Garden Design

Designing and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape Naturally

By Robert Kourik
First published in 1986, this classic is back in print by popular demand. It is the authoritative text on edible landscaping, featuring a step-by-step guide to designing a productive environment using vegetables, fruits, flowers, and herbs for a combination of ornamental and culinary purposes. It includes descriptions of plants for all temperate habitats, methods for improving soil, tree pruning styles, and gourmet recipes using low-maintenance plants. There are sections on attracting beneficial insects with companion plants and using planting to shelter your home from erosion, heat, wind, and cold. 351 pages.

Green Roof Plants

By Edmund Snodgrass and Lucie L. Snodgrass
Although relatively commonplace in Japan and throughout Europe, green roof gardening is just a grassroots movement in the U.S and Canada. But ecological and economic concerns are pushing what was once a landscaping anomaly into the forefront of environmental design. It is, however, not as simple as merely re-creating a ground-level garden high atop a building. Green roof gardening must take into consideration structural engineering issues such as load bearing, waterproofing, insulation, drainage, and maintenance. These same concerns make selecting suitable plant material a challenge. The authors have compiled the first reference tool designed to help green roof gardeners determine the best drought-tolerant, low-maintenance, temperature-hardy plants. Supported by 300-plus color photographs and including cultural details on more than 200 species and cultivars, this is an essential resource for home gardeners and landscape architects and designers looking for environmentally friendly choices. 220 pages.

Lasagna Gardening

By Patricia Lanza
This delicious-sounding book goes over the basics of a non-traditional method of gardening that is not only organic, earth friendly, and incredibly easy, but will enable you to accomplish more, in less time, with less work. Patricia Lanza explains how to use a system of layered mulch materials - including newspaper, leaves, and grass clippings - to provide a nutrient-base for healthy gardens and robust flowers, herbs, vegetables and fruits. Garden Writers Award winner. 180 pages.

On The Wild Side Experiments in New Naturalism

By Keith Wiley
Inspired first by the flora and fauna of rural England, and later by the world's deserts, coastlines, mountains, and woodlands, Keith Wiley has distilled the essence of these wild landscapes into a single garden with breathtaking success. Much more than a book of new planting ideas, On the Wild Side challenges our whole understanding of what a garden is. Why strive for year-round color throughout the garden when small areas can seize the limelight at their seasonal peak? Change and evolution is at the heart of new naturalism — is your garden ready for it? 256 pages.

Planning and Planting a Moon Garden

By Marcella Shaffer
Moon gardens are built for enjoyment at night. Built near to outdoor eating or entertainment areas, they are filled with plants that are at their best after dark. The heavenly smell of evening scented stocks combine with night-blooming plants like Nicotiana to create a totally different garden feature, reflecting moonlight and attracting pollinating moths. This booklet explains the concept and sets readers on the road to a new way of thinking about garden features. 32 pages.

Seedheads in the Garden

By Noël Kingsbury
Seedheads bring impact to late summer borders and linger to provide interest well into autumn and winter. They look dramatic set against a backdrop of fading flowers, associate well with grasses and native plants, and are key components of the naturalistic garden in which every phase of a plant is enjoyed from first shoot to final decay. After providing historical context, Noël Kingsbury explains how plants reproduce and participate in the garden's wider ecology, and explores seedheads' role in diverse gardens worldwide. At the heart of the book is a plant directory in which Kingsbury's hand-picked selection describes the particular characteristics of each plant's seedheads and grades them according to their value and persistence. Jo Whitworth's compelling photographs capture the individual character of each seedhead and open our eyes to the intricate shapes, tempting textures and dense monochromes of seedheads. 144 pages.

Reduced to clear - was $36.95!

Square Foot Gardening

By Mel Bartholomew.
In print for many years, this is still one of the best guides for beginning gardeners wondering, "Where do I begin?" Its focus is on planting a defined area with just the right number and variety of plants you need and then planting again! It includes useful tips on how to incorporate vertical space for the highest yields in your limited space, and how to best plan for larger gardens. 350 pages.

The Basics of Permaculture Design

By Ross Mars
The Basics of Permaculture Design, first published in Australia in 1996, is an excellent introduction to the principles of permaculture, design processes, and the tools needed for designing sustainable gardens, farms, and larger communities. Packed with useful tips, clear illustrations, and a wealth of experience, it guides you through designs for gardens, urban and rural properties, water harvesting systems, animal systems, permaculture in small spaces like balconies and patios, farms, schools, and ecovillages. This is both a do-ityourself guide for the enthusiast and a useful reference for permaculture designers. 170 pages.

The Permaculture Garden

By Graham Bell
Working entirely in harmony with nature, The Permaculture Garden shows you how to turn a bare plot into a beautiful and productive garden. Learn how to plan your garden for easy access and minimum labor; save time and effort digging and weeding; recycle materials to save money; plan crop successions for year-round harvests; save energy and harvest water; and garden without chemicals by building up your soil and planting in beneficial communities. Full of practical ideas, this perennial classic, first published in 1995, is guaranteed to inspire, inform, and entertain. 174 pages.