A book with a title suggesting a very modest agenda – will it really be useful and engaging for amateur and professional alike? An excellent book review from a reviewer new to thinkingardens. I should really let her get on with it, but the design of the website means that if I do that too soon my message runs seamlessly and incomprehensibly into the main text – this is a WordPress shortcoming. Expect more waffle from me in the future..

Anne Wareham, editor

Given the title of this book, I finished reading it with the same unresolved question I had when I started: Who is this book written for? The author claims it is written for you “whether you are a novice gardener, are launching a career as a landscape designer, or install gardens”. The publisher recommends it is also for garden owners that having employed a designer wish to gain an insight into the design process. It seems to fall between two stools in terms of audience appeal, being slightly too technical for all but the most dedicated amateur and not in-depth enough for the gardening professional.

It immediately becomes apparent (if you hadn’t already read the author’s bio) that the book is written for an American audience. There are words and concepts that are specific to the US gardener, but it is not too difficult to translate these into their UK equivalents with a little commonsense. If you are a staunch supporter of the Imperial measurement system you will be positively overjoyed as measurements are only given in this format. If you work to metric, you may find it slightly less straightforward to visualise the distances being discussed.

Gardner Nagel aspires to write a book about garden design that starts at the beginning rather than “in the middle” and follows the process through to conclusion. She opens with an interesting debate about the purpose of design which encompasses more familiar concepts such as use and form, but also touches on the health and spiritual benefits of well-designed outdoor spaces. The book covers all aspects of the process in an easy to follow style, for instance surveying techniques are outlined in a practical, clear fashion. It certainly manages to cover all topics without going into any of them in any particular depth.

In fact, the author’s determination to create a totally comprehensive text has resulted in a lack of references to external texts and resources, which in view of the author’s obviously considerable experience in the field of design could have provided the reader with some interesting springboards to further research.  The inclusion of some more thought-provoking ideas to balance the wealth of practical information may have provided the reader with a little more inspiration. I suspect the author would feel her message was being detracted from or diluted, but perhaps it would have been interesting to see the inclusion of some case studies of actual gardens the author has worked on to see examples of her problem-solving in real life situations and also to bring to life the concepts she discusses in the text.

Plant geeks prepare to recoil in horror, only 22 pages of the text properly relate to the plants used within a design. Anyone who feels plants play a major role in garden design will be sadly disappointed with the lack of discussion on the topic, however when considering the brevity with which all other aspects of design are treated throughout the book, this should not really come as a surprise. Whether it is a result of the author’s background in interior rather than garden design, or her attempt to keep things uncomplicated, the plant examples given to illustrate concepts such as form and foliar texture are fairly uninspired and unsophisticated. She uses a ‘plants as punctuation’ metaphor that she perhaps stretches too far to convey the idea of plant placement which ensures each one contributes to the overall design. The metaphor is good in principle but it would prove too simplistic for anybody trying to apply the idea in a practical situation.

My final gripe with the Plants chapter (do you think I may be one of the aforementioned horrified plant geeks?) is that no mention is made of different planting styles, it seems to be supposed that all planting schemes will contain a mixture of plant types and the concept of specially designated areas such as an herbaceous border or meadow is ignored.

One thing Gardner Nagel must be applauded for her is her effort to keep environmental concerns at the forefront of our minds. She reminds us at every turn throughout this book that we should be ethical in our choice of materials during the design process and her interest in the eco-friendly deserves recognition.

Understanding Garden Design will not replace the need for proper training for a gardening professional wishing to provide a design service but it may be useful supplementary reading for those studying this or a related subject. The very keen amateur will no doubt find the book useful but my feeling is that all but the most die-hard will find it too dry to read cover to cover. For those looking purely for an overview this book is perfect, however it should have introduced the subject rather than aiming to be so comprehensive as to suggest you don’t need to look any further to understand it.

By Sarah Wilson website Galanthus Gardening Services

Understanding Garden Design is published by and available from Timber Press