Planting Design: Gardens in Time and Space (ISBN 0881927406)

Book Description:
Teaches gardeners how to design beautiful naturalistic gardens that can adapt to the changing needs of perennials, trees, shrubs and the changing landscape. Exceptional illustrations use superimposed images to show growth of a designed landscape over time. Includes lists of cutting edge yet proven garden plants.

General Principles of "New Wave" planting:
This book further elaborates and discusses the principles behind Piet Oudolf and Noel Kinsbury "New Wave" herbaceous perennial plantings. It is a general discussion for the serious gardner. Their intent is NOT to provide a step-by-step guide to designing, but suggest a "process" for key plant selection and combination. They are not located in North America, so you will find that some of their plant recommendations are difficult to find, or not specifically suited to your North America Plant Zone and no list can be casually taken from the book directly to your yard, but requires considerable effort on your part to identify those plants specific to your zone. For example, their list of 15 small trees to combine with perennials, only six might grow in my zone, I could not find 2 of those listed in my Sunset Western Garden Book, and 3 listed contradictory information to the Sunset Western Garden Book. So while their discussion of their "methods, discoveries and thoughts" are of interest, it will not easily transfer to a newly designed "new wave" perennial garden for the casual user.

Disappointed, incredibly disappointed.:
I would describe myself as a fan of Oudolf - by adopting and adapting some of his raison-être our own garden has changed beyond recognition, with masses of seasonal interest throughout the year. Kingsbury ghosted Oudolf's original work, Designing with Plants with some aplomb, Henk Gerritsen's turn of phrase in Dream Plants and More Dream Plants was always light, witty and insightful and while Gardening with Grasses seemed to bow to certain conventionalities, for European readers, the book opened up new vistas of possibilities. But with this offering the writers have run out of steam, or rather Kingsbury has as Oudolf appears to have participated little in the book's creation. This time Kingsbury's style is leaden - is the book a re-working of his recent thesis? It stinks of academia. Timber Press has done an excellent job re the images on the hard and dust cover (and this time all the pages are in the right order and the captions are all in English - not the case with my copies of previous work attributed to Oudolf that they have published). But as publishers they mislead in their suggestion that in this book `home gardeners ... will find invaluable advice in this new approach'. First of all the approach is not new, secondly the style is so leaden most would start to doze while reading it and thirdly not all home gardeners have the opportunity for creating public amenities for their community. For professionals the book may be of use but, as another reviewer has suggested, the narrative raises more questions than it answers, and the lists are short and somewhat mean. Next time Oudolf's name appears on the cover of a new book I will wait until I get my hands on a copy so see what, if anything, is new and inspirational. In the meanwhile I will continue to use my dog-eared copies of previous work attributed to him which are well worth purchasing.

In defense of a misunderstood book:
As an admirer of Noel Kingsbury's prolific work, I was initially put off by this book. In some passages, it reads like a manifesto on a new approach to gardening. On futher reading, however, I have found it stimulating, valuable, and full of hard-to-find information on cutting edge work in ornamental gardening, particularly in Europe. Its emphasis on design of plantings for reduced maintenance in parks and public areas is not at all off point for the home gardener - certainly for this home gardener. I am 61, have only weekends for gardening, weekends often interrupted by other of life's demands, I garden on a difficult site with heavy wet clay and lots of deer. So any gardening approach that holds out a way to have a beautiful, sustainable garden, using plants suited to existing conditions, that I can create and maintain with minimal effort and time is certainly of value. Moreover, Kingsbury introduces me to some exciting names in gardening and to exciting gardens I've not known of: the work of Cassian Schmidt at Hermanshoff in Germany is only one example. This book is a window into a world of planting design and gardening that most of us have no access to (much of the published literature is in German) and Kingsbury brings it to light. I heartily recommend this book. It is a serious book, and gives more and more on successive readings. If your time is limited, you can reread sections that interest you and find more of value each time. I'm not sure what part Piet Oudolf actually played in this book, but he's certainly the preeminent practitioner of this style, and his apparently loose association with Kingsbury should continue. They are doing exciting work, and this book puts their work into a larger context and gives it a theoretical framework.

A great attempt with an emphasis on the horticultural aspect of Planting Design:
There are three main factors to consider in Planting Design: aesthetics, horticulture, and symbolism of plants. "Gardeners and garden designers seek inspiration from a variety of sources. Among these, nature is perhaps a relative recent choice, a reflection of changing attitudes toward natural world..." Piet Oudolf and Noel Kingsbury wrote. They continued to cover nature and gardens (use of plants with wild character, nature-inspired planting pattern, use of native species, avoiding formality, biodiversity, etc), ecology and habitat (ecological fit, visual ecology, etc), planting in space, plants on display, the mechanics of planting design, planting in time, and practicalities (soil preparation, plant selection, etc) and maintenance. Planting Design is the most important aspect of landscape education and practice. It is also a subject that is very difficult to teach or to learn. "Planting Design: Gardens in Time and Space" can alleviate this problem. We need people to do research on Planting Design from different angles. Piet Oudolf is an innovative designer, horticulturist and plantsman, and Noel Kingsbury is an advocate of naturalistic planting. "Planting Design: Gardens in Time and Space" is a result of their cooperation. It has 176 pages and many spectacular color interior photos. It is a great attempt with an emphasis on the horticultural aspect of Planting Design. Gang Chen, Author of "LEED AP Exam Guide" & "Planting Design Illustrated." LEED AP, AIA