Product Description

Takes a tour of the world's gardens.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #465991 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

From Amazon.com
You'll find it hard to tear yourself away from the gorgeous world tour of garden photos of this colorful book. More inspiration than practical guide, there's plenty to admire no matter what your style preference. Choose from among stately formal gardens, shady riverbanks, tidy herb beds, or complex succulent showcases, all presented with stunning depth of color on pleasingly glossy paper. Each photo has accompanying suggestions and design hints from the gardeners responsible for such glory. The text is scant, but what there is makes for interesting reading.

Design histories, the practical needs for each environment that resulted in creative and stunning plant choices, important elements of each type of design--these are all included as the sidelines to the incredible pictures. In the section entitled "Bringing It Home," the text expands to practical tips to help you duplicate the looks you've admired on previous pages--each style is covered in slightly greater depth, but the focus is on design, rather than plant care or environmental suitability. The perfect book to pore over on a cold and rainy day, The World of Garden Design is fabulous fodder for brainstorming sessions in developing fresh ideas for your own gardens. For those lucky enough to travel the world seeing various gardens in person, this book will give you ideas for new places to visit, or lovely reminders of the places you've been. --Jill Lightner

About the Author
Susan Dooley lives and gardens off the coast of Maine. A former editor of the Washington Post Magazine, she writes about gardens for Garden Design, Architectural Digest, and other publications.

Customer Reviews

Very beautiful book.
This book is very beautifully put together. The pictures are bright and clear. The writings are interesting. Very helpful to to give you ideas for your own garden.

Beautiful photos from around the world
This wonderful book takes you on a tour of some of the world's most beautiful gardens and shows you how to bring ideas from them home to your own space. It is divided into geographic areas including Italy, Britain, France, Japan and the tropics. In each section the unique style and methods of the area are explored in detail with page after page of vibrant color photos.

The adaptation of the garden ideas to the American scene is presented in the "Bringing it Home" section that is part of each regional overview. Here we see how the classical principles of each world region have been applied to a number of noteworthy American gardens. There is also a more in depth look at one special garden, including a complete garden plan in the "Garden Tour" part of each "Bringing it Home" section.

I like the organization of this book, the history, and the personal touch of the many gardeners and designers that it provides. The book is of excellent quality with outstanding photography. I recommend it to anyone interested in an overview of the fine gardens of the world or in finding exciting ideas for their own garden.

Global Gardening Inspirations
Take a meadow's worth of gorgeous photos, throw in more than a potful of great gardening tips, and finish with an abundance of historic and artistic context and you get "World of Garden Design," from the creators of Garden Design Magazine. Enticing images and stellar ideas notwithstanding, I most valued the latter component. Through a thorough tour of history's major gardening styles-- including Italian, English, French, Caribbean and Asian-- and an examination of their signature elements, "World" nicely gathers a number of my passions-- art, design, gardens, history-- into one bountiful eyeful and one great read. Its focus on design, though, is what stands out-- a refreshing antidote to the dozens of gardening books that emphasize the practical at the expense of the magical.