10 Popular and Best Selling Books on Landscaping and Gardening

Title: At Home in the Garden

In this exquisitely lush volume, lifestyle legend Carolyne Roehm celebrates her gardens as outdoor living rooms, revealing how she chooses the plants, flowers, and layouts; how she entertains guests with gorgeous table settings and breathtaking arrangements; and how she savors the hours among the blooms. As Carolyne Roehm says, “It’s as simple as this: a garden is like love...a place you venture into with hope, energy, excitement, enchantment, and the greatest of expectations.” For Roehm, the garden has always been more than a canvas for beauty. A place where her devoted efforts bear glorious results, the garden is not only a reflection of what has inspired Roehm, but also a font of inspiration from which she draws--for her astonishingly lovely arrangements, her gracious dinner parties, and her new passion for interpreting her flowers in vibrant watercolor paintings. Each of the gardens at her historic Connecticut home, Weatherstone, has been lovingly crafted to serve as an outdoor living room, where the hours may be passed at work, alone, or enjoyed with company. In the Parterre Gardens bordering the south side of the home, Roehm created a fantasy of snow in spring with white tulips and Sargentina crabapple trees. All of the varietals in her Rose Garden were selected for their pulchritude and divine scent, as well as for their ability to bloom twice to satisfy her insatiable thirst for roses. And when the stream through her property offered only an unsatisfying trickle, Roehm replaced it with a river of hostas, primula, bleeding hearts, and rodgersia that sweeps through her Shade Garden. As Roehm accompanies us on the first-ever tour of these marvels, she shares witty and candid stories of the unexpected triumphs and the sometimes-crushing defeats. And always, there is her desire to return to the garden—to tend, to mend, or to plant anew. A garden is like love, Roehm claims, and indeed, this lavishly illustrated volume is a testament to an enduring, complex, unquestionably personal, and deeply passionate amour.

Author(s): Carolyne Roehm;Marc Kristal

ISBN 13: 9781101903575
Pages: 304

Title: Gardening for Butterflies: How You Can Attract and Protect Beautiful, Beneficial Insects

Welcome the world’s most exquisite visitors to your garden! Gardening for Butterflies, by the experts at the Xerces Society, introduces you to a variety of colorful garden guests who need our help, and shows you how to design a habitat where they will thrive. This optimistic call to arms is packed with everything you need to create a beautiful, beneficial, butterfly-filled garden. Gardeners will learn why butterflies matter, why they are in danger, and what simple steps we can take to make a difference. You'll learn how to choose the right plants, how to design a butterfly-friendly garden, and how to create a garden that flutters and flourishes with life.

Author(s): The Xerces Society;Scott Hoffman Black

ISBN 13: 9781604695984
Pages: 288

Title: The Bee-Friendly Garden: Design an Abundant, Flower-Filled Yard that Nurtures Bees and Supports Biodiversity

For every gardener who cares about the planet, this guide to designing a bee garden helps you create a stunningly colorful, vibrant, healthy habitat that attracts both honeybees and native bees. In The Bee-Friendly Garden, award-winning garden designer Kate Frey and bee expert Gretchen LeBuhn provide everything you need to know to create a dazzling garden that helps both the threatened honeybee and our own native bees. No matter how small or large your space, and regardless of whether you live in the city, suburbs, or country, just a few simple changes to your garden can fight the effects of colony collapse disorder and the worldwide decline in bee population that threatens our global food chain. There are many personal benefits of having a bee garden as well! Bee gardens: · contain a gorgeous variety of flowers · bloom continuously throughout the seasons · are organic, pesticide-free, and ecologically sustainable · develop healthy and fertile soil · attract birds, butterflies, and other beneficial insects · increase the quantity of your fruit and vegetable harvest · improve the quality, flavor, and size of your produce Illustrated with spectacular full-color photos, The Bee-Friendly Garden debunks myths about bees, explains seasonal flower progression, and provides detailed instructions for nest boxes and water features. From “super blooming” flowers to regional plant lists and plants to avoid, The Bee-Friendly Garden is an essential tool for every gardener who cares about the planet and wants to make their yard a welcoming habitat for nature’s most productive pollinator.

Author(s): Kate Frey;Gretchen LeBuhn

ISBN 13: 9781607747635
Pages: 224

Title: Secret Gardens of the Cotswolds

Secret Gardens of the Cotswolds is a captivating photographic portrait of the greatest British gardens and the lords, ladies and gardeners who own and manage them, with a focus on Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. It features 20 gardens designed by some of the leading contemporary garden designers from across the world. Accompanying the photographs are be essays on the design and planting that explain the designers' inspiration and passion alongside historical and factual information. This is a very personal view by photographer Hugo Rittson Thomas and journalist Victoria Summerley, both residents of a corner of England with more than its fair share of beautiful and interesting gardens. Some of the gardens are strictly private, while others are regularly open to visitors, but all can now be savored and enjoyed along with those who know them best.

Author(s): Victoria Summerley

ISBN 13: 9780711235274
Pages: 144

Title: Miraculous Abundance: One Quarter Acre, Two French Farmers, and Enough Food to Feed the World

The Bec Hellouin model for growing food, sequestering carbon, creating jobs, and increasing biodiversity without using fossil fuels When Charles and Perrine Hervé-Gruyer set out to create their farm in an historic Normandy village, they had no idea just how much their lives would change. Neither one had ever farmed before. Charles had been circumnavigating the globe by sail, operating a floating school that taught students about ecology and indigenous cultures. Perrine had been an international lawyer in Japan. Each had returned to France to start a new life. Eventually, Perrine joined Charles in Normandy, and Le Ferme du Bec Hellouin was born. Bec Hellouin has since become a celebrated model of innovative, ecological agriculture in Europe, connected to national and international organizations addressing food security, heralded by celebrity chefs as well as the Slow Food movement, and featured in the inspiring César and COLCOA award-winning documentary film, Demain ("Tomorrow"). Miraculous Abundance is the eloquent tale of the couple’s evolution from creating a farm to sustain their family to delving into an experiment in how to grow the most food possible, in the most ecological way possible, and create a farm model that can carry us into a post-carbon future―when oil is no longer moving goods and services, energy is scarcer, and localization is a must. Today, the farm produces a variety of vegetables using a mix of permaculture, bio-intensive, four-season, and natural farming techniques--as well as techniques gleaned from native cultures around the world. It has some animals for eggs and milk, horses for farming, a welcome center, a farm store, a permaculture school, a bread oven for artisan breads, greenhouses, a cidery, and a forge. It has also become the site of research focusing on how small organic farms like theirs might confront Europe’s (and the world’s) projected food crisis. But in this honest and engaging account of the trials and joys of their uncompromising effort, readers meet two people who are farming the future as much as they are farming their land. They envision farms like theirs someday being the hub for a host of other businesses that can drive rural communities―from bread makers and grain millers to animal care givers and other tradespeople. Market farmers and home gardeners alike will find much in these pages, but so will those who’ve never picked up a hoe. The couple’s account of their quest to design an almost Edenlike farm, hone their practices, and find new ways to feed the world is an inspiring tale. It is also a love letter to a future in which people increasingly live in rural communities that rely on traditional skills, locally created and purveyed goods and services, renewable energy, and greater local governance, but are also connected to the larger world.

Author(s): Perrine Hervé-Gruyer;Charles Hervé-Gruyer

ISBN 13: 9781603586429
Pages: 272

Title: Covering Ground

Ground covers are a pretty and practical way to bring diversity, elegance, and durability to open sweeps of lawn. Give your landscape a vibrant new palette that is both sustainable and low-maintenance through plantings of herbs, shrubs, mosses, and more. Barbara W. Ellis provides a variety of full-color lawn designs and professional planting advice to get you started. You’ll be amazed as your ordinary lawn transforms into a striking display of color and texture.

Author(s): Barbara W. Ellis

ISBN 13: 9781580176651
Pages: 224

Title: Planting in a Post-wild World

This groundbreaking guide presents a powerful alternative to traditional horticulture--designed plantings that function like naturally occurring plant communities.

Author(s): Thomas Rainer;Claudia West

ISBN 13: 9781604695533
Pages: 316

This book is in (2) other book lists, learn more.

Title: Luciano Giubbilei: The Art of Making Gardens

Luciano Giubbilei is known for his award-winnning gardens at the Royal Horticultural Society's Chelsea Flower Show and for his beautiful and serene gardens for private houses across the world. Since 2012 he has been working on an experimental flower bed in the famous garden of Great Dixter in East Sussex, in close collaboration with the head gardener, Fergus Garrett. In this new book he explains the devlopment of his style over the last few years - a pivotal time for his design work - and describes the philosophy by which he works. The first section contains texts and images that explore the garden at Great Dixter and Luciano's work there, across all four seasons. The second section examines Luciano's love of craft and traditionally made objects, and - through visits to and discussion with craftsmen in the UK and beyond - explores the contribution such work makes to his garden design. The third section constitutes a wider investigation of Luciano's influences under the broad themes of water, colour and texture, illustrating with photographs and words exactly what it is about the world that inspires him and how that is manifested in his designs, with specific reference to his gardens for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2014 and the Venice Biennale in 2015. The gardens are described and illustrated in full with specially commissioned photographs by Andrew Montgomery and Carl Bengston. Full plants lists are also included.

Author(s): Luciano Giubbilei;Fergus Garrett

ISBN 13: 9781858946467
Pages: 304

Title: Step-by-Step Landscaping

Packed with 408 pages of all-new material from the editors of Better Homes and Gardens(r) books, this complete landscaping guide has everything you need to know transform your yard.

Author(s): Better Homes & Gardens

ISBN 13: 9780696230820
Pages: 408

Title: The Living Landscape: Designing for Beauty and Biodiversity in the Home Garden

Many gardeners today want a home landscape that nourishes and fosters wildlife. But they also want beauty, a space for the kids to play, privacy, and maybe even a vegetable patch. Sure, it’s a tall order, but The Living Landscape shows how to do it. By combining the insights of two outstanding authors, it offers a model that anyone can follow. Inspired by its examples, you’ll learn the strategies for making and maintaining a diverse, layered landscape—one that offers beauty on many levels, provides outdoor rooms and turf areas for children and pets, incorporates fragrance and edible plants, and provides cover, shelter, and sustenance for wildlife. Richly illustrated with superb photographs and informed by both a keen eye for design and an understanding of how healthy ecologies work, The Living Landscape will enable you to create a garden that is full of life and that fulfills both human needs and the needs of wildlife communities.

Author(s): Rick Darke

ISBN 13: 9781604694086
Pages: 392

Title: Bunny Williams On Garden Style

First published in 1998, On Garden Style established Bunny Williams as a reputable expert on gardens. In Bunny Williams on Garden Style, Williams visits impeccably designed gardens around the world, shedding light on the key components that make a garden so appealing and idyllic. For Williams, gardens offer an escape, and she imparts vital information on how to envision your garden and design a space that translates into a lush sanctuary reflecting your taste and style. Once you’ve imagined your garden, Williams offers advice for bringing it to fruition—the garden structure,” furnishing the space, and establishing an aesthetic. The book also includes plant lists, a reading list, and more. Filled with new photography of spectacular gardens, this latest volume is both a wonderful inspiration and a practical guide to gardening from one of the world’s most renowned design experts. Also available from Bunny Williams: An Affair with a House and A House by the Sea.

Author(s): Bunny Williams

ISBN 13: 9781617691539
Pages: 288

Title: Planting in a Post-wild World

This groundbreaking guide presents a powerful alternative to traditional horticulture--designed plantings that function like naturally occurring plant communities.

Author(s): Thomas Rainer;Claudia West

ISBN 13: 9781604695533
Pages: 316

This book is in (2) other book lists, learn more.

Title: Garden Revolution: How Our Landscapes Can Be a Source of Environmental Change

This lushly-photographed reference is an important moment in horticulture that will be embraced by anyone looking for a better, smarter way to garden. Larry Weaner is an icon in the world of ecological landscape design, and now his revolutionary approach is available to all gardeners. Garden Revolution shows how an ecological approach to planting can lead to beautiful gardens that buck much of conventional gardening’s counter-productive, time-consuming practices. Instead of picking the wrong plant and then constantly tilling, weeding, irrigating, and fertilizing, Weaner advocates for choosing plants that are adapted to the soil and climate of a specific site and letting them naturally evolve over time. Allowing the plants to find their own niches, to spread their seed around until they find the microclimate and spot that suits them best, creates a landscape that is vibrant, dynamic, and gorgeous year after year.

Author(s): Larry Weaner

ISBN 13: 9781604696165
Pages: 328

This book is in (2) other book lists, learn more.

Title: Bringing Nature Home

As this revelatory book eloquently explains, there is an unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife. Indeed, most native insects cannot, or will not, eat alien plants. As development and subsequent habitat destruction accelerate, there are increasing pressures on wildlife populations. But there is an important and simple step toward reversing this alarming trend: Everyone with access to a patch of earth can make a significant contribution toward sustaining biodiversity. There is an unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife—native insects cannot, or will not, eat alien plants. When native plants disappear, the insects disappear, impoverishing the food source for birds and other animals. In many parts of the world, habitat destruction has been so extensive that local wildlife is in crisis and may be headed toward extinction. Bringing Nature Home has sparked a national conversation about the link between healthy local ecosystems and human well-being, and the new paperback edition—with an expanded resource section and updated photos—will help broaden the movement. By acting on Douglas Tallamy's practical recommendations, everyone can make a difference.

Author(s): Douglas W. Tallamy

ISBN 13: 9780881929928
Pages: 358

Title: The Flower Gardener's Bible: A Complete Guide to Colorful Blooms All Season Long; 10th Anniversary Edition with a new foreword by Suzy Bales

Create the flower garden of your dreams. This comprehensive guide includes expert advice on everything from choosing an appropriate growing site to maximizing the lifespan of your plants. Charming illustrations and photographs accompany helpful tips on how to improve soil, fight off pests, and make all your flowers bloom with radiant color. Whether you’re a beginning gardener or a seasoned florist, The Flower Gardener’s Bible is a useful resource that will help you keep your garden healthy and beautiful for years to come.

Author(s): Lewis Hill;Nancy Hill

ISBN 13: 9781580174626
Pages: 372

Title: Landscaping with Stone, 2nd Edition: create patios, walkways, walls, and other landscape features

Landscaping with Stone, 2nd Edition, is a combination landscape design and project book in one, which has been updated with all new photographs. The first section of the book provides readers with a framework for incorporating stone in their landscape designs, including a look at the different types of stone used in landscapes, sources of inspiration, and ways to think about stone in relation to other landscape elements. The second part provides readers with tips on working with stone, from transporting to cutting and setting. There is also step-by-step instruction on some of the most popular stone projects, including patios, walls, and rock gardens.

Author(s): Pat Sagui

ISBN 13: 9781580114462
Pages: 224

Title: Lawn Gone!: Low-Maintenance, Sustainable, Attractive Alternatives for Your Yard

A colorful guide covering the basics of replacing a traditional lawn with a wide variety of easy-care, no-mow, drought-tolerant, money-saving options that will appeal to today's busy, eco-conscious homeowner. Homeowners spend billions of hours—and dollars—watering, mowing, and maintaining their lawns. You don’t have to be one of them. Free yourself with Lawn Gone!, a colorful, accessible guide to the basics of replacing a traditional lawn with a wide variety of easy-care, no-mow, low-water, money-saving options. It includes: • alternative grasses that seldom (or never) need mowing • drought-tolerant, eco-friendly landscapes • regional plant recommendations for all parts of the country • artificial turf that looks like the real thing • step-by-step lawn-removal methods • strategies for dealing with neighbors and HOAs • ways to minimize your lawn if you’re not ready to go all the way Whether you’re a beginner or expert gardener, green thumb or black, Lawn Gone! provides realistic choices, achievable plans, and simple instructions for renovating your yard from start to finish.

Author(s): Pam Penick

ISBN 13: 9781607743149
Pages: 184

Title: Secret Gardens of the Cotswolds

Secret Gardens of the Cotswolds is a captivating photographic portrait of the greatest British gardens and the lords, ladies and gardeners who own and manage them, with a focus on Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. It features 20 gardens designed by some of the leading contemporary garden designers from across the world. Accompanying the photographs are be essays on the design and planting that explain the designers' inspiration and passion alongside historical and factual information. This is a very personal view by photographer Hugo Rittson Thomas and journalist Victoria Summerley, both residents of a corner of England with more than its fair share of beautiful and interesting gardens. Some of the gardens are strictly private, while others are regularly open to visitors, but all can now be savored and enjoyed along with those who know them best.

Author(s): Victoria Summerley

ISBN 13: 9780711235274
Pages: 144

Title: Groundbreaking Food Gardens: 73 Plans That Will Change the Way You Grow Your Garden

Follow your zany muse and get creative with your vegetable garden. Niki Jabbour brings you 73 novel and inspiring food garden designs that include a cocktail garden featuring all the ingredients for your favorite drinks, a spicy retreat comprising 24 varieties of chile peppers, and a garden that’s devoted to supplying year-round salad greens. Created by celebrated gardeners, each unique design is accompanied by both plant lists and charming anecdotes. This fully illustrated collection glitters with off-beat personality and quirkiness.

Author(s): Niki Jabbour

ISBN 13: 9781612120614