Christmas Books III 2006

Most of us in the landscape design business have way too many books on good design.  But "Outside the Not So Big House" (Taunton Press, 2006) is proof you can never have too many books, especially when they are this good and this useful. In fact, I'd all but sworn off new books until I heard Julie Moir Messervy speak last summer at our APLD national conference in Philadelphia. Written with Sarah Susanka, author of the best-selling "The Not So Big House," this book explains how to achieve the perfect integration of house and garden.  As Susanka puts it, "It's about the transitions and connections between the inside of a house and the outside, and about the journeys and the places that can be made to extend the experience of home to the outside."

This book is not about mega-mansions or estates. It concentrates on the kinds of houses that the vast majority of Americans call "home." In lovely photographs and landscape plans encompassing 20 not-so-large home sites across the United States, Messervy and Susanka demonstrate their practical concepts and ideas.  They easily illustrate how anyone can "borrow" the landscape from surrounding properties; enlarge windows and doors to frame views and bring the garden into the house.  They unify landscapes with stone, wood, water, paths, and plants, creating "journeys" through the property along the way. Whether the houses are located in the midst of a big city or out in the country, the authors reveal the secrets necessary to successfully harmonize house and garden. This book would make a great gift for any practicing or would-be architect, landscape designer, or gardener you know.  It's a volume that'll remain on anyone's bookshelf for years and never, really, go out of date or out of style.

(click on image to purchase book)

If you know an avid gardener who lives within range of the coast -- anywhere in the United  States --  "Gardening at the Shore" (Timber Press, 2006) is the one book they'll want for Christmas. Author Frances Tenenbaum, the long-time and legendary gardening editor at the Houghton Mifflin Company,struggled for years with the challenges of coastal gardening at her own property on Martha's Vineyard.  Now, she reveals her own secret formulas for successful coastal gardening, from coping with wind, sand, and salt spray to preserving dunes and planting cliffs and high banks that are beginning to erode.

The book features gardens from all parts of the country, beautifully photographed by Jerry Pavia.  I particularly liked the chapter that offers advice from many seashore gardeners.  Cady Goldfield of Marblehead, MA offers a list of ornamental grasses that do well in coastal areas.  In Oregon, George Guthrie offers tips on planting trees and shrubs in sandy soils.  And in California, Judith Larner Lowry explains why she recommends certain annuals, groundcovers and herbs in communities near the shore.

Finally, Tenenbaum has compiled a list of plants by botanical names that do well in coastal areas; and she has compiled a list of public gardens and parks where successful shoreside plantings can be viewed.

Comments

[blackswamp_girl (Kim)]

I love looking through this book every time I go to Borders... frankly, I love the Not-So-Big-House book, too. There are several of my McMansion-dwelling formerly close friends to whom I would love to gift both this year! :)