The Perennial Gardener's Design Primer

by Stéphanie Cohen, Nancy J. Ondra

Turn your outdoor landscape into a rich, living canvas of color and texture. Encouraging experimentation, Stephanie Cohen and Nancy J. Ondra show you how to plan a garden that incorporates unique combinations of plants to achieve stunning effects. With an overview of garden design fundamentals and 20 sample garden plans, Cohen and Ondra will inspire you to play with creative juxtapositions of vibrant hues and subtle textures. Let your imagination run wild as you create your own unique and original garden designs.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Reference

320 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2005

Reviews

[Kristena]

Love the Planning Chart in the appendixes

[Caterina]

Inspiring and practical guide to aesthetic design, super helpful for me as a relative beginner in perennial gardening. The book teaches principles for creating designs that look good in all seasons with specific plans and plant recommendations for many different conditions, configurations, color themes, etc. (It is not a how-to-garden book.) Took off a star because, although this is a lavishly illustrated large-format book, the lists of plants did not include many photographs, so had to look up the plants on the internet. The authors make a good effort to make the book general, but (as they recommend) you will probably have to do more research to find the best varieties for your soil and climate zone.

[Grady]

There's a great deal of information in this book. The discussion of specific cultivars is split up among different garden designs, do it isn't particularly useful for that. But the book offers a slew of different designs with comments on why the authors chose specific plants for each, as well as planting maps and watercolor renditions of what the beds would look like with all plants in bloom. These watercolors are small, and plants don't all bloom simultaneously, but they do give a feel for the visual balance and impact across a year of memory of the designs. I read the Kindle version of the book; I'm sure the print version is more practical - in the Kindle version, the garden designs have to be enlarged to read the numbers that identify which plants are where, and the lists of plants are often on different pages, which makes for a lot of enlarging, shrinking, and tabbing back and forth. I'm guessing the printed book largely avoids this.

[Elise Robbins]

Just what I needed!! I am revamping my front yard to be more plant xeric friendly. This gave me the motivation for the next stage on how to start planning and drawing out designs and details. I quite like the plants selections and side notes included from the authors experience. I have put a ton of post-it notes in the book. This is the reference book I didn't know I needed. Plus the appendix list of flowers with bloom times and more made my day. I have an excel spreadsheet started for Ll of my plants and this is an excellent supplement for the information I didn't know.

[Indrani]

A nice read, with a conversational tone that invites the reader to experiment a little, this book is very much a guide, rather than a set of strict rules. The authors do a very good job of helping their readers ask themselves the right questions to narrow down their choices, and then provide helpful suggestions, including potential substitutions.

[shelbie bowser]

Great Book!!

I love how much detail and information is in this book, the author really did do a great job! I would 100% recommend to anyone looking to learn about perennial gardening!

[Beth Ann]

Love the planning chart in the appendix and found Part three: From Theory to Practice very insightful. Wish there were more pictures with the plant descriptions.

[Susan]

Loved it. Lots of wonderful plant selections and gardening advice.

[Annie Oosterwyk]

I got some great plant lists from this book and have just ordered seeds I’ve never tried before. Still November and I’m looking forward to spring already.

[Nellie Combs]

I found this book to be very helpful in planning a garden.

[Sara]

More for beds than full out garden plans (what I was looking for). VERY informative and VERY friendly! When it comes around to designing the flower beds I am SO checking this out again. They take you step by step.

If you're designing a garden bed, this is a must read.

(I love that they recommended novels in the recommended books!)

[False]

Having gardened for a long time, I didn't find this book useful, especially for a beginner. I found it difficult to find information I would go looking for--basic stuff like "shade plant" or a specific plant (Latin name or English) or plants with similar color or foliage. Seasonal flowers was offered up, but the choices seemed so limited and plants needing full sun predominated.

[Lori]

This is a beautiful book and great for perennial gardeners. There are garden plans available for all types of gardens.

[Sanju]

Very good information for perennial gardening, which I like better than annuals.

[Ron Lansverk]

I am always in the book so asking for an update is both dangerous and scary...nobody wants to hear about my gardening experiences.

[Dawn]

I think the most useful information is in the Appendix.

[Trish Remley]

Was a good basic review.

[Loricious]

Didn't get around to reading it, so I'm placing this back on the To Read list.

[Pensieve Thoughts]

A keeper!

[Kayla]

Use for shade garden layout in front yard