Bravo, laag!

And I can second the recommendation of "Planting Design: A Manual of Theory and Practice". Unlike most of the gardening books out there, it doesn't try to seduce you with a riotous mass of annual color on the front cover. It looks so much like a textbook, in fact, that the appearance might put some people off. But it IS a textbook, in the very best sense; there's more practical information in Wm. Nelson's book than in a dozen of the pretty coffee-table books.

oooo...I'm going to have to order this one. More and more of my time at the garden center is spent helping people with basic design. (That and convincing them to wait until fall to plant shrubs, trees, etc. 100 degree heat is NOT a good time to be planting...)Thanks for the recommendation.

melanie

Thanks for the recommendation. Ordered it this morning. I have a number of garden books, but no design textbook. As one of those gardeners whose efforts never quite achieve the intended effect, I'm hoping for lots of insight and practical application.

Thank you very much for the recommendation. If such a book existed within our city's library system, I would have snatched it up.

I've been thinking that, so far, I have been taking rather a shot-gun approach, so far; checking out books which seem to address what I think I need to know which is leading to a cornucopia of scattered bits of knowledge and a fair bit of confusion, I guess. So, your recommendation is timely, too.

You made one statement which I want to comment on however--you said "[they] have no idea what the heck the author was talking about which is clearly evidenced when they start multiple threads asking everyone else to explain what the author was talking about."

One reason for starting the threads is to check one's understanding--another is to get a discussion going about the concept.

But I have no quibble with anything else you've said--though I'm grateful you added that you don't have a problem with this! If you had, I'm not sure where I would turn. I've looked into courses from our local botanical garden--and any horticultural courses are all pragmatic, eg., "how to prune" and others of general interest, like "painting watercolour scenery" and "making twig furniture." Of course, there are other places to check for courses and I haven't yet done that.

So, books and internet discussion it must be for now (as well as observation!) --and I'm grateful for this recommendation.

When you say 'basics' Andrew what do you mean by it?

just kidding!

I totally agree with what you are saying, that you say so well but I also understand the impatience of someone who arrives at a certain age with time now to garden but doesn't know which end is up. The truth is that it is gardening not design they need to learn which doesn't essentially come from a book but by doing.

The big advantage for a DIY homeowner is that they don't need to know how to design or garden in every circumstance so the learning can be much more focussed. Sure, universals apply in every situation but with limited time it is probably best to concentrate on just one garden: your own. So back to basics.

Ink,

You are right as well. The thing is that there is much more being sought when a lot of garden design books are being consumed and it would be a shame to not feed that hunger with some good nutrition.

Scrap, I do have to say you're a good sport. I find it a pleasure to have you on the forums, and I'm impressed with your ability to absorb theoretical knowledge. For me, gardening started with plant collecting, so I totally backed into both gardening and landscape design because I had all these great plants and had to figure out how to (a) keep them alive and (b) arrange them so that the yard looked nice so my husband would stop complaining. My knowledge, in other words, is almost all gleaned by experience, which I think applies to many on these forums.

I think you have nailed a significant problem with the knowledge that you're acquiring, namely that it is not sequential nor comprehensive. But the other remains that your knowledge is largely theoretical without a foundation of experience. As a comparison I'll pretend I want to become a master potter. But no matter how much I read about clay, kilns, technique, and glazes, I cannot achieve mastery without experience. My first attempts will still look amateurish.

It isn't really clear just how much actual gardening you've done, but I think you are using the forums as an alternative to gaining more. This approach has a couple of disadvantages. First, other people's experience is not specific to your yard, and second, it puts you at the mercy of their willingness and their ability to put their experience into words. We're not all geniuses, and we all have limited time, so the information shared is also spotty; not sequential, not comprehensive. In other words, the forums might be exacerbating, not ameliorating, your problem.

To some extent the experience thing applies to landscaping as well; it is a matter of training the mind's eye. You've obviously done it indoors; outdoors there are more elements to consider.

Anyway, I suspect there will be a bit of a run on the book Laag has recommended - I need it too!

Can I also say that much of my knowledge was supported, as I was acquiring it, by voracious reading of gardening magazines. These are cool as they provide a steady diet of information that is rich and yet not overwhelming, being (a) seasonal and (b) manageable portions. One of my favourites was Fine Gardening (stopped buying them once my house filled up...).

KarinL

Thank you Karin. You are absolutely right, of course. And it will come, honestly. My reading isn't "getting in the way" or being a substitute for "real" gardening. If I were still doing this next summer (when I've had the whole winter to ponder) then I think that, indeed, you could say I wished only to be an "armchair" gardener.

The main thing keeping me from putting in anything new at the moment is that I don't know where to put things. I don't know what goes with what. I don't know, anymore, what I want. This is great stuff--because it means I'm learning more and more about what's possible.

For example, until I read Noel Kingsbury and Piet Oudolf, I thought that a "garden" only existed as Rosemary Verey and others like her (P. Allen Smith, early Brookes, Gordon Hayward,) interpreted it--perennials backed by shrubs and walls--or I had to have a line of same along the front of the house (a "sophisticated" foundation planting)--or I had to have something called a "cottage" garden.

I don't particularily want a meadow, though the Kingsbury/Oudolf book has got me thinking about what I call in my own mind, prepositional gardening--do I want to look over, look up at, look through, etc...different plants and plant arrangements?

But I haven't just been reading about design--

I have been making lists of plants which are hardy in my zone, those that suit my tricky conditions--shade and partial shade, rich clay soil, sometimes drought, sometimes not (in roughly decade long cycles)...

I've been researching the construction of sturdy paths and fences--

I've been removing a few things at the front of the house--you know about that--a tree and a shrub (they have yet to be turned into mulch). I've been working on taking out an old concrete sidewalk with a sledgehammer and prying out the very deep and long wooden "edgings" for the impossibly narrow beds out by the sidewalk. I've been picking new fence paint colours for the back yard.

I've pruned my High Bush cranberries, my elderberry, and my Spirea. I've deadheaded some of the Spirea to see if it will re-flower and I've pruned/deadheaded my one and only Lilac. I've pruned my rose and tried propogating a cutting. I've started growing tomato plants in a big tub. I planted some annuals in window boxes for my daughter's playhouse and started a geranium for myself.

I've identified every growing thing in my yard and made decisions about what was to stay and what was to go. The backyard beds I've cleared are lying empty (well the uncut Thuja branches laid on top of them are keeping them moist and shaded--sort of acting like BIG MONSTER mulch).

Very soon, I'll be harvesting our raspberries and making jam.

So, am I gardening yet? ;)