5 comments about The Essential Garden Design Workbook.

1. Very good book! This is a must have book for a beginner landscape design. A lot of examples to understand a process of garden design. I would most definitely recommend this book!!



2. Whether you're a landscape designer or hands-on gardener, this is an excellent step-by-step workbook. There are many such guidebooks on the market but this is the most comprehensive. It's packed with sketches to illustrate each point the author makes and offers a space-planning system for anyone suffering moments of 'writer's block.' Having worked as a landscape desginer for many years, I pick up this book regularly and rediscover something new each time.



3. This book covers all phases of garden design, from original research, obtaining the owner's requirements, site survey sketch, checklist and inventory, to conceptual diagrams, presentation plans, theme plan, preliminary garden layout plan and final planting plans.
   
   It discusses space, light, proportion and scale, color plates, ground plane, vertical plane, overhead plane, materials, texture, principles of planting design, planting styles, practical considerations, seasonal effects, and rendering techniques for various plans. It also has a plant list and plant hardiness zones at the end. This is one of few books that actually discuss the design aspect of gardens / landscaping. Very practical!
   
   Gang Chen, Author of "LEED AP Exam Guide" & "Planting Design Illustrated." LEED AP, AIA



4. I have been looking for a garden design book for some time that would be heavy on how to lay out the design professionally on paper. This book goes through the progression of the design process and shows each step in the process. It has been extremely helpful in my designing of a three acre property.



5. I am using this book as a textbook for a Garden Design class. I have several years of garden design experience and have many more years of gardening experience. This book explains the design process in an easy to understand and inspiring way. I have found that it addresses planting and design in subtley different ways that jog my mind to be more creative. It is well written, well designed and very informative.

5 comments about Site Engineering for Landscape Architects.

1. I bought this book to help me better understand how to do grading, evaluate contours, etc. All well and good. I begin doing the problems at the end of a chapter, and there is no answer key anywhere in the book. Can't find any reference to answers anywhere.
   
   I would have rated the book higher but for this little issue.



2. I am a first-year BLA student, and this text is required for an introductory course in site grading and drainage. This book is very difficult for me to read and understand. Descriptions of calculations are very poorly presented in paragraph narrative, which is mind-numbing to read and comprehend. If the calculations were presented in a step-by-step format, like a math text, they would be dramatically more clear and understandable. I agree with a previous reviewer, as well, that the layout is dysfunctional because the text and corresponding graphics are not on facing pages. This problem is particularly annoying, considering that landscape architecture is a design profession that emphasizes legibility in graphics and presentation material. I would welcome anyone's recommendations for a text that explains this subject in a more helpful way.



3. Site Engineering is a difficult subject for many landscape students and designers, yet it is a very important aspect of landscape architecture. As a landscape architect, you probably do not have to produce a grading plan (it can be done by a civil engineer), but you do need to have some basic site engineering knowledge to be able to coordinate your work with civil and other consultants. You do need to be able to read and visualize an ALTA survey map, or a grading plan; you do need to be able to understand what a concave or convex landform is, what a swale or ridge is, how to read contour or spot elevations, etc.
   
   "Site Engineering for Landscape Architects" will give you a very comprehensive knowledge of site engineering. It covers contours and form (constructing a section, contour signature and landform, characteristic of contour lines), interpolation and slope, grading constraints, grading design and process, earthwork, grading landform and architecture, storm water management, the methods to determine the rates and volumes of storm water runoff, natural resources conservation services, required detention storage, designing and sizing storm water management system, horizontal road alignment, vertical road alignment, and various case studies. It is so comprehensive that you can probably do a civil engineer's work after your read it. My suggestion is to buy this book, and look through it to have a general idea of what it covers and know where to find the information when you need it later. You can also look through the portions that you already know and focus on reading the portions that you are not very familiar with and improve your site engineering knowledge.
   
   "Site Engineering for Landscape Architects" has 352 pages and many line drawings and interior black-and-white photos. It is a great site engineering reference book for architects, landscape architects, urban planners, and engineers.
   
   Gang Chen, Author of "LEED AP Exam Guide" & "Planting Design Illustrated." LEED AP, AIA
   
   



4. I was a bit tentative when I started to use this text. The book has some minor editing problems, but if your desire is to really understand site design with an emphasis on drainage and grading plan design this text does the trick and does it well. I would recommend this book to any Jr. land development designer/engineer as a must have reference.



5. This is a great book to have on your shelf. Kept referring to it for my Site Technology classes and I know I'll be referring to it in the future. I found it very helpful and clearly written. Would highly recommend it.

1 comments about The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture: Fifth Edition (Dictionary, Penguin).

1. From Aalto to Ziggurat, the bounty of information provided in this well illustrated and value priced volume will keep you informed for a very long time. A great general reference of architecture and landscaping for both the student and the home owner alike.

1 comments about Residential Landscape Architecture (5th Edition).

1. Very informative and usefull both for the beginer and experienced designer. It is a little high priced but worth it if you are in the design profession.
   Mike

No comments about Large Parks.

No comments about Gardens Private & Personal: A Garden Club of America Book (Garden Club of America).

5 comments about Picture Perfect: Mowing Techniques for Lawns, Landscapes, and Sports.

1. Picture Perfect is a must for anyone who is serious about their lawn. I found this book to be extremely informative and helpful in achieving the ideal lawn. It is very user friendly and makes obtaining the perfect yard obtainable for everyone.



2. Our lawn is looking great this year thanks to following the care and maintenance instructions in Picture Perfect. David Mellor's easy to follow guidelines on mowing make our lawn the prettiest in the neighborhood. Why do people scalp their lawns?
   
   This book is not just about pretty pictures. David Mellor tells us about the facinating history of lawns. He shows us how to establish good grass from the ground up beginning with soil testing and fertilization and culminating with how to apply a distinctive design.
   
   I am giving a copy of this book to my sixteen year-old nephew who started mowing lawns this summer. It will give him and edge over the competition.
   
   After reading this book I see why David Halberstam called David Mellor "The Picasso of The Playing Field."



3. David Mellor shares his particular expertise with authority and in a straightforward way. I wanted to learn how to "design" my lawn like the pros and I got that and more from this book. It's a great supplement to your favorite basic lawn care guide (Mellor's other book, THE LAWN BIBLE, is a good one) and will have you mowing circles (or diamonds or stripes) around your neighbor's lawns.



4. I wish I could recommend this book! I really do. You know when your 13-year old writes one of his/her first research papers and repeats him/herself in every other paragraph just to create "filler"? Well, that's exactly Mr. David R. Mellor's problem in his book, "Picture Perfect": he repeats himself over and over . . . and over again. Holy cow!
   
   What IS a sign of a good "how to" book? Well, to me it is its thoroughness: you want to have all the info on the subject in one guide, right? (Or certainly, as close to it as possible.) Well, "Picture Perfect" is NOT perfect -- far from it.
   
   There are many problems with the book. One, Mr. Mellor is a bad writer. His aforementioned repetition of many facts does not create an appreciation for diligence; it signifies a sense of belittlement and ineptitude. Furthermore, although his writing style is accessible for the most part, it is confusing at times during THE moments when it should be the most simple and easy to understand: in the chapter in which he describes how to actually make patterns, he is far too complicated in explaining a simple task . . . such as mowing parallel, adjacent lines in opposite directions! In the first few chapters, Mr. Mellor uses bullets and subchapters to enunciate clear and important points. Great! Yet when he finally gets to discussing the actual techniques of pattern making in Chapter 12, he lumps all points into one, making for a poor overview: the main points don't "stick" out. That's really too bad.
   
   Two, the book is poorly organized. The first half -- yeap, half! -- is dedicated to A-Z lawncare. Come on! All he had to do was to state that there are many other books out there on lawncare, point them out, and get into the heart of THE subject. (That should have taken one paragraph.) And although very important, lawncare is NOT the subject of this treatise, right? (My favorite is Scotts.) Why try to outdo a book like Scotts in a few chapters . . . when the Scotts book covers lawncare brilliantly?! Makes no sense to me whatsoever! This IS, after all, a book on mowing patterns, NOT lawncare. All that Mr. Mellor had to do was to, perhaps, write an opening chapter of HIS advice, findings and nuances on lawncare, all of us having learned some from personal experience over the years. But no, Mr. Mellor tries to reinvent the wheel. In addition, to use black & white photographs in a book published in the 21st century is embarrassing! (No, not all photographs are black & white. But . . . ) Let me get this straight: this book deals with the visual sense, right? So wouldn't you want to use color photographs?! Get real! Furthermore, the illustrations in the chapter on making patterns are not used effectively: all mowing passes could have actually been shown in ONE illustration instead of several, thus making the instructions more accessible. Also, Mr. Mellor tells you that with practice, you will get better. OK, let me get this straight? I am supposed to pay $38.70 to be told that with practice I will get better at doing something? We already know that! That's the whole point of a "how to" book: it is supposed to teach you a subject so that you will decrease the amount of time for you to get good at something, right? Good Lord! (Nope, we're not done yet.) At the very end of the book, Mr. Mellor writes about some of his personal experiences when he worked at Milwaukee's County Stadium, one of which involved the chasing off of seagulls from the field. Again, let me get this straight: you are supposed to pay $38.70 to learn how another human being . . . chased away seagulls?! Mr. Mellor, you are very audacious! I thought this book is about making patterns on lawns? And finally, here is the greatest downfall of the book. The book is 160 pages long, yet ONLY 32 pages actually deal with creating lawn patterns. And actually, I am being too generous: only Chapter 14 deals specifically with pattern instruction which is . . . 18 pages long! So let me get this straight? You are expected to pay $38.70 for a book which only gives you 18 pages on that subject? Are you kidding me?!
   
   Now, having made this last point, let's look at it from a different angle. What does the fact tell you that only 18 pages out of a 160-page book actually deal with the subject at hand? Well, it tells me that the subject matter is NOT all that complicated! Look, if you have, or even HAVE NOT, any gardening experience, but are practical and use common sense, you can create lawn patterns. Sure you can! It ain't that complicated as Mr. Mellor would lead you to believe. I was successful on my first try . . . and so will you.
   
   Holy cow! Mr. Mellor, you need to seriously consider writing a second edition of this book in which you leave out the opening half on lawncare (and leave that to others), use color photographs only, and devote MUCH more effort and time to the actual subject: lawn patterns.
   
   So, if you have ANY gardening savvy and do NOT need your hand held, then I highly recommend that you do NOT buy this expensive book. If you DO need to have your hand held, then buy this book . . . I guess.



5. The book is very small. I expected a larger book with lots of pictures. There are a few pictures, but the book itself was disappointing.

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

1. Comprehensive and very user friendly. A book every home flower gardner would want to have.



2. 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.



3. This book is so helpful in figuring out how to mix flowers and plants in border-type gardens. It details color combinations and tells what flowers go well together. It provides pictures of various gardens in different season to provide an idea of how the landscape will look in Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.



4. This is the first book I would recomend to anyone! Ms. Disabato-Aust compiles a vast amount of quality information in one book, and she explains abstract concepts in a way that regular people who aren't master gardeners can understand. She also includes insights from her vast experience; it's not a dry recitation seen in other sources. She explains when and why to break the generally-accepted guidelines.
   
   I've been a hard-core gardener for about three years, and I've already gleaned some of the information from other sources. But I had to read a lot of different books and articles to get it, and it was often contradictory. The book not only ties it all together in a cohesive manner, but gives very detailed examples.
   
   I particularly enjoyed the section on combinations, where Ms. Disabato-Aust explains why certain things work together in a converational tone. Far from being a preening dilletante, the author's manner is friendly and warm.
   
   I only had two complaints, and they are possibly unique to me. As you might expect, the "example" gardens shown used Ms. Disabato-Aust's style of gardening. It's wonderful, but I have a different style, and would have appreciated seeing the gardening principles illustrated using different styles. Second, I garden in North Florida. A fair number of the plants that look so beautiful in her Ohio garden wouldn't make it in North Florida.



5. 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!

2 comments about The Landscape Urbanism Reader.

1. this book is really good to students who study Landscape Architecture.



2. This was a gift for my architect brother. He was thrilled with it. It was received as promised, with quick shipping and arrived in pristine shape. It was indeed a merry Christmas.

5 comments about The New Ecological Home: A Complete Guide to Green Building Options (Chelsea Green Guides for Homeowners).

1. Having been the first of it's kind I have read, this book is well-organized and readable. It seems good for the person brainstorming on what steps to take in the design of their eco-home. For more specific information to carry out the tasks, I would suggest other resources.



2. This book could very easily serve as a textbook for a green building course. It's not a coffee table book - the photos are small, and black and white - but very useful in supporting the text. This is a serious book about alternative building written by and about a group of people who have been creatively, responsibly, thoughtfully building for a very long time. It's a good choice for builders who want to learn more about sustainability, students who want to go into the field, or homeowners who are looking to build. It's not so much glitzy and inspirational as it is informative and useful: comprehensive from site selection and design through building options and techniques, to landscaping, it also contains a great resource guide.



3. During the planning phase of building our first home, this book was very helpful. We liked the emphasis right at the start on site selection -- what to look for in everything from the overall community to aspects of the land itself and how to environmentally protect that land during construction. A comparison checklist for assessing lots is included. Even though ours will not be a "natural House" (rammed earth, straw bale, etc.) and though those types of construction are covered, there was plenty of solid information on building a more energy efficient, and less wasteful, home of wood and concrete. Also included are chapters on design, using green and non- or less toxic materials, sustainable approaches to water and waste, environmental landscaping, and enery-efficient design, heating, and cooling. As this will be a retirement home, we especially appreciated the chapter on accessiblilty and ergonomic design.



4. Author Dan Chiras has produced a series of amazing books on green building, including The Natural House, The Solar House, Superbia!, and The Natural Plaster Book. His books are extremely well written, well organized, comprehensive, and extremely well illustrated. He's truly one of the best, if not the best, writer in the green building field.
   
   The New Ecological Home is no exception. In fact, I think it is one of the best books he has written. Although the cover is pretty drab, the book is a beauty inside. The book is engaging, easy to read, and full of interesting and helpful information that will assist those who want to explore the many options for building homes that are good for people, the planet, and the economy. This book should be read by all who are considering building a new home as well as those who are thinking about remodeling their homes. It is also a valuable resource for architects, builders, and students of architecture. Adding to its value, this book has a detailed resource guide that adds considerably to its value.



5. This book was a little bit hard to understand, especially if you are not knowledgable on the subject. I would recommend something more clear and easier to read.