Product Description

How to create a garden that practically takes care of itself and harmonizes with nature, presented with more than 400 gorgeous photographs taken all over the United States. More than 400 full-color photographs, 15 line drawings.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #879883 in Books
• Published on: 1988-12-12
• Released on: 1988-12-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 296 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Written by the garden editor of House Beautiful , this shows the novice gardener how to resist "fighting the elements" in a binge of "perpetual care" and instead transform a backyard from a dull lawn, "disciplined beds of annuals, and brutally pruned shrubs" into a haven of indigenous flora confirming the "mood" of a natural setting. The book presents the fundamentals of landscape structure--gardens are divided into formal "inner," colorful "in-between" and informal "outer" areas--and Druse devotes a chapter to each of various natural and man-made elements (water, rocks, bulbs, grasses) necessary to a unified design. A portfolio of eight gardens (e.g., a seaside garden, an urban garden) is inspiring, but would have been more useful had planting diagrams been included with selected plant lists. A case is made for growing native trees and unpruned shrubs. Although some drawbacks to his methods go unmentioned (unmown grass harbors rodents, slugs thrive under some mulches), Druse stresses that even a low-maintenance garden requires much work. Lists of plants, nurseries, suppliers et al., conclude a well-rounded offering.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap
How to create a garden that practically takes care of itself and harmonizes with nature, presented with more than 400 gorgeous photographs taken all over the United States. More than 400 full-color photographs, 15 line drawings.

Customer Reviews

Mr. Druse's later titles are better
This book was written before it was understood that re-creating a "natural" garden look without using native plants really doesn't satisfy in the way native plant gardening can. So, it is somewhat muddled. But, as with all Mr. Druse's books, the photos are fabulous, the concepts are sound; it's the implementation that is better discussed in his later book "The Natural Habitat Garden," which I recommend highly to anyone interested in pursuing a garden that looks "right" for their area.

Excellent book!
This is one of the best books on gardening I have ever read. It is a pleasure to read. It is so interesting that I read it from cover to cover. It helped me plan the complete redesign of my garden. It gave me the information I needed to work with my landscape architect as an informed gardener.

Wonderfull
I'm a chilean landscaper. The first time I saw this book was on a client's hands and I don't resist in to look all the wonderfull images. Now I'm woorking in a new garden, whit many reminiscenses of this book. A good invertion.