his own portfolio. "Before" and "after" photographs help illustrate both the process and principles of reconfiguring an outdoor space. Who could imagine, for example, that as ugly a duckling as a narrow, shaft-like urban lot surrounded on three sides by cinderblocks, painted brick, and metal piping could be transformed into an enchanting series of multi-leveled wood decks, enlivened with container plantings?

Davitt’s ideas are all the more convincing because he has photographed the gardens between peak bloom periods. Although spaces are lush with plant life, the book's emphasis is more on design than plant selection. Offering neither budget remedies nor step-by-step technical advice, Small Spaces, Beautiful Gardens is, itself, a beautiful book to pore over for inspiration. --Jennifer Wyatt

From Publishers Weekly

A near-architectural design strategy is king in this heartening guide for owners of small plots of land. Mosaic brickwork, a few well-placed tiles, terraces, stone walls, benches tucked into corners and flora, flora, flora. Landscape designer and author Davitt recommends, among other ideas, curves "to elicit a sense of organic motion," texture for added dimension, mixed and matched leaves for lushness, and dividing the garden up to make it seem "larger than the sum of its areas." By designing their own ponds, walkways, arbors, "rooms" and patios, urban and suburban residents can achieve a harmonious privacy in spaces that seem to offer little.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Quarry Books (February 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564968316
• ISBN-13: 978-1564968319
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,397,084 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Keith Davitt is an award winning landscape designer who has been designing and landscapes nationwide and abroad for over twenty years.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great ideas for small gardens, August 28, 2002

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Small Spaces, Beautiful Gardens (Hardcover)

I found this book to be especially helpful in visualizing small gardens. I wish that he had included some of the plant names used and sample gardening diagrams, but overall it's a great book for ideas.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Small Spaces, Beautiful Gardens, July 29, 2002

By 

Tough Nut (Upstate, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Small Spaces, Beautiful Gardens (Hardcover)

The ideal book for someone who is facing a vacant lot or garden wasteland and is interested in tapping the talent, inspiration and guidance of a gifted garden designer. Kevin Davitt takes the reader through a great number of his real life garden designs, challenging us to listen to the hidden "genius" in your prospective site. Eloquent and thoughtful, his writing is clear and encouraging, helping us to discover and visualize the sanctuary our garden space can become. Filled with beautiful photographs and drawings and side bars highlighting the key ideas in each project, we are gently introduced to the authors philosophy of space and nature. The author shares his years of experience and design wisdom so you can create a space that enhances your home and recharges and inspires your relationship to mother nature. A joy to read, makes you want to get outside and start building. Focuses on small urban and suburban garden designs, but ideas can apply to all garden design processes.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Esthetically engaging and pleasureable, August 4, 2002

By 

Marilyn Freedman (Great Neck, New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Small Spaces, Beautiful Gardens (Hardcover)

The simplicity with which Keith Davitt has been able to convey complicated design concepts is extraordinary. He has combined this with exquisite illustrations and "before and after" photography. This book will inspire you with the confidence to transform even the most mundane of spaces into a visual and livable joy. It's also a must on our coffee table!