Thoughtful Gardening

"In this collection of 80 essays, the Financial Times gardening columnist and Oxford historian presents a convincing case that gardening is about far more than horticultural skill. For Fox, flower gardens are human creations informed by art, history, science, politics, and personality. He takes readers on a year-long tour that combines practical guidance, serious reflection, and humorous provocations. There are essays on individual species, rich with detailed information on exceptional cultivars and best cultivation methods, throughout the year. Other essays reveal Fox's candid, personal impressions of well-known gardeners, including some surprising insights about Christopher Lloyd and Rosemary Verey. He shares his sensitive impressions of distinguished gardens around the globe and the Sisyphean struggles in his own garden. Fox's iconoclastic beliefs and nonorganic methods might alienate some purists, but most gardeners will delight in this rich collection. Opinionated, witty, and erudite, this collection is an example of the best garden writing."
(Publisher's Weekly)
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Growing a Garden City offers compelling photographs and personal narratives of community garden members, graduate students and first graders, a low-income senior, a troubled teen, a foodie, a food bank officer, and many more. They describe their setbacks and successes involved with community gardening and show how to build on and emulate their achievements anywhere across the country and around the world.

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Black & Decker complete guide to wood storage projects : built-in & freestanding projects for all around the home

 Organized, efficient storage is a goal sought by most homeowners, and this book is an indispensable tool for achieving it. With more than 50 step-by-step projects and dozens of ideas for inspiration, homeowners will be able to bring order to the jumble, to tame and civilize the hoards of small and large household items begging for permanent, logical storage. Each project is designed for adaptability and versatility, allowing it to be used for a variety of purposes. Readers will find a broad range of projects, from installing convenient drawer and cabinet accessories, to constructing their own custom cabinets and entertainment centers. Also included is a chapter on framed-in projects, featuring instructions on how to frame and finish a new closet, how to create a closet organizer, and building recessed kneewall shelves. Finally, the new edition includes updated and expanded inspiration pages featuring new materials and additional ideas for efficient storage. --Summary (Check Catalog)

The complete photo guide to sheds, barns & outbuildings.

 A single blueprint for a garage, gazebo or shed can cost a consumer far more than the cost of this book. With more than 50 detailed plans with complete instructions, this book offers an amazing value for homeowners. More than 1,000 color photos and detailed, step-by-step instructions leave nothing to chance, allowing homeowners to easily save thousands of dollars, even if they only build one or two projects. --Summary (Check catalog)

Tile designs: more than 100 ready-to-use tiling patterns

 by Leila Adam. Much like the art of patchwork, geometric designs, when applied to tiles and decorative surfaces, turn a prosaic floor, wall, and countertop into eye poetry. Math teacher Adams has combined her fascination with Islamic art and the precision inherent in her profession to produce more than 100 patterns. The introductory chapters focus on how-to's of laying. After that look at the basics, the author concentrates on the square grid: first detailing how to design with those restrictions, then offering different patterns. Most are based on her visual experiences in the Middle East: a mosque in Dubai, mall skylights in Brunei, and a coffeepot from Kuwait. Even better, she shows us the origins for many of her designs, contrasting her graphs with photographs of the original inspiration. Her actual tessellations (the art of fitting many repetitions of the same shape together to completely fill a flat plane, with no gaps), which are labeled with romantic monikers (such as Fatima square, Dubai deco, and Medina motif), are grouped by increasing complexity, from plain old tessellations for tiles to whole-square designs. -- Booklist. (Check Catalog)

Fearless Color Gardens: The Creative Gardener's Guide to Jumping Off the Color Wheel

Renowned garden artist and photographer Meadows has run a full-service landscaping company in the San Francisco Bay Area for 30-plus years; her own garden has been featured on a variety of television programs and in numerous magazines, including Sunset, Metropolitan Home, and Horticulture. Gardeners of all experience levels will find inspiration in her delightful book, illustrated throughout with vivid, sometimes whimsical, photographs and drawings. The text is filled with practical suggestions for exploring "color" in general and personal color preferences in particular, for use in creating gardens. Through numerous and varied examples, Meadows demonstrates ways to fully incorporate color knowledge and tastes into dazzling gardens using a full palette of plants, paving, walls, benches, containers, and art objects. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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The New York Botanical Garden

A comprehensive history of the landmark New York Botanical Garden in the heart of New York City explores the institution's extraordinary collections of plants in three hundred illustrations, including specially commisioned photographs and reproductions of rare botanical art, as well as the origins, purpose, and seminal research of the Garden since its founding in 1891.
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