Born in Florence in 1910, Pietro Porcinai grew up on the classic grounds of the Villa Gamberaia in Settignano where his father served as head gardener. Although he studied agriculture in college, Porcinai's true interest lay in the landscape architecture practice he founded in 1938. Early projects centered in the area of Arezzo, whose style reflected modernA ized traditional models. In the postwar era the office flourished, producing modern gardens of remarkable design and use of plants. In these works, Porcinai convincingly demonstrated the affinity between historical architecture and landscapes unA compromisingly modern. During his long and productive career he also consulted on autostrada planning, and designed public parks, memorials, and even a Pinocchio theme park-at times collaborating with noted architects such as Renzo Piano, Carlo Scarpa and Oscar Niemeyer. This book, the first English-language study on Pietro Porcinai provides a comprehensive and richly illustrated overview of his life and remarkable achievements.

How do you design a landscape book suitable for its intended uses? How can the natural qualities of a landscape be enhanced with new features and focal points? How can you make pedestrians stay on the footpath? What kind of plant, path or wall should you put where, and what sort of contract should you choose for your client's contractor? This refreshingly down-to-earth introduction to the vast subject of landscape design and construction answers all these questions, guiding new students through the many facets of professional practice and welding together the artistic, legal, financial, environmental and management issues which can seem so dauntingly disconnected. Illustrated with original drawings, photographs, sample plans and facsimiles, including a new colour plate section, this readable classic has been fully revised and updated throughout. It opens with a completely new chapter which explains design and aesthetic principles, explores the history of our relationship to landscape, and shows how design principles can be applied to influence reactions to the finished site. The author then considers different elements of hard landscape and their relative merits in different situations. The soft landscape section includes coverage of the effects of mass and form, natural and abstract planting, and the difficult subject of plant selection. A step-by-step guide through all the stages of managing a project, from initial discussions with clients, site inspection, surveying and quoting, through tendering, contracting, contractual agreements, development from concept design to final plans and drawings, as well as maintenance, now includes the current information on CDM regulations and provides readers with a plain-speaking reference on client management and contractual administration. Added to the guide to drawing and lettering is an extensive section on computer-aided design. A bibliography and list of useful organization are also included.

The definitive guide to hundreds of Britain's most outstanding gardens, in the care of the National Trust The National Trust has the finest collection of gardens in the United Kingdom. In this book, Stephen Lacey paints a vivid picture of the individual gardens, and places each one in its context within British horticultural history. All the major periods and styles of garden design are represented, from the formality of early gardens such as Hanbury Hall and Ham House, magnificent 18th-century landscapes like Stowe and Croome Park and the heady Victorian creations of Biddulph Grange and Waddesdon Manor to the famous plantsmen's gardens of the last century, such as Nymans, Hidcote Manor and Sissinghurst Castle. The text and pictures have been fully updated, with new entries including Allan Bank, High Close Arboretum and Wentworth Castle. Several gardens have undergone major redevelopment since the previous edition, while others have colourfully expanded the acreage open to visitors. Extensive tree planting, including reinstating a lost eighteenth-century avenue at Dyrham Park and recreating the pear tree arch at Rudyard Kipling's home, Bateman's, are just a few of the new and exciting additions to this classic guide to Britain's most outstanding gardens.

'A brilliant and inspirational starter kit for anyone who wants to make a garden to suit their own needs.' - Alan Titchmarsh Although excited by the prospect of moving into their own home for the first time, many people are mystified at the thought of what to do with their outdoor space. Frances Tophill's fuss-free, practical guide shows you how to create a space outside your own back door that's designed by you, built by you and enjoyed by you. Beginning with advice on getting to know your garden - what type of soil you have, what the drainage and light is like - then on getting to know yourself as a gardener - do you want a vegetable patch, an abundance of flowers or simply an extension of your indoor living space? - and then moving on to the practical design, including hard and soft landscaping and building materials and guidance, Frances guides you through different types of plants and how to source and plant them. There is also a section on aftercare, telling you the best way to keep your garden well cared for and easy to maintain throughout the year.

If you want to do your bit to support local biodiversity, start your own wildlife pond in your back garden. Whether you are looking to do something to help the environment, building a feature pond as a family landscaping project, or attracting local wildlife to your garden; a wildlife pond is a perfect addition to your gardening efforts. Learn everything there is to know about wildlife ponds with: - Photographic and illustrative step-by-step guides on planning, creating, and maintaining your pond - A variety of pond types covered, including natural-style ponds, container ponds, and more traditional, formal-style ponds that still attract wildlife - What to expect throughout the seasons, the creatures that will visit, and the aquatic plants that will thrive - Tips on what to look out for in your pond, encouraging a natural eco-system, and how to maintain your newly built pond throughout the year Find out everything you'll need to know to create a natural sanctuary in your garden! This book shows you how to create a backyard pond without filters, pipes, and chemicals, and how to attract and support local species. RHS How to Create a Wildlife Pond provides easy-to-follow steps on how to dig your own pond line, advice on which pond plants to choose from, and how to make sure local wildlife can enjoy your pond safely. This book will also give you advice on how to take care of your newly built water feature so that you're able to enjoy the local animals, insects and birds for years to come. You can expect to see blackbirds bathing in your pond, hedgehogs using it as a water source, and bats flying over at night to catch insects. This wonderful book is filled with photographs and illustrations that will make planning and creating your own pond a therapeutic and fulfilling experience! Complete the Series: There are so many ways for you to enjoy your garden! If you're looking for tips on environmental changes and landscaping ideas, DK books have even more gardening guides and projects for you to explore. Discover RHS How to Garden the Low Carbon Way, or bring even more feathered friends to your garden with How to Attract Birds to Your Garden.

The ideal, easy-to-use resource for growing healthy, resilient, low-maintenance trees, shrubs, vines and other fruiting plants from around the world - perfect for farmers, gardeners and landscapers at every scale. Illustrated with more than 200 colour photographs and covering 50 productive edible crops - from Arctic kiwi to jujebe, medlar to heartnut - this is the go-to guide for growers interested in creating diversity in their growing spaces. Cold-Hardy Fruits and Nuts is a one-stop compendium of the most productive, edible fruit-and nut-bearing crops that push the boundaries of what can survive winters in cold-temperate growing regions. While most nurseries and guidebooks feature plants that are riddled with pest problems (such as apples and peaches), veteran growers and founders of the Hortus Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, Allyson Levy and Scott Serrano, focus on both common and unfamiliar fruits that have few, if any, pest or disease problems and an overall higher level of resilience. Inside Cold-Hardy Fruits and Nuts you'll find: Taste profiles for all fifty hardy fruits and nuts, with notes on harvesting and uses Plant descriptions and natural histories Recommended cultivars, both new and classic Propagation methods for increasing plants Nut profiles including almonds, chestnuts, walnuts and pecans Fertilisation needs and soil/site requirements And much more! With beautiful and instructive colour photographs throughout, the book is also full of concise, clearly written botanical and cultural information based on the authors' years of growing experience. The fifty fruits and nuts featured provide a nice balance of the familiar and the exotic: from almonds and pecans to more unexpected fruits like maypop and Himalayan chocolate berry. Cold-Hardy Fruits and Nuts gives adventurous gardeners all they need to get growing. Both experienced and novice gardeners who are interested in creating a sustainable landscape with a greater diversity of plant life - while also providing healthy foods - will find this book an invaluable resource.

Maximize your water harvesting potential with efficient, cost-effective earthworks In the face of drought and desertification, well-designed, water harvesting earthworks such as swales, ponds, and dams are the most effective way to channel water into productive use. The result can be increased food production, higher groundwater levels, reduced irrigation needs, and enhanced ecosystem resilience. Yet, due to a lack of knowledge, designers, and landowners often build earthworks that are costly, inappropriately sized and sited, or even dangerous. The Permaculture Earthworks Handbook is the first dedicated, detailed guide to the proper design and construction of water harvesting earthworks. It covers the function, design, and construction methods for nine main types of water harvesting earthworks across a full range of climates. Coverage includes: Swales, ponds, dams, hugelkultur, net-and-pan systems, spate irrigation, and more Cost versus benefit of different earthworks Assessing site needs and suitability Soil types and hydrology Designing for maximum efficiency and lowest cost Risk assessment and safe construction Stacking functions and integrating earthworks into a design This practical handbook is the essential resource for permaculture designers, teachers and students, landowners, farmers, homesteaders, landscape architects, and others involved in maximizing the water harvesting potential of any landscape at the lowest cost and impact. Douglas Barnes is a permaculture designer trained in Australia by Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton. He has designed and built earthworks in North America, Japan, and Andra Pradesh, India. He lives in Tweed, Ontario in a passive solar house he designed and built, and he blogs at permaculturerelections.com.

This attractive, practical guide explains how to transform backyard gardens into living ecosystems that are not only enjoyable retreats for humans, but also thriving sanctuaries for wildlife. Beautifully illustrated with full-color photographs, this book provides easy-to-follow recommendations for providing food, cover, and water for birds, bees, butterflies, and other small animals. Emphasizing individual creativity over conventional design, Bauer asks us to consider the intricate relationships between plants and wildlife and our changing role as steward, rather than manipulator, of these relationships.
In an engaging narrative that endorses simple and inexpensive methods of wildlife habitat gardening, Nancy Bauer discusses practices such as recycling plant waste on site, using permeable pathways, growing regionally appropriate plants, and avoiding chemical fertilizers and insecticides. She suggests ways of attracting pollinators through planting choices and offers ideas for building water sources and shelters for wildlife. A plant resource guide, tips for propagating plants, seasonal plants for hummingbirds, and host plants for butterflies round out "The California Wildlife Habitat Garden," making it an indispensable primer for those about to embark on creating their own biologically diverse, environmentally friendly garden.

Planting, by famed landscape architects Piet Oudolf and Noel Kingsbury, is a groundbreaking moment in horticulture. It is the first book to share Oudolf s original planting plans and plant groupings and the only book to explicitly show how his gardens and landscapes are made. An intimate knowledge of plants is essential to the success of this approach and Planting makes Oudolf s considerable understanding of plant ecology and performance accessible, explaining how plants behave in different situations, what goes on underground, and which species make good neighbors. Extensive plant charts and planting plans will help you choose plants for their structure, color, and texture as well as the way they perform in the landscape. A detailed directory, with details each plant s life expectancy, the persistence of its seedheads, its tendency to spread, and propensity to self-seed, is an invaluable resource.Planting is an essential resource for designers and gardeners looking to create plant-rich, beautiful gardens that support biodiversity and nourish the human spirit."

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, landscape gardening had divided into at least two branches. The geometric style promoted strictly ordered gardens, while the natural style, for which the period is known, preserved characteristics of untamed vistas. Edited by a former professional rival, John Claudius Loudon (1783 1843), this one-volume collection of the works of Humphry Repton (1752 1818) first appeared in 1840. Featuring more than 250 engravings, it illuminates the principal styles and contemporary debates of landscape design. Including perspective tricks to disguise differing water levels, and instructions on the use of cattle as a natural measure of scale, Repton's writings reflect the attention to detail that was involved in planning and executing major projects. The collection is prefaced with a biographical notice believed to have been written by the architect John Adey Repton (1775 1860), who collaborated with his father on many schemes."

2020 independent Press Award Winner--Green Book Category Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 2 is a how-to guide enabling you to "plant the rain" by creating water-harvesting "earthworks" or "rain gardens." Earthworks are simple, inexpensive strategies and landforms that passively harvest multiple sources of free on-site water including rainfall, stormwater runoff, air conditioning condensate, and greywater within "living tanks" of soil and vegetation. The plants then pump the water back out in the form of beauty, food, shelter, wildlife habitat, timber and forage, while controlling erosion, reducing down-stream flooding, dropping utility costs, increasing soil fertility, and improving water and air quality. This revised and expanded full-color second edition builds on the information in Volume 1 by showing you how to turn your yard, school, business, park, and neighborhood into lively, regenerative producers of resources. Conditions at home will improve as you simultaneously enrich the ecosystem and inspire the surrounding community. Learn to select, place, size, construct, and plant your chosen earthworks. All is made easier and more effective by the illustrations of natural patterns of water and sediment flow with which you can collaborate or mimic. Detailed step-by-step instructions with over 550 images show you how to do it, and plentiful stories of success motivate you so you will do it!

Learn the Essentials of Creating Beautiful, Fire-Resistant Properties With wildfires getting more frequent and ferocious, approximately 120 million US citizens live with the threat of being overrun. Are you one of them? If so, Firescaping helps you create a safer environment. This unique form of landscaping design keeps your property healthy, clean, and clear. Land management expert Douglas Kent shares decades of experience working in many of the nation's most flammable areas. Get the information needed to determine your property's degree of fire risk. Learn effective design strategies for your home and landscape, as well as key characteristics that make your property more accessible to firefighters. With checklists, simple instructions, and tips that truly work, this practical, hands-on guide is a valuable resource for homeowners, business owners, landscape professionals, and fire protection agencies. If you live in an area at risk, this book can help to prepare you and give you peace of mind.

A Bucket List Tour of Europe's Private Gardens. Acres of white-blooming garden rooms on the island of Mallorca. A seven-tiered wonder of stone, plants, and water above Germany's Rhine River. The Garden of Cosmic Speculation in a quiet Scottish valley. These sumptuous landscapes are just three of the fifty destinations you'll visit on this exclusive tour of Europe's most beautiful private gardens. From Belgium to Ireland, Scandinavia to Wales, Carolyn Mullet is your guide through intimate retreats normally off-limits to visitors. Short profiles introduce the intriguing owners and rich histories of each garden and the land they inhabit. Among the featured gardens are works of eminent designers such as Tom Stuart-Smith, Andy Melengier, and Louis Benech. Whether you love exploring faraway places or creating your own landscape haven at home, Adventures in Eden is the ideal armchair getaway - glimpses into personal garden artistry that are sure to spark inspiration.

Any backyard has the potential to refresh and inspire if you know what to do. Jan Johnsen's new book, Gardentopia: Design Basics for Creating Beautiful Outdoor Spaces, will delight all garden lovers with over 130 lushly illustrated landscape design and planting suggestions. Ms. Johnsen is an admired designer and popular speaker whose hands-on approach to "co-creating with nature" will have you saying, "I can do that!' This info-packed, sumptuous book offers individual tips for enhancing any size landscape using 'real world' solutions. The suggestions are grouped into five categories that include Garden Design and Artful Accents, Walls, Patios, and Steps and Plants and Planting, among others. Whether you are an experienced gardener or a landscaping novice, Gardentopia will inspire you with tips such as 'Soften a Corner", "Paint it Black", and "Hide and Reveal".

'The most romantic, creative person in garden design I know.' Piet Oudolf 'Jinny's genius is to marry a beautiful vision to an extraordinary empathy with the landscape into which that vision will fit, resulting in a pastoral harmony second to none' Victoria, Lady Getty Prolific designer Jinny Blom embraces a wide variety of styles, from large garden spaces to formal walled gardensand contemporary installations. What defines her work is her skill with plants and her ability to create a garden that responds to the history of the site and the wider landscape. The gardens Jinny creates are as different as their owners and their locations. In this book, Jinny shares her insight into the creative process she has developed while designing more than 250 gardens around the world. The Thoughtful Gardener contains modern takes on traditional forms, and is split into six sections: seeing, understanding, structuring, harmonising, rooting, and liberating. All of Jinny's gardens share a commitment to beautiful craftsmanship and considered planting. Structure and detail are important, and receive close attention. The styles vary considerably - logical, calm, beautiful, romantic, naturalistic, formal, sometimes spare - but the principles remain firm. Jinny designs for the long term, with consideration for the environment; these gardens are built to last. Reflecting Jinny's highly individual character, there is plenty of wit and quirkiness alongside the expert knowledge, and it will appeal to the widest audience of garden lovers. Thoughtful and beautiful, yet practical and informative, this book marries artistry with functionality.

Thorough, how-to explanations and illustrations present the fundamentals of residential landscape design. This comprehensive resource guides readers through the entire process of designing a residential landscape, from initial contact with the client and discussion of a rough concept, to completing a finished master plan and selecting materials for implementing the design. Numerous illustrations and helpful case study examples provide a clear look at the principles and techniques discussed in the book, making it an ideal introductory text for students and an invaluable reference for professional designers and homeowners. Residential Landscape Architecture: Design Process for the Private Residence, 7/e retains the content of the previous editions and provides new learning objectives, clearer text, a new overview and design project used to convey phases of the design process, additional photographs of built projects, discussion of current technologies, and new techniques for rendering color drawings within limited time frames.

The essential elements of a dry Japanese garden are few: rocks, gravel, moss. Simultaneously a sensual matrix, a symbolic form and a memory theatre, these gardens exhibit beautiful miniaturization and precise craftsmanship. However, their apparent minimalism belies a deeper complexity. In Zen Landscapes, Allen S. Weiss takes readers on a journey through these exquisite sites, explaining how Japanese gardens must be approached according to the play of scale, surroundings and seasons, as well as in relation to other arts, thus revealing them as living landscapes rather than abstract designs. These gardens are inspired by the Zen aesthetics of the tea ceremony, manifested in poetry, painting, calligraphy, architecture, cuisine and ceramics. Japanese art favours suggestion and allusion, valuing the threshold between the distinct and the inchoate, between figuration and abstraction, and Weiss argues that ceramics play a crucial role here, relating as much to the site-specificity of landscape as to the ritualized codes of the tea ceremony and the everyday gestures of the culinary table. With more than 100 stunning colour photographs, Zen Landscapes is the first in-depth study in the West to examine the correspondences between gardens and ceramics. A fascinating look at landscape art and its relation to the customs and craftsmanship of the Japanese arts, it will appeal to readers interested in landscape design and Japan's art and culture.

A stunning guide for gardeners keen to transform small and awkward outdoor spaces into beautiful and practical escapes. From courtyards to rooftops, Kate Gould draws on her experience as an award-winning garden designer to provide tailored solutions and inspirational ideas. Covering topics such as how to design and measure the perfect garden, choose and use the best materials and maintain a lush garden all year round, Urban Garden Design includes detailed advice for gardeners undeterred by limited space. This carefully illustrated guide ensures gardeners of all abilities achieve the best results outdoors. Creating a personal and unique space is also at the heart of each project and Kate makes sure to discuss how to tie each design back to the interior of the home.

The soul of a famous garden, revealed. Before it was restored, the High Line was an untouched, abandoned landscape overgrown with wildflowers. Today it is much more than that; it's a central plaza, a cultural centre, a walkway, and a green retreat in a bustling city that is free for all to enjoy. But above all else, it is a beautiful, dynamic garden with plantings designed by Piet Oudolf, one of the world's most extraordinary garden designers. Gardens of the High Line, by Piet Oudolf and Rick Darke, offers an in-depth view into the planting designs, plant palette, and maintenance of this landmark achievement. It reveals a four-season garden that is filled with native and exotic plants, drought-tol-erant perennials, and grasses that thrive and spread. It also offers inspiration and advice to home gardeners and garden designers looking to recreate its iconic, naturalistic style. Featuring stunning photographs by Rick Darke and an introduction by Robert Hammond, the founder of the Friends of the High Line, this large-trim, photo-driven book is a must-have for anyone who appreciates the nature of design.

Build a natural pond for wildlife, beauty, and quiet contemplation Typical backyard ponds are a complicated mess of pipes, pumps, filters, and nasty chemicals designed to adjust pH and keep algae at bay. Hardly the bucolic, natural ecosystem beloved by dragonflies, frogs, and songbirds. The antidote is a natural pond, free of hassle, cost, and complexity and designed as a fully functional ecosystem, ideal for biodiversity, swimming, irrigation, and quiet contemplation. Building Natural Ponds is the first step-by-step guide to designing and building natural ponds that use no pumps, filters, chemicals, or electricity and mimic native ponds in both aesthetics and functionality. Highly illustrated with how-to drawings and photographs, coverage includes: Understanding pond ecosystems and natural algae control Planning, design, siting, and pond aesthetics Step-by-step guidance for construction, plants and fish, and maintenance and trouble shooting Scaling up to large ponds, pools, bogs, and rain gardens. Whether you're a backyard gardener looking to add a small serene natural water feature or a homesteader with visions of a large pond for fish, swimming, and irrigation, Building Natural Ponds is the complete guide to building ponds in tune with nature, where plants, insects, and amphibians thrive in blissful serenity. Robert Pavlis , a Master Gardener with over 40 years of gardening experience, is owner and developer of Aspen Grove Gardens, a six-acre botanical garden featuring over 2,500 varieties of plants. A well-respected speaker and teacher, Robert has published articles in Mother Earth News , Ontario Gardening magazine, the widely read blog GardenMyths.com, which explodes common gardening myths and gardening information site GardenFundamentals.com.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE EDWARD STANFORD PHOTOGRAPHY TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR 'A fabulous, bonsai-filled book' Daily Mail The complement to the BBC2 series, Japanese Gardens: written by the nation's favourite gardener Monty Don, and beautifully produced with over 200 original photographs from Derry Moore. Traditional Japanese gardens combine aesthetics with ethics in a perfectly curated celebration of nature. A Japanese garden is the natural world made miniature: rocks represent mountains, ponds represent seas. In this personal and lyrical exploration of both the traditional and the modern aspects of Japanese gardening, Monty Don takes a look at the traditions and culture which inform some of the most beautiful gardens from all over Japan, from Kenroku-en to the Zen gardens of Tokyo and the historic beauty of Kyoto. Monty Don and Derry Moore guide us through the history and spectacular seasons of Japanese gardens, from the famous cherry blossom celebration hanami to the autumnal crimson magnificence of momijigari. Monty Don also explores the creative forms uniquely associated with Japanese gardens, from stone-masonry and ikebana to the intricate skill of bonsai. Stunningly photographed by Derry Moore, Japanese Gardens is a fascinating exploration of a unique relationship with gardens. 'An illuminating insight not only into the history and horticulture of some remarkable gardens but also into the Japanese culture and psyche' Gardens Illustrated ALSO BY MONTY DON & DERRY MOORE PARADISE GARDENS: THE WORLD'S MOST BEAUTIFUL ISLAMIC GARDENS As seen on the highly acclaimed BBC2 series, a glorious celebration of the richness of Islamic culture through some of the most beautiful gardens on earth. 'Sun-filled escapism' Country Life 'Simply breathtaking' Love it!

A showcase of Britain's most extraordinary gardens and landscapes from the twentieth century to present day. 100 20th-Century Gardens and Landscapes highlights the evolution of gardens and landscapes over the past century, tracing how these distinctive creations complemented buildings of their period. Entries in this book are grouped in chronological periods, documenting changing styles and techniques in a visual timeline. The examples chosen take the story from the Arts and Crafts garden and the garden city, through the landscapes created for mid-century housing and the new towns, to the low-maintenance gardens of the 1980s and contemporary trends for community and wildlife gardens. Designed landscapes were often integral to the conception of twentieth-century developments; the inclusion of a handful of particularly successful landscapes for memorial gardens, offices, industry, transport and parks demonstrate a changing attitude to public green space during the century and its increasing importance as private gardens have become ever smaller. Designers and architects such as Piet Oudolf, Charles Jencks, Frederick Gibberd, Geoffrey Jellicoe, Vita Sackville-West and Gertrude Jekyll are all featured, alongside more detailed essays on the history of gardens, planting styles, the importance of modern landscapes, and the career of Geoffrey Jellicoe. The text is written by architectural, landscape and garden historians including Elain Harwood, Barbara Simms and Alan Powers. Beautifully illustrated throughout with photography, illustrations and garden plans, this book is ideal for gardeners and landscape lovers alike.