Choosing the Right Garden Hedge Trimmer
October 8, 2009 by Lawn Care · Leave a Comment
Home Landscaping Northeast Region Including Southeast Canada Home Landscaping
April 27, 2009 by Lawn Care · Leave a Comment
Home Landscaping Northeast Region Including Southeast Canada Home Landscaping
“There is nothing like it! This idea-filled book takes the guesswork out of landscaping so you can focus on the fun. Designs that work, great plants you can find, accurate instructions, and detailed drawings will help you succeed.”
Nancy Beubaire, editor, Organic Gardening
— Review
Like many books coming on the market these days, Home Landscaping presents a simple yet sophisticated look at putting plants together in a variety of settings.
Planing a shady hideaway? Looking to color the area around your mailbox? Need a street-smart planting? How about a round garden?
Books like these offer a practical alternative to the glossy coffee-table tomes that show off beautiful gardens but offer little help deciphering what all those massed plants really are.
What sets Home Landscaping apart from any other how-to-book, however, is the publishing company’s commitment to serving a variety of regions. Home Landscaping is actually a series, comprising editions for the Southeast, the Mid-Atlantic, the Northeast (including Southeast Canada), and, coming next year, the Great Lakes region (including Southern Canada). Other titles are planned as well. (Mitch Whitten, Editor in Chief, Garden Center Merchandising and Management) REVIEW: The Home Landscaping Series promises to make your particular gardening situation easier because it’s created to suit your regional needs, and it is one of the best this reviewer has ever seen. Beautiful garden designs, illustrations, and photos, as well as plant selections created by a team of landscape professionals in the region, are included.
The series also includes detailed descriptions of plants used in the designs, with advice on their selection and care and step-by-step instructions for garden projects such as paths, walls, patios, fences, trellises, arbors, and small ponds.
All of the books in this series are perfect for first-time home owners and novice gardeners, but more experienced gardeners will find them useful too. These books consider far more than just winter hardiness zones when making plant recommendations. They address the full range of growing conditions in each region of the United States.
The series addresses the Mid-Atlantic Region, the Northeast Region (including Southeast Canada), the Southeast Region, and the Great Lakes Region (including Southern Canada). Keep the entire series on your bookshelves…you never know when you’ll be moving. — Pat Regel, Book Page
The Home Landscaping series takes the fear out of gardening by skillfully combining a wide range of attractive, dependable plants with clear, concise information on the techniques of gardening and easy-to-follow plans. — Thomas Fischer, Executive Editor, Horticulture
This gardener’s gallery of plants, plans, and techniques can help you turn a humdrum yard into a work of art. — Steve Silk, Managing Editor, Fine Gardening
Whether you’re contemplating major landscaping or minor additions and fix-ups, you’ll turn to these beautifully rendered design possibilities again and again. And you’ll find the regional focus indispensable. — Eleanore Lewis, Editor, Woman’s Day Garden Planner & Product Guide
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Love this book!!
I have so many landscaping books that I never opened again after the first week I bought them. This is not one of those books. It’s by far so much better than most of the other ones out there. It’s well organized for info, and the plans are numerous and easy to follow. Not just for beginners. a really great book!
5 Stars Curb appeal made easy
It’s great the way these books are customized for each individual climate area here in the U.S. Saves a lot of wasted planning with the wrong plants and materials.
5 Stars One of my favorites
I recently became interested in gardening (now that I have a yard in which I can plant). This is one of my favorite books on gardening and landscaping. Great resource for those of us living in the northeast. Full of wonderful photos, explanations and illustrations. It gives many ideas for addressing certain areas of your yard (i.e. front entryway, patio, rock wall). Explanations are excellent; I learned a great deal from this book. Very well written. Highly recommended.
5 Stars Have my own and now purchasing for a neighbor!!
A neighbor showed me her copy and I had to get one for myself. Great layouts, great plant selections, this book offers great ideas and variations and is FULL of information! I showed another neighbor the garden I am planning and now I’m buying her a copy as well. We are going to have a GREAT looking street!!
5 Stars This book is wonderful
Home Landscaping: Northeast Region is a very informative book filled with beautiful photos. I don’t think I will need another book while doing our landscape planning. Landscaping designs, expected sizes of plants and trees and shrubs, different colors and species, how to’s, this book will cover all your landscaping needs if you live in new england.
Landscaping for Dummies
April 27, 2009 by Lawn Care · Leave a Comment
This guide is intended as a basic reference for those who want to improve their landscape. Beginning with a Wish List, the authors help gardeners achieve the yard of their dreams. Each step of the process is explained: designing a layout, building “hardscape” (paths, fences, arbors), selecting plants and trees, choosing a contractor or deciding to do the work yourself. Icons are used to point out important information. Many illustrations, checklists, a hardiness zone table, plant lists, lists of mail-order suppliers, 16 professional landscape designs, recommended readings, and online resources provide inspiration. The tone of the book is upbeat and humorous. Recommended for public libraries. (Color photographs not seen.)ANancy Lee Myers, Univ. of South Dakota Lib., Vermillion
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Great for the price.
This book will give you a basic understanding on what and where to place plants and flowers as well as an idea what is the best grass for the kind of weather in your area. It breaks things down to plain english and provides step by step procedures on landscaping.
1 Star I’m a Dummie for buying this book
Did not tell me what I needed to know to pick plants for my yard. I found most of what I needed in Sunset’s Western Garden Book (I’m in the western US).
4 Stars Very nice starting point for a broad subject. Great bibliography
`Landscaping for Dummies’ by Philip Giroux, Bob Beckstrom, Lance Walheim and a cast of thousands is a typically ironic example of what you will find in this huge `Dummies’ series of books, which started out as a series of texts for PC subjects, where the PC had a knack of making us all feel like dummies. Since then, it has expanded to touch virtually every `practical’ subject in the known universe. That is, I haven’t seen any `Wittgenstein for Dummies’ or `Quantum Thermodynamics for Dummies’, as neither of these subjects are things the average intelligent, but uninformed person is likely to pick up to brief themselves for a weekend project of as a start to a new hobby.
The irony of this particular volume is that you really can’t make full use of it if you don’t have a good head on your shoulders and a fair amount of book learning under your belt, including such arcane High School subjects such as geometry and some building skills such as working with mortar, power saws, a level, and a full-sized shovel.
The first thing you discover is that landscaping is a really big subject. You probably didn’t know this, or you would not be considering buying this book. In four `parts’, the book breaks the subject down into Designing, Hardscaping, Planting, Planning, and Tips for putting Landscaping to good use. Since this book (and all books in this series) advertises itself as `A Reference for the Rest of Us’, I can’t complain too much about the odd order of these five subjects, but it does seem that `Objectives’ and `Planning’ should be Parts I and II respectively, rather than Parts V and IV. I confess that I even bought the book exclusively for its Hardscaping chapter, so I didn’t care if that came before or after planning.
Regarding the Hardscaping material, I found it remarkably advanced for a `dummy’. The projects start with simple walkways, but quickly advance to retaining walls, brick walls, and fences. My biggest surprise was the depth to which one must build deep planning into so simple a job as a retaining wall that is installed to square off an annoying slope in your yard. Not only do you have to lay a deep foundation, you also need to worry about drainage and install a special drainage pipe to carry off rainwater. Who Knew!!!
In other Parts of the book, it devotes relatively short chapters to subjects to which one could easily dedicate a whole book. One example is in the selection of a tree or trees to plant in your landscaping project. I looked at the description for Japanese maple (since I happen to have one of these) and found the entry reasonable, but possibly not as detailed as one may want, since it glossed over the fact that the difference in growing speed and average height of the different varieties of Acer Palmatum are sizable, and one will be disappointed if they get the tall lanky variety, when they wanted the low, burly `weeping’ variety.
But, if what you want is a first book on the subject, you could really do a lot worse. It has the one essential ingredient for an introductory book, a comprehensive bibliography, which includes not only books, but lots of magazines, professional organizations, and international web sites for getting more information.
I rarely resort to books in this series, but for those of you who want to venture into do it yourself landscaping, this is probably better, and possibly far better than, for example, the `Home Depot’ manual on the subject.
4 Stars Okay for the basic landscaper
I’ve been working in commercial landscaping off and on for nearly four years now. I borrowed this book from a friend just to check it out. I think if you are a new homeowner and don’t have much experience in landscaping then this book will probably work. If you are familiar with planting tree’s and shrubs, bricklaying, fencing, and bordering, then maybe you should try and find something a little more advance. I suppose it depends on how big the project is you are working on.
3 Stars Landscaping For Dummies
A very informative tome, but I think its tries to achieve too much in what is a rather large and varied subject. Should focus on the basics………….but to be fair still an excellent guide
Midwest Home Landscaping Including Southern Canada
April 27, 2009 by Lawn Care · Leave a Comment
Midwest Home Landscaping Including Southern Canada
Midwest Home Landscaping, Including Southern Canada, shows how to beautify 23 common landscape situations, such as front and back entries, walkways, borders, slopes, and patios. After presenting 46 design variations, the book explains how to install and care for the plants, ponds, walls, and fences involved in the landscape designs. Plants that are proven performers in the Midwest are used in the designs and described in full detail. Step-by-step instructions provide the essential knowledge to tackle each project.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars A very good guide.
I found this book to be a very good guide on the selection of plants to use in our landscaping improvements. I am not much a plant selection person and this book has helped in making some good choices.
5 Stars Great book for Midwest gardeners!
This book is great! It was just what I needed. It has detailed, creative, and artistic landscaping plans plus helpful planting and design information! I bought two copies of this book so I can give my daughter one!
5 Stars Very nice book, helpful and useful, but be forewarned.
It is very very similar to the 1999 edition which I already owned. In my opinion, there is no reason to own both, or to replace the old one with the new one.
5 Stars Excellent book
I’m not a gardener but then again I have never had a house to HAVE a garden. We are moving onto a brand new house and I found this book by accident.
It is outstanding.
It will give you ideas on what to plant in the shade, sun part sun and what I like most are the diagrams. I have no eye for what a garden will look like in 2 months and how I should plant a garden that looks lush and well thought out. I would have planted a garden with random flowers spaced too far apart.
Perfect book for somebody that wants a garden that looks like they knew what they were doing.
5 Stars A first-rate, comprehensive resource for homeowners of all background, regardless of past experience in gardening or landscaping
Written by the founding editor of “Gardening” magazine Roger Holmes and award-winning author Rita Buchanan, and now in a new and expanded edition featuring information on more plants and additional suggested designs, Midwest Home Landscaping Including Southern Canada is a comprehensive guide to making one’s home landscape more attractive and functional. Chapters address how to skillfully plan a design for one’s yard, how to organize one’s project and perform tasks ranging from clearing the site to fences and trellises to the planting process, and profiles of a variety of landscaping plants ideal for homes situated in the upper Midwest and Southern Canada. Step-by-step instructions and full-color photography and diagrams walk the reader through each task, and the text covers both ideas for selecting and coordinating themes as well as practical nitty-gritty details. Midwest Home Landscaping is a first-rate, comprehensive resource for homeowners of all background, regardless of past experience in gardening or landscaping.
New Complete Home Landscaping
April 27, 2009 by Lawn Care · Leave a Comment
Erler’s sprawling, all-you-need-to-know reference targets not the landscape designers of palatial estates but the suburbanite or city dweller who wants to create an attractive landscape but doesn’t have unlimited funds or time. Scintillating reading this isn’t, but it’s certainly comprehensive. Erler, author of Complete Home Landscaping (2000), explains how to use design elements to create a landscape plan, then offers tips on adding structures such as fences, walkways, steps, patios, and ponds or other water features to a yard. Her final section tackles trees, shrubs, lawns, ground covers, flowers and even organic vegetables and herbs. Throughout, Erler mixes grand design overviews with step-by-step projects, which she helpfully rates as easy, moderate or challenging. The book’s pages are chock-a-block with color photos, charts, graphs, maps and other resources. Although the overwhelming amount of detailed and useful information will surely appeal to do-it-yourselfers, Erler may occasionally annoy readers, as when she painfully states the obvious (e.g., “Place water features where you can enjoy them”). Those willing to slog through the morass of dull, textbook-like prose will come away from this book with plenty of unique ideas for landscaping their home.
Copyright
Taylors Master Guide to Landscaping
April 27, 2009 by Lawn Care · Leave a Comment
Taylors Master Guide to Landscaping
Comprehensive and easy to follow, Buchanan’s companion volume to Taylor’s Master Guide to Gardening covers just about all the features that can be included in home landscapes–from lawns and foundation plantings to fences, driveways, bridges, steps, outdoor rooms, pools and outdoor lighting. Buchanan encourages homeowners to think carefully about the specific requirements of the site (topography, shape of the lot, size of the budget, etc.) before beginning a landscaping project. Then home landscapers can follow her step-by-step instructions and carry out the project on their own or use her tips on hiring professionals to do the work. Buchanan offers a wealth of practical information, from advice on seeing the overall character of a home and its setting to opinions about details, such as which materials are best for paths and walkways. There are also suggestions for choosing and caring for trees, shrubs, vines, ground cover and perennials, with lists of plants appropriate for individual situations. An interesting aspect of the book is the author’s emphasis on seeing the home landscape in relationship to the surrounding neighborhood and the community as a whole; there are hints, for example, on how to counteract the antisocial impression made by a wall or a fence erected in front of a house. Buchanan’s clearly written, abundantly illustrated guide should go a long way toward helping amateurs have the courage to tackle what often seems a daunting task. 425 color photos not seen by PW. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Taylor’s Master Guide to Landscaping
A great guide for those of us wanting to learn more about landscaping. It is plainly written so that anyone who wishes to start a new landscaping project will not feel overwhelming but empowered to tackle the job!
5 Stars A big help.
This book has helped me come up with a plan for the rough land that I have purchased with my new home.
5 Stars It wont replace the landscape architect, but it comes close
This is the most often used book I continually return to for landscaping reference and guidance. It’s well written and will have you on the way to improving your landscape after the first read. One reviewer mentions Rita is opinionated. This is true. So you’ll have to read around some of the opinions and decide for yourself what holds true for your property.
If you need just one landscaping book, I would highly recommend this book. It has a great balance of ideas, pics, & text. It is well structured and organized.
5 Stars Most comprehensive text on planning a garden
I admire Rita Buchanan’s style.
In a time of the pre-digested, summarized ‘Idiot’s Guides’, she addresses landscape design in a methodical and logical progression. The text doesn’t get bogged down in species’ names and planting plans, but instead opens our minds to the larger questions of overall goals and needs. As such, I have found this to be the perfect companion as I plan my garden, opening my mind to the wider possibilities that I hadn’t considered.
Having said that, you might be disappointed if you are looking for a book to ‘dip into’ for rapid solutions. I have found this book more rewarding if you have 30 minutes to spare with a comfy chair and cup of coffee, rather than just a 3 minute break.
4 Stars Comprehensive and well designed; sometimes too opinionated
The book is what its title says and that’s good - a master guide to landscaping. While I respect Ms. Buchanan’s opinions on matters of landscaping since she obviously is versed enough to complete this well done and comprehensive book, it seems to me that her opinions sometimes get in the way of common, useful, tried and true landscaping practices. Example: On page 229 she adamantly states, “…Disregard anyone who tells you to set hedge plants in a zigzag pattern…”, yet the picture above depicts just that and, quite frankly, it’s commonly recommended to do so. As a designer, I do use that technique for hedge planting because it creates a billowy effect and it’s more visually interesting, in many instances. The point is, that statement is an opinion that may not be based on anything more than personal taste.
Having said that, it’s an excellent and in-depth guide to the extensive field of landscaping and a very good book just to see what her educated opinions might be. Keep an open mind and refer also to other more task-specific books and expertise when faced with landscape challenges. This book certainly will entertain one with its views, many of them interesting and useful.
Home Landscaping Northeast Region Including Southeast Canada Home Landscaping
April 27, 2009 by Lawn Care · Leave a Comment
Home Landscaping Northeast Region Including Southeast Canada Home Landscaping
Including Southeast Canada Book, Detailed Descriptions Of Over 200 Plants Used In The Designs, Plus Advise On Their Selections & Care, Step-By-Step Instructions For Projects, Such As Paths, Patios, Walls, Fences, Trellises, Arbors, & Small Ponds.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Love this book!!
I have so many landscaping books that I never opened again after the first week I bought them. This is not one of those books. It’s by far so much better than most of the other ones out there. It’s well organized for info, and the plans are numerous and easy to follow. Not just for beginners. a really great book!
5 Stars Curb appeal made easy
It’s great the way these books are customized for each individual climate area here in the U.S. Saves a lot of wasted planning with the wrong plants and materials.
5 Stars One of my favorites
I recently became interested in gardening (now that I have a yard in which I can plant). This is one of my favorite books on gardening and landscaping. Great resource for those of us living in the northeast. Full of wonderful photos, explanations and illustrations. It gives many ideas for addressing certain areas of your yard (i.e. front entryway, patio, rock wall). Explanations are excellent; I learned a great deal from this book. Very well written. Highly recommended.
5 Stars Have my own and now purchasing for a neighbor!!
A neighbor showed me her copy and I had to get one for myself. Great layouts, great plant selections, this book offers great ideas and variations and is FULL of information! I showed another neighbor the garden I am planning and now I’m buying her a copy as well. We are going to have a GREAT looking street!!
5 Stars This book is wonderful
Home Landscaping: Northeast Region is a very informative book filled with beautiful photos. I don’t think I will need another book while doing our landscape planning. Landscaping designs, expected sizes of plants and trees and shrubs, different colors and species, how to’s, this book will cover all your landscaping needs if you live in new england.
