The Front Garden: New Approaches to Landscape Design

by Mary Riley Smith

This is the book to deal exclusively with the landscape in front of the house, addressing the problems of parking, garage doors, paths, and privacy.

Genres: Nonfiction, Gardening

178 pages, Paperback

First published March 18, 1991

Reviews

[Luke]

A diverting read on the whole, but Smith’s penchant for the history of ideas really pays off in the first few chapters of the book, where she traces current trends in landscaping back to their roots. As someone who already found the standard practice of foundation planting a bit blasé, I was interested to discover that the real reason it exists is as a bandaid for undue architectural extravagance in the construction of homes. The moment houses were separated from the land they occupy is the moment we doomed ourselves to ugly communities.