1 comments about Constructed Wetlands in the Sustainable Landscape.

1. This book has become an invaluable reference around our office...for the engineers, landscape architect and directors. The book covers a range of useful topics, from design basics (including relevant modeling formulas), pricing estimates, integration information for planners, citizens and regulators, wetland ecology background notes, landscaping ideas and wonderful examples of systems that the authors themselves have designed and installed.

   The book highlights the benefits of wetlands often overlooked or undervalued in other engineering-oriented texts - wildlife habitat creation, aesthetics, water recharge, etc.

   Since the book was writen by a landscape architect and an engineer, two visionary pioneers in their fields, it covers a lot of useful ground.

No comments about Designing the Landscape: An Introductory Guide for the Landscape Designer.

5 comments about Landscape as Spirit: Creating a Contemplative Garden.

1. This book is not Landscape as "Spirit" but Landscape as "Symbolism". Which is ok but that is not why I purchased this book. I wanted a book that taught or "pointed" towards how to create or how a Zen garden is created. To see what the inner Zen world looks like when projected outward into a Zen garden.
   
   The book starts out with the idea that a garden designed from the Zen perspective is a Mandela. Then the Mandela is created using elements in the garden to symbolize Heaven, Earth and Man. Then the book goes on to say that one level down, the garden can be created using garden elements to symbolize Earth, Fire, Water, Fire, Air and Space. For me this "Spirit" theory was very incoherent. A Zen Master experiences "The Tao" and reacts intuitively. This Spirit theory seemed to contradict Zen teachings. In fact the arrangement of stones in many of the photographs and plans are "too" ordered; too balanced and unnatural; unintuitive.
   
   Don't get me wrong, it is a beautiful book with many beautiful "details" to learn from. But good eastern minded landscaping "responds" to the site NOT created things like miniature mountains, miniature trees that represent fire, perfectly placed stones, perfectly placed plants in between perfectly placed stones and so on and so on???
   
   Nature and Zen are natural not contrived. Zen is natural or consists of "a suchness" or an experience of "The garden IS" not something that reflects levels of symbolic hierarchy.



2. This is a great book that one can return to time after time. It presents landscaping principals in the context of the garden as a place for reflexion and meditation. As gorgeous as the photos are, I find the text even more meaningful.



3. This book is remarkable in at least three regards. First, it is so finely produced that we, as readers, can actually feel our way into the gardens it is showing us. Second, the principles of garden-making it offers us are profound, simple and flexible: we can see how the Mosko gardens emerge from them, and how our own might too. Third, and most unusual, it is deeply spiritual, coming from years of meditative practice in the Zen and Tibetan tradtions, as well as in unnamed native traditions of spirit. In the deepest sense this book is beauty as instruction.



4. this book's title, if the picture of the cover is real, is different from the Amazon title. who proof's this stuff?



5. This gorgeously made and printed book will inspire ANY gardener or person who enjoys gardens. The photos take you into a world of amazing gardens. I'm not a garden nut, but I love a beautiful book and this one is on my coffee table. The writing is clear, creative, and very informative. This book is an excellent gift to anyone who loves architecture, design, or landscapes.

No comments about Landscapes in History, 2nd Edition (One Volume).

4 comments about Start & Run A Landscaping Business (Start & Run a).

1. I LOVE THIS BOOK. THE GUY WHO WROTE IT IS ALSO A LANDSCAPER. IF YOU ARE JUST STARTING OR WANT MORE INFO ON HOW TO MAKE MONEY IN THE LAWN SERVICE INDUSTRY , THIS IS THE BOOOK.



2. This was not what I thought, I was looking for somthing to help with my lanscape construction buisness.Can I return it?



3. Very good book on business side, not much information about landscaping itself. Very detailled information about opening a business. Costs, overhead costs, and initial capital.



4. This book was very well written with good balance between general business advice and more specific landscaping advice. I like that he does not mind going out on a limb to recommend specific brands and types of commercial lawn care equipment. He also includes a very handy CD filled with all sorts of sheets that can b personalized to your individual use. This book should become the authoritative guide to those looking to enter the business.

No comments about With People in Mind: Design And Management Of Everyday Nature.

3 comments about Japan Modern: New Ideas for Contemporary Living.

1. I've long been interested in the Japanese approach to design of all sorts, but especially architecture. Coming from a much different tradition, the solutions to problems and needs for shelter are often very different than those arrived at by architects with Euro-American tastes and training. Some of the examples depicted so beautifully and discussed so shrewdly in this volume are rooted strongly in Japan's history, such as an old farmhouse relocated to Tokyo and fitted into an urban neighborhood. Others are playful, like the house with a lawn on the peaked roof, watered by a sprinkler system on the ridgepole, and with the courtyard floored in clay roof tiles. There's a two-story "miniature" house with a footprint not much larger than two parking spaces, but which still manages to be a very comfortable environment for actually living in. And, naturally, there are structures *so* experimental, you might not realize they were houses if you weren't told. There are homes in this collection I would love to live in, and others that would probably give me nightmares, but all of them are fascinating.



2. This book provides total eye candy for design enthusiasts. Not your typical formulaic shoji screen stuff. Very original solutions to design problems from a Japanese perspective. I find it very inspiring and look at it all the time.



3. This book is filled with page after page of stunning rooms and living spaces in Japan. A must for anyone who believes all Japanese live in cramped, dark, unattractive homes. An excellent conversation starter and coffee table book.

1 comments about Vertical Gardens.

1. The cover is great. Other than that there is almost nothing worthwhile in this book. It does not help me to create vertical gardens, and even the photos are very uneven, and not always about vertical gardens (unless you consider planting twining plants on trellis to be a vertical garden)

5 comments about How to Build Ponds and Waterfalls: The Complete Guide.

1. The book has great pictures but no real detail about how to build ponds or waterfalls. How disappointed we were when we received the book. We will look for other books but will not purchase them online. We need to be able to see what is inside the cover.



2. In my opinion,this book is a very superficial overview of pond construction. A far better choice is "Ortho's All About Building Waterfalls, Ponds, and Streams", for the same price [or slightly cheaper]. "Ortho's" covers the topic much more thoroughly than this "complete guide".



3. Excellent fundamental instructions for ponds and waterfalls. If you are doing a stream also, you might want to consult another title or two on the same subject. You will also need some more education on plants for your pond. But for basic pond and waterfall, this is the best I have read.



4. If you are a beginer in pond building and you need everything explained to details, do not buy this book. I bought it and it's just not good. You can read it under a hour and you'll see only pictures with nothing on them.



5. How to Build Ponds and Waterfalls : The Complete Guide by Jeffrey Reid is an excellent how-to book for wildlife garders.

No comments about Nature, Landscape, and Building for Sustainability: A Harvard Design Magazine Reader (Harvard Design Magazine).