In this superb and handsomely illustrated book - the first full-scale history of the park ever published - Roy Rosenzweig and Elizabeth Blackmar tell the dramatic story of the creation of Central Park, of the people who built it and have used it. The book chronicles the launching of the park project, the disputes surrounding its design and management, the job of constructing it, and the various ways it has served generations of New Yorkers. Throughout, the authors delineate the politicians, business people, artists, immigrant laborers, and city dwellers who are the key players in the tale. In tracing the park's history, the writers also give us the history of New York. They explain how squabbles over politics, taxes, and real estate development shaped the park and describe the acrimonious debates over what a public park should look like, what facilities it should offer, and how it should accommodate the often incompatible expectations of different groups of parkgoers. The authors have uncovered surprising information about the immigrants and African Americans who were displaced from the park site, and they offer a critical reassessment of the famous collaboration of the park's designers, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. In rich detail, they describe working-class New Yorkers fighting for Sunday park concerts and against the practice of renting park seats for a nickel. They look back at the origins of the zoo and museums at the park's borders. They follow the battle between the twentieth-century reformers who wanted to introduce playgrounds and ball fields and the preservationists trying to protect the original Olmsted and Vaux design, and they explain the dramatic changes broughtabout by the social impulses of the New Deal and by Robert Moses. Rounding out the story, the authors take in the park's recent history: rising fears of crime in the 1950s, the "be-ins" and anti-war demonstrations of the 1960s, the devastating fiscal crisis of the 1970s, and the restoration of the park in the 1980s by the Central Park Conservancy. But the authors' aim is much wider: they also show that conflicting visions of how a park should be managed and used raise larger issues about the meaning of the "public" in a democratic society. Who is the public? How can people take part in making decisions about public institutions? How do we create public space where people of diverse social and cultural backgrounds will feel welcome? These are questions that communities across the nation will continue to debate. Parkgoers and city dwellers everywhere will be enthusiastic readers of The Park and the People, as will those interested in urban, architectural, social, and cultural history, urban planning, and landscape architecture.

Successful gardens can be created in the smallest spaces, and in this inspiring and practical guide Alan Titchmarsh shows how to transform even the tiniest outdoor area into an attractive garden. With ideas for maximizing space and advice on garden design, planning and plant selection, this is the definitive handbook for anyone wanting to create a private haven in limited space. * Ideas for front gardens, side passages, courtyards, balconies, rooftops and windowsills * Tricks to make small spaces seem larger * How to use every inch of space, including containers * Easy-to-follow landscaping plans for all garden shapes and styles * Guidance on growing vegetables, herbs and fruit in small plots

Overcome the problems every gardener faces with helpful solutions to the problem of shady spots, and handy tips on how to make the most of these notoriously difficult areas. Includes: * creative design ideas for brightening up dark spaces, including north-facing walls * directory of shade-loving plants * care advice for shady lawns and how to deal with moss and algae * ways to achieve year-round colour and interest Alan Titchmarsh imparts a lifetime of expertise in these definitive guides for beginners and experienced gardeners. Step-by-step illustrations and easy-to-follow instructions guide you through the basic gardening skills and on to the advanced techniques, providing everything you need to create and maintain your dream garden.

Children's gardens are magical places where kids can interact with plants, see where food and fibers grow, and experience the role of birds, butterflies, and bees in nature. These gardens do more than just expose youngsters to outdoor environments, they also provide marvelous teaching opportunities for them to visit a small plot, care for vegetables and flowers, and interact in creative spaces designed to stimulate all five senses. In The Magic of Children's Gardens, landscape architect Lolly Tai provides the primary goals, concepts and key considerations for designing outdoor spaces that are attractive to and suitable for children especially in urban environments. Tai presents inspiring ideas for creating children's green spaces by examining nearly twentycase studies, including the Chicago Botanic Gardens and Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA. The Magic of Children's Gardens features hundreds of comprehensive drawings and gorgeous photographs of successful children's outdoor environments, detailed explanations of the design process, and the criteria needed to create attractive and pleasing gardens for children to augment their physical, mental, and emotional development. Exposing youth to well-planned outdoor environments promotes our next generation of environmental stewards. The Magic of Children's Gardens offers practitioners a guide to designing these valued spaces.

It was not by chance nor by a trick of fate that Javier Mariategui dedicated himself to gardening. He grew up among gardens. Both his grandmothers were gardening enthusiasts, one of them, the Marchioness of Casa Valdes, wrote the book Spanish Gardens, which describes the history of Spanish gardening from Roman times to the present day. This book continues to be a reference for all lovers of this particular field of history and art. This enthusiasm was passed on to him by his parents. From his earliest years he was making his own gardens, by reusing those plants discarded by his father. Mariategui studied landscape gardening and design at the Escuela de Paisajismo y Jardineria Castillo de Batres in Madrid. Subsequently he worked in England as a gardener. Back in Spain, he established the Jardines de Espana nursery, which looks after and employs handicapped children, with whom he first started making gardens. For the past thirty years, he has created numerous gardens across Spain and in several other European countries. He has also published many articles on landscape-gardening topics in specialized magazines and a book on one of his gardens: El Jardin de los Tapices / The Tapestry Garden. Among the present garden architects of Spain Mariategui plays an outstanding role. Even the Spanish TV has dedicated a monographic program to him and his gardens. It would be difficult to summarize in a few words the essence of Mariateguis gardens, given the wide variety of styles, their versatility and numerous differences that perhaps becomes his "signature". His style is not dogmatic, he loves order and disorder, straight lines and curved, the wild chaos of nature as well as strict geometrical patterns, varied and single species of plants, colour and absence of colour. Moreover he enjoys bringing elements that clash together until they harmonize. Perhaps as a result of an intimate knowledge of the magic of water in Andalusian Moorish gardens, Mariategui uses water as an essential element in many of his gardens. He makes it 'work' in all its forms; in pumps,in cascades, in constant gentle movement, or rocking in waves, in disperse drops or in silence like a mirror that adds the magic of its reflection.

The French landscape architect Jacques Simon's love for nature first developed on his father's tree farm and then deepened when he traveled as a young man to Sweden and then Canada, where he attended art school in Montreal while working as a lumberjack. Between 1957 and 1959, Simon studied at the Ecole Nationale de Horticulture. He has since become an important link in the renewal of French landscape architecture, combining the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian garden cultures he absorbed in his travels with classic Latin structures. He works as often as possible in situ, and does not shy away from driving the tractor himself. Since the 1980s, Simon has also been creating transitory landscapes--patterns in cultivated fields and on snowy grounds. His projects range from the design of a 15,000-acre park in Normandy to a giant Eiffel Tower built from bales of hay.

Every year, many thousands of acres of woodlands, deserts, meadowlands, and coastal scrub are turned into home or commercial sites. Ironically, by the time these structures are complete, bulldozers have scraped the land clean of its natural vegetation and character, the very features that attracted buyers in the first place. In Building within Nature, Andy and Sally Wasowski introduce new and exciting techniques for preserving the natural land on which we build new homes, offices, or even shopping centers. Building within Nature stresses that the unnatural landscapes so common in America literally exist on artificial life support. A natural landscape, on the other hand, is filled with native flora and can exist on rainfall alone. A structure built within nature looks as if it has been gently set down into a mature and established landscape-the easiest kind of landscape to maintain. The Wasowskis illustrate this new concept in construction through profiles of sites in California, Arizona, South Carolina, Minnesota, and other locations in North America. They also highlight useful techniques for revegetation, discuss the importance of soils, and argue for the preservation and maintenance of natural habitats. Building within Nature offers a practical blueprint for creating communities where both wildlife and human life thrive in a harmonious relationship. "For offering workable alternatives in nontechnical terms to ecologically minded home owners, contractors, and architects, the Wasowskis' book is highly recommended." -Library Journal Andy and Sally Wasowski are the authors of nine books about gardening and landscaping with native plants, including Gardening with Prairie Plants: How to Create Beautiful Native Landscapes (Minnesota, 2002). Their work has appeared in the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens handbooks, Country America, National Gardening, Sierra, Audubon, American Gardener, and Fine Gardening. Darrel G. Morrison, FASLA, is one of the nation's most respected native plant landscape architects.

Publisher's Note: Products purchased from Third Party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entitlements included with the product. In an industry that involves the skills, expertise, and labor of a wide-range of professionals and workers, good communications become crucial, and a common vocabulary is key to successful projects. Many of the terms used in landscape architecture, land planning, environmental planning, and landscape construction are unavailable, or so new, or industry-specific that they can't be found in conventional dictionaries. This unique resource delivers definitions as well as how-to information via details and photos, going above and beyond the scope of a typical professional dictionary. With straightforward definitions and clear illustrations on each page, everyone from architects, designers, and contractors through grounds maintenance workers will benefit from this important resource. In addition, an appendix with labeled construction details will illustrate not just what a term means, but also how it's applied in the profession.