BOOK REVIEW: PLANTING IN A POST-WILD WORLD Though most of their readers might be other designers, Thomas Rainer and Claudia West’s Planting in a Post-Wild World offers plenty of information for non-professionals as well. The book shows how to design and maintain an ecological landscape and does so in a beautifully, clear way. One of…
book review
Book Review: All The Presidents’ Gardens
As we near the holidays, we find ourselves needing a break from the daily pummeling of post-election news, but with the constant overload, our interest in the Presidency has been heightened. So, let’s take a non-political walk with the U.S. Presidents through their White House gardens. All the Presidents’ Gardens; Madison’s Cabbages to Kennedy’s Roses,…
Book Review of Gardens – An Essay on the Human Condition
Book Review GARDENS: AN ESSAY ON THE HUMAN CONDITION by Robert Pogue Harrison This title caught my eye while browsing in my favorite bookstore in Austin, Texas and I really thought Brent would like it. I’m only about half way through it, but Harrison’s writing has me hooked. He shows us why gardens have become…
Book Review: Reimagining the California Lawn
Book Review – Reimagining the California Lawn: Water-conserving Plants, Practices, and Designs Continuing on a road we have just begun to travel, this month’s book, Reimagining the California Lawn: Water-conserving Plants, Practices and Designs gives us another look at drought tolerant plants from around the world and offers design ideas and practical solutions to complement our Mediterranean…
Book Review: The Beekeeper’s Lament
Book Review: The Beekeeper’s Lament On one of Santa Barbara’s warm, almost-Spring days, spending some time in my favorite book store, I noticed a book that fit right in with our newsletter this month. It was The Beekeeper’s Lament, by award winning journalist Hannah Nordhaus. Even if you have never thought about the plight of…
Book Review: The Inspired Landscape
Book Review: The Inspired Landscape: Twenty-one leading landscape architects explore the creative process by Susan Cohen I planned on liking this book before I opened it, but it had me at the dedication: “For landscape architects – whose works, grounded in the practical, are elevated by their imaginations.” Since we opened our business in 1994,…