[.ca] The Well-Designed Mixed Garden: Building Beds and ... (ISBN 0881925594)

From Amazon.com:
Tracy DiSabato-Aust's Well-Designed Mixed Garden provides sound direction for plant lovers looking to free their garden from the doldrums and fashion a rich tapestry of trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, vines, grasses, and bulbs. Encyclopedic in scope yet unfailingly attentive to essential details, The Well-Designed Mixed Garden effectively summarizes an array of basic garden design considerations and fundamentals. There are particularly useful chapters on color theory and on drawing up a plan, with precise instructions on what size plants to purchase and how to space them. As with her highly regarded Well-Tended Perennial Garden: Planting & Pruning Techniques, DiSabato-Aust delves eagerly into plant maintenance, a topic too many garden writers overlook. Though many examples are from the author's own garden or other American Midwest locations, they're largely applicable to other plant hardiness zones. Of particular appeal are a nicely photographed section on attractive plant combinations and a series of handy appendixes for plant selection. Beginners may be overwhelmed by this book's wealth of information, but its comprehensiveness renders it all the more valuable for seasoned gardeners seeking greater practical know-how and a surer grasp of the art of gardening. --Jennifer Wyatt

A Designers Must!:
Designing a garden can become frustrating, but The Well-Designed Mixed Garden leads you through the process. It takes time to design a garden, not to mention having knowledge of each plants characteristics. Tracy DiSabato-Aust has given all tools needed to design your garden. In this book, the color shcemes are shown not only in colored drawings, but also in actual photographs that give a real description and feeling in the planting groups. One cannot compare this book to the authors other book, The Well-Tended Perennial Book(5 stars), because the concept is totally different. This is a great reference book!

A great work.:
I am designing a garden for my campus and continue to work on my home landscape. The Well-Designed Mixed Garden by Tracy DiSabato-Aust answers my questions like it knows what I am thinking. I was wondering about garden scale in relation to buildings, among other things, and now have a good idea. I find a treasure trove of information for my consideration and use in this book (as well as in the Well-Tended Perennial Garden). The discussion of color is intense and wonderful. The reference areas and examples are invaluable. The writing style is friendly and unstuffy. The information is inspired and important. I am grateful for this book both for my job and my home landscape. It has been commuting with me every day for the past 2 weeks.

The Well-Designed Mixed Garden: Building Beds and Borders wi:
Designing new perennial beds this year, this book was quite helpful. I appreciated her plants recommendations best. The color scheme starting with reds, oranges, yellows to blues and violets was a new concept for me, one that I put into my designs.

Depends on what you are looking for:
Overall I found this to be a good book that just kept coming up a bit short. This is one of those books where the information is there, but the format is lacking. Poor printing of lackluster photographs doesn't help this guide. If you are looking for different varieties of plants, they are here, but you can get the same information reading garden catalogs in January. I liked the index of plants, however, splitting the common names into a separate index did not make sense to me. Reading the book I had to have on finger in the scientific nomenclature and one marking the common name list as well. I was running out of fingers! What I did like was the suggested combinations of plants although I thought the somewhat sophisticated color combinations were not explained well enough to allow for experimentation outside the plants stated for many readers.

A Design Must!:
The Well-Designed Mixed Garden is a design must for every gardener! Unlike other design books that are like workbook manuals, this book is full of inspirational photographs, beautifully hand painted diagrams and plans, and a full text that illuminates the design dilemma of having a full complement of plant material that combines the very best in aesthetics. The plant charts and cross reference material provides the do-it-yourself gardener with the tools and knowledge to complete a unique, interesting and well-designed garden.