The Perennial Gardener's Design Primer

Every gardener loves perennials. Buy them and plant them, and most will flourish and even expand year after year. But in addition to reliability, perennials offer gardeners a wonderful opportunity to make a stunning visual statement in their home landscapes--if you know how to combine and arrange them. In The Perennial Gardener's Design Primer, Stephanie Cohen and Nancy Ondra, two top garden writers and teachers, offer fun, organized, and--most important--attainable advice on how to create gorgeous gardens using these beloved plants.

Cohen and Ondra walk the gardener step-by-step through the process of creating new gardens, as well as of bringing new life to gardens that have lost their luster. They explain how to pick perennials that suit the site by making the most of plant color, shape, size, and texture and how to create eye-catching plant combinations. Beautiful illustrations accompany the new garden plans, and stunning photographs capture how Cohen and Ondra have redesigned their own gardens. Throughout the book a lively dialogue between Cohen and Ondra encourages readers to experiment and to create their own satisfying designs.

The authors also offer down-to-earth design solutions for 20 specific types of gardens, including everything from a minimum maintenance garden to a more complex container garden, from planting a formal border to indulging in the controlled chaos of a cottage garden.

Whether you are breaking ground for a new garden, or revitalizing an existing bed, The Perennial Gardener's Design Primer can help every gardener achieve great results--year after year.

"Garden design is less rule-bound than it once was, but many novices approach it with trepidation. By bringing a refreshingly relaxed attitude to a well-worn topic, Cohen and Ondra give it friendly appeal. Both are professional designers and private enthusiasts who believe 'you don't really know a plant until you've killed it.' Readers who follow their ample, practical advice are much more likely to create beautiful gardens than to kill many plants, and even experienced gardeners will pick up some tips. First, the authors 'demystify' perennial design, explaining how to approach a project, choose plants, plan the design and add details for extra appeal. They then explain how to 'put perennials to work,' focusing on specific designs and including handsome color sketches, schematic plans and lush photographs. Each of their designs accomplishes a goal — solving a problem with site conditions (e.g., excessive shade or sun), achieving a desired color effect, maximizing seasonal impact — and comes with a detailed list of recommended plants and alternate selections. Finally, in the 'From Theory to Practice' section, they document the two-year histories of a new border, a major expansion and a garden renovation. The conversational text and photographs comparing early plantings with second-year results are great confidence builders for neophytes. Helpful appendixes include a zone map, a comprehensive plant list in an easy-to-use chart format and a reading list." Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Put Perennials in Their Place!

Stephanie Cohen and Nancy Ondra are both thoroughly obsessed with everything about gardens and gardening — with digging, planting ,designing, and creating great canvases of living color and texture. In this book they generously share both their passion and their knowledge about garden design. Their encouraging words, based on practical experience and the belief that there is more than one right way to create

Perennials can make a stunning statement in your yard,

Stephanie Cohen has received awards from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and Perennial Plant Association, and in 2000 she was named Garden Commentator of the Year by the American Nursery and Landscape Association. She lives in Collegeville, Pennsylvania.

Nancy J. Ondra is a garden writer and editor who owned and operated a small rare-plant nursery for six years. She is the author or co-author of a dozen gardening books, including Foliage (winner of the 2008 Book Award from the American Horticultural Society), The Perennial Gardener’s Design Primer (winner of a 2006 Silver Award from the Garden Writers Association), The Perennial Care Manual, Fallscaping, and Grasses.

 

Part One: Perennial Design Demystified

1 Getting Started

2 Selecting Your Perennials

3 Exploring Perennial Partners

4 From Dream to Reality

5 It's All in the Details

Part Two: Putting Perennials to Work

6 Problem-Solving with Perennials

7 Creative Color Effects

8 A Year of Perennials

9 Gardens for Special Effects

Part Three: From Theory to Practice

10 Building a Border from Scratch

11 Expanding an Existing Garden

12 Reworking an Old Garden

Appendix: USDA Hardiness Zone Map, Planning Chart, Recommended Reading, Please Don't Eat the Delphiniums!, Acknowledgments, Photo and Garden Design Credits

Index