Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31391 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-01
• Released on: 2008-01-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 210 pages

Review

About the Author
Julie Moir Messervy is a noted landscape and garden designer, author, lecturer, and principal of Julie Moir Messervy Associates in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Messervy designed the Toronto Music Garden in collaboration with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and gardens for the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, and the Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Garden, Columbus, Ohio. She is a columnist for Fine Gardening magazine and author of three previous books.

She received her BA from Wellesley College and attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's School of Architecture, where she received her Master of Architecture and Master in City Planning degrees. She trained with the eminent Japanese garden master Kinsaku Nakane in Kyoto, Japan.

Sarah Susanka has become one of the best known and most highly regarded architects in the United States, and is a leading advocate for the popularization of residential architecture. Her first book, The Not So Big House, topped best-seller charts across the country

Customer Reviews

Many ideas for designing small areas near small houses
(4.5 Stars) I can see from the other reviews that there exist a wide range of opinions about this book. I fall on the high side, I suppose. I enjoyed the large number of photos and ideas for landscaping small areas - spots even - in the yard around a smaller home.

One, rather unreal aspect was that, most of the homes pictured are modern homes with interesting custom architecture. Some of us live in simple ranch-styles (boxes).

Julie's training and interest in architecture does come through, but I did not find it distracting. In fact, I found the emphasis on the relationship between the interior design of the home and landscape as seen from inside very useful. Most landscaping books present only the view TOWARD the house, not FROM it.

I got several good ideas from this book and learned a bit about design.

An in-depth guide to creating harmony in one's house and garden
The collaboration of gardening expert and award-winning writer Julie Moir Messervy and residential architecture expert Sarah Susanka, Outside The Not So Big House: Creating The Landscape Of Home is an in-depth guide to creating harmony in one's house and garden. Detailed diagrams and full-color photography illustrate this highly accessible introduction to design concepts; chapters cover how to play off the habitat of the home, how to instill elements of smooth flow and pleasing aesthetics, working elements of nature into personal design, and much more. Outside The Not So Big House is not written as a handyman's how-to book, and does not delve extensively into the mechanics of how to construct and install garden furnishings, or how to plant, grow, water, and protect vegetation; it focuses on learning and applying elements of style to home and garden landscapes, with a wealth of examples for vivid illustration. An excellent inspirational source for gardeners and landscapers seeking to broaden their grasp of appealing designs, Outside The Not So Big House is very strongly recommended reading.

Beautiful and useful
I think the previous reviewer missed the point of this book. The authors are not trying to show "how to place landscaping for the greatest impact" but how to connect the house to its surrounding landscape, and how to use the concepts outlined in the other Not So Big books to shape the garden and landscape. The examples used ARE beautiful, as they should be - they inspire me to do something equally beautiful and extraordinary with my own space, with or without spending a large chunk of cash.

If you understand that it's not about the content, but the underlying principles that are being used to shape the space, you can appreciate the beauty, form, and creativity of the spaces shown.