Customer Reviews

The Well-Designed Mixed Garden: Building Beds and Borders with Trees, Shrubs, Perennials, Annuals, and Bulbs

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When I started gardening Tracy DiSabato-Aust's first book, the Well Tended Perennial Garden was one of the first I purchased. Today with mud-stained, well-creased pages, it is still one of my favorite and primary reference books. Her second book, written with the same practical and enthusiastic advice, is useful to all gardeners, from beginner to advanced. DiSabato-Aust clearly believes anyone, with any yard, can have a beautiful garden. This book is less reference than the first one, but valuable in its own right. As a scientist, I didn't exactly agree with her descriptions of color, but putting aside my background, I found the information on color design to explain why some parts of my garden just didn't look quite right. The first part is "theory", but amply illustrated and diagrammed. The second part, her example gardens, might not translate immediately into your (or my) yard, but they are useful teaching tools. Finally, the last third of the book is are great encyclopedic appendices about different kinds of plants, where to put them and how they fit into the overall design of the garden.

Tracy DiSabato-Aust has put a lot of herself into her complex book, THE WELL-DESIGNED GARDEN. This topic (design not Tracy) certainly needs addressing. In lieu of hiring a garden designer which most new home owners cannot afford to do, new gardeners must rely on friends as well as multiple books and articles to address garden questions. Wouldn't it be nice to find a single source that covers everything-trees, shrubs, perennial identification and planting and growing specifics, as well as design issues? I doubt this book will satisfy that need. The gardening newcomer or even somewhat seasoned gardeners will probably find this book overwhelming in its detail while remaining unhelpful in addressing specific needs.

As the title suggests, DiSabato includes several garden design layouts, but these few designs are limited to a townhouse garden, a few 'house' patio/garden designs and the design for what appears to be large "estate", which makes her book little more than a sample portfolio of her own jobs which she probably had prepared for potential customers, and which she decided to transform into a `book'. This is not a well researched document that investigates assembles, and analyzes what a variety of garden designers have been or are doing. Rather than a menu of suggestions about designing, this book begs the question, What does she mean by"well-designed"? Does it mean done by Tracy? For example, if you seek information about building a small or an "intimate" garden, or dividing a larger area into many smaller gardens, you would do better to use Colston Burrell's INTIMATE GARDENS which includes a summary of examples pertaining to small garden areas (and is a good deal less expensive).

Preferring a minimalist approach where each and every plant is allowed to develop somewhat naturally into stunning combinations as well as preferring a palette formed along a blue-purple continuum (picture a relatively large area of Arabis punctuated with blue Scilla in the spring garden) I find DiSabato's penchant for overly busy concoctions-jumbles of hot-colored items each vying for attention- leaves me feeling unwell. DiSabato also appears to be a Funkia-fanatic (wedded to the Hosta Lily) and fond of other common plant forms with red, orange, mustard yellow and gold blooms. Her compositions are "enhanced" with twee garden ornaments-some of which would show well if they were not in competition with their various settings. Her best shots can be found in the section of the book where she discusses color and most of these are examples from other people's gardens.

This book is not worth the money you will pay to own it....

Overall I found this to be a good book that just kept coming up a bit short.

This is one of those books where the information is there, but the format is lacking.

Poor printing of lackluster photographs doesn't help this guide. If you are looking for different varieties of plants, they are here, but you can get the same information reading garden catalogs in January.

I liked the index of plants, however, splitting the common names into a separate index did not make sense to me. Reading the book I had to have on finger in the scientific nomenclature and one marking the common name list as well. I was running out of fingers!

What I did like was the suggested combinations of plants although I thought the somewhat sophisticated color combinations were not explained well enough to allow for experimentation outside the plants stated for many readers.

Finally a book for a beginner that makes sense. I've read the first chapter and said, "Aha!!" and "Oh that's what that means! at least twice. I believe that even as I become a more advanced gardener, I will still refer to this book often. The plants are cross-referenced lots of different ways so that if you want a plant that yellow, you can look it up. If you want a plant that easy to care for, you can look that up too. If you know the Latin name, you can look up the common name for most plants. There is alot of information about color theory in a garden. The author explains everything in easy to understand terms with a sense of humor.

There is one thing that I'd like to suggest. The author spends alot of time referring to plants by their latin names especially in the photos. I've seen a plant in a photo that just knocked me out and I wanted to get one. It's an extra step to have to stop, mark your place, and look it up in the index to find out what it's called in the real world. It would be better to call them by their common names under the photos.

This is very small complaint in a book that is excellent!! I spent part of my plant money for this year on this book and I believe that I have spent my money well. Buy this Book!!!

I am designing a garden for my campus and continue to work on my home landscape. The Well-Designed Mixed Garden by Tracy DiSabato-Aust answers my questions like it knows what I am thinking. I was wondering about garden scale in relation to buildings, among other things, and now have a good idea. I find a treasure trove of information for my consideration and use in this book (as well as in the Well-Tended Perennial Garden). The discussion of color is intense and wonderful. The reference areas and examples are invaluable. The writing style is friendly and unstuffy. The information is inspired and important. I am grateful for this book both for my job and my home landscape. It has been commuting with me every day for the past 2 weeks.

After attending a lecture by Tracy DiSabato-Aust, I overheard another participant remark, "now I finally understand WHY I like certain gardens!" That statement sums up the information in this book. It provides "the whys and the wherefores" of garden design in clear and simple language with appropriate illustrations so that one can understand exactly which details make a garden work: from considerations of scale, texture, and rhythm-- to color and the influence of natural light-- to specific artistic combinations of woody and herbaceous plants.

The excellent photos of plant combinations in this book make me salivate, wanting to recreate every one of them for myself. It is particularly stimulating to see the seasonal changes in specific garden vignettes- An early December description begins, "the foliage of a rose is candied by December's chill..." with an accompanying photo of rose foliage edged in white frost and surrounded by spent flowers and seedheads of scabiosa. Wow! This book points out simple visual pleasures in a garden that might easily be overlooked-- as well as how to make spectacular borders of any size. Applying information from The Well-Designed Mixed Garden can appease anyone's appetite, great and small, for horticultural delights!

This book has something for everyone, from the novice gardener to the professional designer. The plant lists and design charts in the appendices are worth the price of the book in themselves for immediate useful information. Bravo!!

I've heard other gardeners talk about Tracy's books and what an inspiration they are, so I bought "The Well-Designed Mixed Garden" expecting to learn some GREAT ideas for my gardens. It has some good information on principles of design and how to work with color, texture, and so on. But I was disappointed at how weak and uninspiring the section is on plant combinations. She calls it an "encyclopedia of plant combinations," and the section is full of photos of flowers and plants she thinks are winning combinations. The combinations mostly have no real visual appeal, the photos (in that section) are plain, and it's a wasted section of the book. I think there was only one of these combinations that actually looked beautiful. Most of these photos were from her own garden, and perhaps she let her personal affection for her own gardens cloud her judgment on what to include.

I like the rest of the book, however, and her examples of garden designs in other parts of the book have good photos and design layout drawings that are quite useful.

The Well-Designed Mixed Garden is a design must for every gardener! Unlike other design books that are like workbook manuals, this book is full of inspirational photographs, beautifully hand painted diagrams and plans, and a full text that illuminates the design dilemma of having a full complement of plant material that combines the very best in aesthetics. The plant charts and cross reference material provides the do-it-yourself gardener with the tools and knowledge to complete a unique, interesting and well-designed garden.

Ever read a garden book and feel like it contains tons of recycled information - like one of those notorious fruitcakes that goes from home to home every Christmas?
This time around, the author dares to express some rather unique, even radical, viewpoints about garden design and color combinations. If you're a traditionalist, you might be a bit intimidated by some of the suggestions but this is an opportunity to let your gardening creativity take root (pun intended). Perhaps you'll discvoer, as I did, that certain plants just "click" togehter,even though their colors seem unharmonious at first glance.
If you follow DiSabato-Aust's guideline, you may well have the most beautiful garden on the block and find yourself falling in love with your yard again. There are lists of plants, suggested placement in relation to other plants and plenty of information about growing requirements. But it is the originality of this one that sets it apart. Beginner or expert gardener, you'll glean tons of valuable info!

I'm a master gardener from Illinois,and have heard Tracy Disabato-Aust on a number of occasions. Her book The Well-Tended Perennial Garden has long been our bible for perennials. In this new book, she makes accessible for all gardeners the depth of her experience and research in incorporating many kinds of plants in a mixed border. The book is worth buying for the appendices alone: plants by design and maintenance characteristics as well as common/scientific name cross-references. A must-have garden reference book!