Hardscaping: How to Use Structures, Pathways, Patios & Ornaments in Your Garden

The flowers are blossoming, the foliage looks fantastic, and the plant combinations are gorgeous. So why doesn’t your garden satisfy? The problem just might be a lack of hardscaping—structures like arbors, paving, walls, fountains, pools, and decks that delineate, ornament, animate, and add dimensionality to a garden. Using both his own and others’ layouts, a top garden designer reveals why these structures are so important and how to incorporate them into the landscape. Each chapter examines a specific principle (creating balance, instilling motion, establishing focal points), and features illuminating discussions of style, function, application, and plantings, as well as magnificent projects. Bring fresh life to a garden with a curvaceous patio with a rill, a sculpture plinth on a terraced platform, or a Victorian “room.”

A Selection of the Homestyle Book Club.

The flowers are blossoming, the foliage looks fantastic, and the plant combinations are gorgeous. So why doesn’t your garden satisfy? The problem just might be a lack of hardscaping—structures like arbors, paving, walls, fountains, pools, and decks that delineate, ornament, animate, and add dimensionality to a garden. Using both his own and others’ layouts, a top garden designer reveals why these structures are so important and how to incorporate them into the landscape. Each chapter examines a specific principle (creating balance, instilling motion, establishing focal points), and features illuminating discussions of style, function, application, and plantings, as well as magnificent projects. Bring fresh life to a garden with a curvaceous patio with a rill, a sculpture plinth on a terraced platform, or a Victorian “room.”

A Selection of the Homestyle Book Club.

Library Journal

Proper planning and placement can make your garden so much more than a mere collection of plants. Landscaper Davitt (Beyond the Lawn: Unique Outdoor Spaces for Modern Living) has created a fascinating book on the benefits of garden structure, or "hardscape," and delivers landscaping theory with practiced poise. With elegant photos and illustrations clearly showing the effect of various elements in the garden, the book covers such garden structure types as trellising, walkways, and fountains. A garden structure project is presented at the end of each chapter, but novices will have to go elsewhere for useful construction guidelines. That criticism aside, this is a handsome guide that belongs in all landscaping collections. Highly recommended. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.