Product Description

What separates the special garden from an ordinary one is not only what we plant in it, but also how we shape it. Build a wall with stone. Raise a trellis for the roses. Edge the herb bed with wattling. Be ambitious and erect an arbor for afternoon tea. Each of these is a garden structure-an element that has the power to define a garden's mood, guide its uses, anchor it in time, and deepen its meaning.

Equal parts wish book and how-to, Garden Structures marries inspiration with the nitty-gritty of design, materials, and methods to help every gardener create and carry out plans that will transform dirt, plants, and dreams into an outdoor home. Illustrated with over 200 exquisite color photographs and instructional line drawings, Garden Structures ranges from the simplest to the most involved ways to create a framework on which a garden grows. Here are structures to define boundaries: gates, fences, walls, edgings. Structures that give a garden lift: trellises, arbors, pergolas. Structures, such as paths and walkways, that shape the garden underfoot. And structures for living: patios, decks, terraces, greenhouses. Complementing each section are dozens of sidebars, from "Bamboo Barriers" to "What to Plant Between the Cracks" to "The Osage Orange" and "Paving Particulars."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #72146 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

From Booklist
Structural elements are important assets that help to create a garden's distinctive ambience. Fences enclose; gates invite; walls delineate; paths lead the way. Smith addresses these themes, together with all sorts of decorative embellishments and architectural necessities that should be considered when planning a garden, or thinking about making changes to enhance an existing space. The encouraging text looks at design issues from many perspectives, offering countless possibilities and solutions spanning a range of styles. How-to features present illustrated construction tips and explain technical principles, while the abundant, beautiful photography will have readers pondering the addition of a metal obelisk for the roses, or a sensational pebble mosaic for a sequestered patio. A handsome resource guide for sophisticated gardens. Alice Joyce
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Back Cover
Bamboo Barriers, a Timbered Lych-Gate, Neat White Pickets and a Pebbled Path

Whether simple as a twig teepee for your 'Blue Lake' beans or grand as a gazebo shingled in weathered cedar, a structural element not only serves a practical purpose but also has the power to define a garden's mood, guide its uses, anchor it in time, and deepen its meaning.

In this generously illustrated book of ideas and plans is all of the help a gardener needs to transform dirt, plants, and dreams in to a unique outdoor home

Featuring:
The Garden's Boundaries - They protect, they frame, they shelter. A rickrack edging in brick. Moon gates. Matching fence styles to house.
The Garden Above - The sky beckons, and we benefit - in roses and berries coaxed forth by the sun, in the dappled shade of an arbor, pergola, or arch.
The Garden Underfoot - Clogs crunching on gravel, boot soles on brick pavers. A sinuous path through the shrubberies—then the terrace.
The Living Garden - Bending the garden to our own design, creating living architecture. Growing the bones with hedges and espaliers, taking root with potting sheds and greenhouses.

About the Author
Linda Joan Smith, a contributing editor for Home Garden and Country Garden magazines, is the author of numerous articles on American gardens and gardeners. She has gardened from Arizona to Massachusetts, and Iowa to Pacific Grove, Calfornia.

Customer Reviews

Full of ideas!
This is a gorgeously illustrated book with hundreds of ideas to inspire the gardener who wants to add architectural elements to their garden. Be aware, however, that this is mainly a collection of photographs and does not provide much in the way of how to actually go about constructing these projects yourself. The book is divided into sections covering fences, walks, hedges, structures, etc. Each section features an array of photographs which illustrate every conceivable aspect of the topic. The photos are beautiful and are the definate selling point of this book.

Encyclopaedic, but not necessarily instructive
This is a lovely book, one to enjoy on a coffee table, especially during an infinite winter. Nearly every page has color photos; even small photos in this book are large because the format is so big.

And what variety: gates; fences; walls; edgings; trellises; arbors, pergolas, and arches; paths; hedges and espalier; potting sheds and greenhouses. Within each section, many examples are given along with (very) occasional drawings of a project. Some unfootnoted history and observations are included, as well. So the book offers extremely broad scope -- one might even call it "encyclopaedic". But be warned that you may not, for the most part, be able to divine (based on content) whether a structure will work for your garden.

The book catalogs topics pretty well; the photos assure this. But to be truly encyclopaedic, the book needs a much more comprehensive table of contents, especially because there is no index. And I would like to have seen footnoting (or at least a list of sources) for the bits of historical information included. Ultimately, though, the reason the book drives me nuts is that it is very hard to find my way back to ideas or photos that interest me.

That said, you will almost certainly see something new to you. And once you see something of interest, you'd better mark it well because the book will give you absolutely no help in finding it again.

Annotated inventory....not recommended for beginners...
GARDEN STRUCTURES by Linda Smith is marginally useful for the experienced upscale or midscale gardener (many of these projects are costly) or the reader who enjoys pretty pictures. If you are building a theme garden (i.e. Formal Italian, Dutch Colonial, Japanese Zen, Medieval Cloister) this book can prove disconcerting. If you can tell the difference between a Victorian gazebo and an Italian bench you may not find the display offputting.

Smith's book appears to be a photo collection of garden elements from all over the country and the result is a hotch-potch of structures reflecting a wide array of styles, periods, and eras. She has mixed Adams, Hepplewhite, Dutch colonial, Zen, 50's Moderne, and Art Deco, Italian, and plantation-style in categories by type of structure.

GARDEN STRUCTURES contains categories covering fences, gates, trellises, arbors, edgings and other "bones" of the garden. The section on gates shows a wide assortment of every kind of gate--wrought iron, post, picket, etc. The section on fences shows stockades, picket, wattle, split rail, etc. The section on paths shows pebbles, stones, bricks, bricks and cement, terracotta, grass, etc. (Paths probably are the least problematic, but one wonders how well colonial-style Italian stringcourse would look on a Zen garden path.)

If you're building a REALLY eclectic garden this detailed inventory might prove useful. Or, if you know how to integrate the various items from the various sections because you recognize their age/period/style it will work. You may want to find another book that shows entact gardens--plants, fences, gates, trellises, arbors, and other elements together. From the 'whole-some' examples you can derive a notion of what constitutes an integrated picture.

GARDEN STRUCTURES provides the reader with hundreds of piece-parts but does not shed much light on how to put it them together. Still, the experienced gardener may find some provocative ideas here.