P. Allen Smith's Garden Home: Creating a Garden for Everyday Living

by P. Allen Smith

Lots of people want gardens but find the prospect of getting started a bit daunting. P. Allen Smith's Garden Home is P. Allen Smith's inviting solution. Smith begins with his own story: his family's love of gardens and experience in the nursery business, his own education at the great gardens of England, and his discovery that we all have, as he says, "a longing for our agrarian past." After walking us through his own "garden home" and explaining...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0609609327
• ISBN13: 9780609609323
• Release Date: February 2003
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 2.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 11.2" x 0.8" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

BEAUTIFUL!

P. Allen Smith has a wonderful, warm and colorful way of expressing his love of gardening. The book has beautiful photos of various types of garden settings and wonderful ideas for you do follow. Since I am a first time gardener, I am looking forward to Spring so I can try some of his ideas and suggestions. He gives some great gardening tips for those of us who are just getting started. It also makes a great coffee table book!

Great book for inspiration

This is a beautiful book filled with eye candy but, better yet, full of practical advice for anyone ready to design a garden. Smith was smart and patient when he set out to design his own garden in Tennessee. Here he shows how the gardens of his childhood and most importantly, visits to the great gardens of Europe, helped influence and shape his design philosophy. Smith uses the popular concept of "garden rooms" to illustrate twelve principles - Enclosure, Shape and Form, Framing, Entry, Focal Point, Structures, Color, Texture, Abundance, Whimsy, Mystery and Time. Each of these are illustrated with lush photos of Smith's own garden as well as his clients gardens. The last section of the book discusses techniques and ideas on how to plan and construct your garden. Lists of plants are provided for specific situations.Overall, a well designed, photographed and written book.

Gardening made easy

Wow! Allen definitely makes complicated gardening look easy and exciting in his new book. I love the way he compares rooms in a garden to those in a house. His suggestions on color are so inspiring. Allen's lifelong passion for gardening is so obvivous through his work. I am so ready for warm weather so my family and I can begin our outside rooms!

A beautiful way to look at creating beautiful gardens!

In this elegant new book, Allen has made grand garden designs easy to understand, and even easier to achieve in the garden. I love the juxtaposition of the traditional English perennial borders with the front yard of his home in Little Rock! I found the book to be inspiring - can't wait for spring. Hard to imagine it his first book... looking forward to more.

Blockbuster

The concept of a garden home is long overdue. This is a very practical guide to creating a garden home. The photography is outstanding and usually only available for a much higher price. This could change the way American use their homes and surrounding space.