Designing with Plants [ILLUSTRATED] (Hardcover)

by Piet Oudolf (Author), Noel Kingsbury (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
When your new gardening bible comes with chapters entitled "Birth," "Life," and "Death," you know you're in trouble. But be brave, turn to those chapters, and in some very practical little essays on planting, you'll uncover the very down-to-earth principle from which Piet Oudolf's radical reinvention of gardening is based: plants die.

In the traditional mixed border, shrubs, climbers, perennials, bulbs, and annuals defy mortality; when one plant passes its best, there's always another in the wings, waiting to grab the eye. But such borders have very little impact: there is too little at any one time to hold one's attention. Oudolf wonders why we fight the unavoidable. Why not create borders that bring out the beauty of plants throughout their natural cycles?

Oudolf also thinks our obsession with color is another deadening influence on current gardening practice. Plants have form: leaves, flower heads, and stems have beauty and variety, too, and last far longer than any bloom. Why not create gardens that use the whole plant, not just its genitals? This, as you've probably already guessed, is a recipe for perennials, and without any of that anxious autumn rush to cut down those perfectly lovely bare stems and seed heads.

With these versatile plants, Oudolf would have us all create gardens that change month by month, week by week, even day by day. It's a radical, beautiful vision that's absurdly easy to achieve. In Designing with Plants, Noel Kingsbury has done a terrific job of bringing Oudolf's work within reach of the rest of us. --Simon Ings, Amazon.co.uk

From Library Journal
A garden designer and plant breeder, Oudolf designs gardens that use perennials exclusively, eschewing the current trend toward high-maintenance mixed borders of perennials, annuals, and shrubs. He values perennials for their form and texture, emphasizing structure as the most important aspect in successful garden design. The color of flowers comes in a distant third after the form of the plant and the shape of the leaves; Oudolf's motto is "a successful plant combination relies primarily on shapes." To help gardeners follow this principle, he lists plants he has found valuable based on what he calls a "palette of shapes" and gives diagrams for planning borders based on them. While his approach is novel and thought-provoking, it reflects the context in which he works, mainly Britain and Northern Europe. But even if you do not garden in this ideal maritime climate, his ideas will be helpful, especially his advice on when to break the rules: "To be a successful gardener you need to understand the basics of how plants grow, and how they develop over time." Recommended for large public and academic libraries.ADaniel Starr, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Timber Press, Incorporated (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881924377
• ISBN-13: 978-0881924374
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 9.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #515,100 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Refreshing and Inspiring, October 19, 2001

By	Don Kline (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This is not a reference book for active, summer gardening. This is an inspiring book for winter gardening by the fireside, a book from which to dream, plan and design and to gain a liberating aspect of gardening.

This book presents a peerless horticultural perspective on natural habitats and how these might be brought to gardens, delivering unique ways of planting and seeing by shape, form, color, size, texture and, singularly, by light. In this the author awes the reader with the beauty of plants affected by the seasons and their elements: light, fog, dew; rain, frost and snow. As a practical tool to aid the shaping of these gardens, he includes an unconventional index that lists the characteristics, cultural requirements and companions for selected plants.

The photography is stunning, enlightening and informative in its content--and valuable. Through their exemplary quality, serious gardeners and professionals will discover a freer and more natural mode of horticultural expression. This is one of the few gardening books that both stimulates and satisfies the spiritual and aesthetic quests of many gardeners.

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Designing with Plants, June 15, 2000

By A Customer

A good resource for the personal landscape and a even better one for the professional. The two authors did a wonderful job laying out the many ways in which plants can be used to create the outdoor room and place. Their bold approach is reinforced beautifully in the full color photographs that are abundtly found on the pages of the book. Not a lot of additional information, but there are numerous lists and tables to help guide in ones plant selection. More slanted towards the professional, yet for the true gardener, a wonderful addition to your library.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tremendous inspiration, July 29, 2001

By	Nadine Harris (Rhode Island) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Even if the book has designs that seem more than you can handle now, the book is so breathtakingly beautiful that its inspirational value alone make it one of the best I've ever read. In the process of stretching your imagination in just one or two areas, a great deal of result may be seen in your garden, and you will have pulled the target for your creativity up several notches.