Refresh Your Garden Design with Color Texture & Form

by Rebecca Sweet

Maybe your garden isn't what it once was. Or maybe it's stunning during the full bloom of summer, but falls apart the rest of the year. Maybe it's crowded, sparse or it just doesn't resonate with you, and you have no idea why or what to do about it. Don't despair! Acclaimed garden designer and best-selling author Rebecca Sweet offers simple strategies for transforming blah spaces into breathtaking places.

Garden transformations don't always require an expensive overhaul by a team of professionals. Sometimes all it takes is a fresh perspective, and a new way to look at your garden. You'll learn how to identify problem areas with your current plantings (such as clashing colors, lack of flow or 'one-of-each-itis') and how to inject new life using artful combinations of color, texture, shape and form.

You'll learn how to break down traditional garden design principles into easy-to-understand and, more importantly, easy-to-implement solutions. Inspirational photographs highlight and reinforce real-life situations, helping you not only to identify what has gone wrong with your garden, but how to fix the problem. All the while transforming your garden into a rich and layered tapestry.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published October 23, 2013

About the author

Rebecca Sweet is a garden designer with her design firm 'Harmony In The Garden', located in Northern California. Her gardens have been featured in Sunset, Fine Gardening, Horticulture, Woman’s Day and Country Living magazines as well as many regional publications. Rebecca and her gardens have also been featured on the critically acclaimed PBS series Growing a Greener World and has been a radio guest on GardenLife and Martha Stewart Living.

In addition to designing gardens and writing books, Rebecca also shares her secrets to successful garden design in her column ‘Harmony in the Garden’, in Horticulture Magazine.

Sweet travels the country speaking at various garden clubs, botanical gardens and master gardener events. To find out more, and read testimonials from her audiences, visit the Speaking page of her website, www.harmonyinthegarden.com.

Rebecca’s online most every day at her own blog, www.gossipinthegarden.com, facebook at ‘Rebecca Sweet’ or Twitter at ‘@sweetrebecca’

Reviews

[Julie Apffel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here is a book that takes all those magazine pages you ever ripped out, webpages bookmarked and photos taken with your smartphone and organizes them under one cover. This book allows you see those facets that you liked deconstructed in a clear way in a single book. No matter the size of the project, this book inspires you to try and rely on your "inner" designer to create great spaces in your garden. I love this book!

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a great book that I am immediately going to go out and buy it. This book communicates the fundamentals of color, texture, and form to experienced gardeners. It is refreshing to pick up a gardening book that did not feel the need to begin at how to plant plants! Rebecca Sweet shows you how to look at your garden with new eyes using photographs and demonstrates that the addition or elimination of just one plant can take a garden from ho-hum to gorgeous! I was thrilled that a book actually recommends that you do not have to tear out your garden or landscaping and completely redo it. So many wonderful trees, shrubs, and plantings are destroyed every year by overzealous landscaping firms wanting to make money. Sweet has an artist's eye and explains how to use the color wheel to create beautiful and harmonious plantings. This book is just incredible! The only major aspect missing from this book is structure which we can hope Sweet will address in an upcoming book!

[Alex Apffel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a lovely book. I really like the way different aspects of garden design are grouped and classified. Color shape, temperature...
I'm not much of a gardener, but this made me want to go out into the back yard and dig something up!

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best garden design books for home gardeners that I’ve read. Has a mix of design tips and tricks without going too much into a set of plants that don’t work in my climate (a trap I see other garden design writers fall into). I plan to update my garden using many of this tips over the next few years. Highly recommended.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book made me realize how little I know about design but it was interesting to see the concepts broken down and I definitely appreciated all the specific examples and pictures. The ideas were all new to me so I almost want to read it again so I actually get it.

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent ideas

[Marjorie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book as it had short lessons, as well as photos, on how to make your plantings in the yard more effective by how you use and combine colors, textures of plants, etc.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book on garden design. It is written by professional garden and landscape designer, Rebecca Sweet, who's gardens have been featured in many national magazines such as Woman's Day, Country Living, Horticulture and Fine Gardening. Her work has also been seen on the PBS series Growing a Greener World. This would be a great tool for those who want to improve their tired garden. I especially appreciated the before and after photos that illustrate her ideas on incorporating color, form and texture into gardens. I received my copy as a winner in a Goodreads giveaway just in time for snowy winter hours spent planning for spring in the garden.

[Jeanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! It has beautiful pictures and specific details on how to improve your garden. The sections on how to balance colors, textures, etc. is particularly helpful to me. I am sure that this is one garden book that I will use for many years as I work to make my garden what I dream it can be.
For those of you that are confused by my previous review of this book, I accidentally wrote about a different garden book on this books spot.

[Ashley Gibson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads!

I love this book, it has beautiful pictures, and is very easy to understand! I am going to give this as a Christmas present to my dad who loves gardening and I know he will love it! I recommend this book to anyone who likes to garden or who wants to learn about landscaping their yard.

[Adrienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended. I actually read it cover to cover and will use this book for years to come.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

some really great ideas on changing up the garden without actually digging the whole thing up and starting over.

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent!