Parks, Plants, and People: Beautifying the Urban Landscape

by Lynden B. Miller

An inspirational and practical book about the benefits of enhancing cities with well-planted gardens, parks, and streets. An internationally renowned public garden designer, with 27 years’ experience and an artist’s eye, Lynden Miller has changed the face of New York City’s public places by providing a connection with nature for neighborhoods, rich and poor. Parks, Plants and People describes the elements of successful public space and tells how to design, improve and maintain year-round plantings, how to advocate for increased public funding and how to attract private dollars.

She calls on the general public, gardeners, urban designers, architects, landscape architects and public officials―everyone who cares about the quality of life in urban areas―to create and support well-planted parks and gardens as essential urban oases that reduce crime and have positive effects on the economic welfare of cities and their citizens. Miller demonstrates the power of plants to soften and civilize public life and proves that beautiful public spaces, planted and maintained to high standards, have the power to transform the way people behave and feel about their cities. Her motto is: Make it gorgeous and they will come. Keep it that way and they will help. 150 color; 50 black & white photographs

208 pages, Hardcover

First published August 24, 2009

About the author

Lynden B. Miller, is a public garden designer and Director of The Conservatory Garden in Central Park, which she rescued and restored beginning in l982. Her work in New York City includes gardens for Bryant Park, The New York Botanical Garden, Wagner Park in Battery Park City, Madison Square Park, and Columbia University. She has designed landscape improvements to campuses at Stony Brook University on Long Island, Princeton University, and Hunter College, and plantings for the garden at the Museum of Modern Art. She is part of a team designing landscape and gardens for the United States Supreme Court, and her garden for the Hudson River Park Trust will be installed in spring 2009. "

Reviews

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book written by a talented and generous person. Lynden Miller has worked to improve public parks, gardens, and streets with her belief that everyone deserves beautiful public spaces, and that if they are improved, it changes the entire scope of public interaction with city surroundings for the better. Her mantra is "Make it gorgeous and they will come; keep it that way and they will help you." This book contains everything from examples of how public spaces impact the neighborhoods around them from how to design effective and beautiful plantings and how to approach improvement projects. There are additional chapters on advocacy, maintenance, volunteerism, and fund-raising. This book is for anyone who is interested in public space, from community and open-space advocates to developers. The back of this book contains a list of reading resources as well as a plant list found to be good selections for public gardens in zones 6 and 7.

[Ginny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent book for urban gardeners. Gorgeous photos and plant lists.