Your House, Your Garden: A Foolproof Approach to Garden Design [Hardcover]

Gordon Hayward (Author), Janet Fredericks (Illustrator), Richard Felber (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2003

A breakthrough in inspiring yet practical do-it-yourself garden and landscape design, including dozens of detailed plans.

Finally, homeowners can tackle new garden designs and fix old ones with the confidence and know-how to succeed. Professional garden designer Gordon Hayward provides the tools by demonstrating the guiding principles behind his own designs: take clues from the style, materials, and proportions of existing features, particularly your house, but also garages and outbuildings, property lines, streets, walls, and walkways. Look closely at these features, and they will suggest good design.

Over sixty color photographs and over one hundred detailed watercolor sketches of Hayward's plans for his clients show how to read the clues and then design gardens that relate to their surroundings and unify entire properties. Many tricks of the trade are given, including how to make inviting, sheltering entry gardens; screen unsightly features and utilities; and reclaim narrow, shady side yards. Surefire methods for designing front, side, and backyard gardens are explained. 200 color photographs and drawings

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A gifted teacher, Haywood (Stone in the Garden) begins with a deceptively simple idea: "Your house is the center of your garden." His exploration of what that means both as "an aesthetic notion" and a "practical tool" gives the reader a solid foundation in home garden design. In six chapters devoted to the main locations for the garden-front, side, back (including patios and terraces), ells or courtyards, between buildings and around outbuildings-readers learn how to create inviting outdoor spaces, solve common problems and establish a unifying flow. Hayward's examples from his work as a prominent garden designer illuminate principles that home gardeners can apply to their own circumstances. He prescriptively presents welcome solutions to eyesores such as "power lines and meter boxes, propane tanks, satellite dishes, mounded leach fields" and more. While the book includes many helpful planting suggestions and plant lists (as well as 200 helpful photos and drawings), this is not a what-to-plant-where guide. Hayward's approach is fundamentally architectural, and he warns not to "expect all the answers to rely solely on plants." For Hayward, a garden is "made up of paths and sitting areas among trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals in pots, furniture, and garden ornaments." Numerous detailed watercolors and color photographs show the interplay of plants with structural elements such as paths, steps, arbors, fences and stone walls. The reader who follows Hayward's advice to "bring your creative mind to our images" will be rewarded with "no end of springboards for your own garden designs."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Landscape design books abound, yet few tackle the subject as practically or proficiently as Hayward's. Beginning with a simple and obvious premise, that your house is the center from which your garden design should flow, Hayward breaks a property into its separate landscaping areas--entrance, side yards and back yards, specialty areas such as courtyards, and outbuildings--to effectively illustrate how the whole really can be the sum of its parts. He addresses the aesthetic as well as the utilitarian aspects of garden design with a detailed approach that is both inspirational and sensible. A design consultant for residential gardens from Boston to Hawaii, Hayward recalls the challenges he and his clients encountered and how they were overcome. Paying particular attention to such ubiquitous, unsightly elements as ill-placed power meters and cooling units, Hayward teaches home owners how to conceal such undesirable elements and reveal a property's true beauty. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (June 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393057704
• ISBN-13: 978-0393057706
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 8.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #554,915 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Average, November 17, 2006

By 

Kathleen A. Peck "New Review" (MI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Your House, Your Garden: A Foolproof Approach to Garden Design (Hardcover)

Perhaps going into it...I expected too much!

As a Landscape Designer I'd heard of him often, seminars, lectures etc. but somehow the book wasn't anywhere near as good as I'd hoped.

I'm certain I would have enjoyed the book more if I didn't spend so much time wrestling with the layout. Mr. Hayward goes into great detail about landscaping concepts on a particular project & would generally end up referring to related photos or figures that were often many pages ahead. The going back & forth got really old after awhile...not to mention,extremely frustrating. I think any reader generally appreciates seeing the photos being referred to on the page they are explained.

My other negative about this book was that so much detail seemed to be spent on specific projects that it seemed the author was more preoccupied at times with his clients project & describing things that often weren't even in the photographs or seriously helpful to a designer wanting to learn more. A more preferable approach in my opinion would have been to not fuss about specific client details but glean from the projects the essence or core principles applied & present them in a straight forward, generic fashion.

After reading the entire book slowly & carefully, I would honeslty have to admit I'd hoped to find a vast wealth of practical & easily adaptable gems. Instead I only came away with very limited amount of useful information.

I have not read any of Mr. Hayward's other books..so I may check them out in the library first before buying...perhaps they might be far superior to this one. I still hold to my opinion that he's a brilliant designer...however that doesn't necessariy make him a great writer!

A book I found to be much better is The Landscape Design Answer Book by Jane Bath...

50 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is so good I am buying a second copy, August 25, 2004

By 

K. Long (Annapolis, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Your House, Your Garden: A Foolproof Approach to Garden Design (Hardcover)

While I have several book shelves devoted to serious garden design, this is the book I always pull down and loan to my neighbors and friends. When they say " I would really like to do something with my side yard. I have to block out the new neighbors!", or " You know how bad my front walk looks I want to rip it out and redo it. What can I do to convince the kids to use it and not cut across the grass?" I say "Let me lend you a great book that will really get you thinking in the right direction". The advice is practical, logical and perfect for the weekend warrior. My copy of Your House, Your Garden has a waiting list for borrowing so I am buying a second copy!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Map for a magnificient yard, June 9, 2006

By 

L. M. MACLEAN "If too many books were a crime..." (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Your House, Your Garden: A Foolproof Approach to Garden Design (Hardcover)

This book changed the way I look at landscaping. I have an oddly-shaped lot with both sunny and shady areas. This book has you get out your plot plan (something I never thought of!) and mark those areas and take a "whole yard" approach to your landscape. The advice is flawless, the pictures gorgeous. You will definitely want to add this to your library if you garden at all.