The New Small Garden Book

by John Brookes

This book is a guide to the small garden, covering every aspect of gardening from design, materials and construction through to the most appropriate plants and special features. It covers all types of small town and country gardens, from back yard to balcony and from roof terraces to window ledges. This book is full of practical information, diagrams and plans for any reader wanting to make optimum use of their small garden. John Brookes is the author of "The Garden Book", "The Indoor Garden Book" and "The Country Garden".

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published March 30, 1989

About the author

John Andrew Brookes MBE was a garden and landscape designer. He started designing gardens and landscapes in the late 1950s and designed thousands of gardens. He also taught and lectured about horticulture, landscape and interior design.

Beginning as a Modernist and working with Dame Sylvia Crowe, Brenda Colvin, Geoffrey Jellicoe and other notable architects and landscape architects, Brookes came of age in the dawn of garden and landscape design for the middle classes in Britain and in the heyday of 1960s London.

Brookes was influenced by painters such as Piet Mondrian and Ben Nicholsen, and brought abstract and modernist principles to garden design.[2] He espoused the concept that a garden's design should be based first and foremost on the needs of its occupants, taking it out of the realm of the grand garden traditions which were labour-intensive, expensive, and high maintenance. He is the author of over two dozen books, including Room Outside and John Brookes, Master Class, that have been translated into several languages and has taught and lectured in venues around the globe, including Iran, Argentina, Japan, Russia, and the US.

In 2004 Brookes was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his for contributions to Garden Design and Services to Horticulture.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_...]

Reviews

[Lydia St Giles · Rating 5 out of 5]

My copy of this title is the original edition, a hardback. John Brookes makes the Top Ten for a second time. This is a different treatment entirely from his massive Design tome. As the title says, it is aimed at people planning the layout and planting of small gardens in a domestic setting. Lots of variation in the examples he gives, with help in working out exactly how to tackle different layouts and surroundings. If you're short of ideas, this will help. If your brain teems with ideas which somehow don't work out, he'll bring you - literally - down to earth.

[Ruric Amhari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good basic handbook on design solutions for small gardens. Each section of the book has case studies to illustrate the principles discussed. Colour sketches with detailed planting plans and photos illustrate the designs.

Book divided into the following sections: Small garden style, Design, Structure, Planting.