Product Description: A lot has happened in the world of gardening since THEME GARDENS was first published in 1982. The parallels to cooking are striking-we now have a new and much expanded repertoire of flowers, herbs, and vegetables; we look for more variety in the way we garden and landscape; and it's become a more important part of many more people's lives. And a lot has happened to Barbara Damrosch. Through THEME GARDENS and her classic, The Garden Primer, through her Gardener's Calendar and other ventures, she's established herself as one of the country's authorities.
Now, at long last, THEME GARDENS is revised and updated to serve a new generation of gardening enthusiasts. It's like a new book in presentation, much more weighted to photography and with a reworked design that freshens and modernizes the landscape plans to make them easier to read and to follow. The lists of recommended plants is revamped, with special attention to eliminating potentially invasive varieties and adding new plants more suited to the grower's environment. All-new photographs are larger, selected illustrations are updated. What hasn't changed is the core of inspiring, practical, creative ideas-from a butterly garden to a garden of old roses, from a Shakespeare garden to a moon garden to a Zen garden to a medieval paradise garden, THEME GARDENS presents plans for creating 16 distinctively themed gardens along with instructions for growing and maintaining over 300 plants. Recipes, in other words, that every gardener will love.
Gresat ideas! I am not an experienced gardener, and this book showed me what plants to put together to create a look. I also picked up some general principles on gardening, and there were good how-tos for things like creating walkway, etc.
Good for it's intended use For those who want step by step instruction in laying out a particular kind of garden...this book can be most helpful. Various types of gardens are included & plant lists are provided ...some history on each particular garden is also added in some cases.
Writer's style is very approachable & easy to understand...no high & lofty botanical terms to look up in the dictionary.
Author carefully explains various aspects of developing the projects in some cases such as how to build raised beds, prepare soil & building a trellis etc. These additions are there to supplement the ideas put forward by the author in a very effective manner.
I recommend this book on the premise of it's intended purpose...to help people looking to establish a few particular kinds of gardens & suggested layouts. With respect to it's purpose the objective has been met.
More different themes, please My 1982 edition of "Theme Gardens" is well-worn, dirt-spattered, and much loved. When I saw a revised edition, I was thrilled, hoping it would illustrate another dozen or so themes. Unfortunately, very little has changed from the first edition; most of the changes I found were in the photos while the text is almost the same, as are all the theme gardens themselves. If Ms. Damrosch writes another book that shows us new themes, I'll buy it, but until then my trusty book from '82 is just fine.
Suggestions for themes: A Songbird Garden An Elizabethan Herb Garden A Reader's Garden A Dyer's Garden A Red, White, and Blue Garden A Biblical Garden
Rivised Theme Gardens Don't waste your time or money. What she wrote in the First Theme Gardens is enough. If you can't find the first one then this is a good book, but as a REVISED and UPDATED Edition the changes were very subtle.
Even a novice can have a beautiful garden This book has become my dear companion over the past 12 years. The plans are beautiful and they have worked well for me, but the general information, and capsules on specific plants CONTINUE to teach me. Each plan is shown in three views, for color and growth covering spring, summer, and fall. As I contemplate my new Cape Cod location, and my mother's shady retreat in Ohio, I draw out my own plans this way now. My husband bought me Theme Gardens in 1988, and it has helped me grow from a complete novice in California to a skilled amateur in New Jersey, especially with perennials. I planted the Secret Garden, and every spring I think, that Barbara Damrosch really made this great! I am buying a copy for my mother, a hesitant gardener, and together we will plant another.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tailipoe
Trevor
