An organic gardener all her life and a garden writer for more than 15 years, Ann Lovejoy began her foray into gardening by growing vegetables and herbs but soon branched out into making ornamental gardens as well. Today, her gardens combine plants of all kinds, edible and beautiful, in carefully arranged communities. Her garden designs and plantings echo the layers found in nature. Ann groups plants with similar needs, according to their roles in their native habitats, and encourages cooperative relationships between people and plants.
In these pages, you'll celebrate the beauty of Ann's gardens and discover how to apply her organic design principles to your garden. You'll learn how to create healthy, self-sufficient gardens that are easy to care for, ecologically sound, and enduringly beautiful. Ann's own gardens contain thousands of plants, yet they require only a few hours a week to maintain. She started her garden school to help gardeners learn how to make satisfying, sustainable gardens like hers. Ann shares a lifetime's worth of gardening experience and teaches you how to transform your site, large or small, into a naturalistic garden filled with healthy plants.
Along with the fundamental design principles that apply to every garden, you'll discover techniques and ideas for moving beyond the basics. You'll learn how to use space wisely, design interior flow patterns, choose regionally appropriate plants, and create an ambiance and mood in your garden that reflects your personal style. Ann also addresses practical questions that emerge as gardeners move past the beginner stage. The hands-on workbook section contains exercises to guide you through the process of designing a garden to suit your needs, helps you evaluate your site to maximize its potential, and offers valuable advice on creating plant combinations.
Ann Lovejoy creates gardens with solid organic principles in mind: Make great soil and your plants will grow well. Create healthy, ecologically sound plant communities, and they will take care of themselves. She is frequently asked how she gardens so successfully. This book is her answer.
West Coast gardening guru Ann Lovejoy has gained a significant following, and deservedly so--she's a gifted teacher, a lyrical writer, and a passionate advocate of organic solutions to even the most daunting garden problems. Her
Organic Garden Design School is meant for readers who still consider themselves students, but who are serious enough to "move beyond the beginner stage." A 36-page workbook concludes this glossy, lavishly illustrated volume. Workbook assignments include "Drawing a Map," "Testing Soil," and "Minding Your Mulch."
As a designer of gardens that are faithful to the natural world and don't require too much pruning or artificial control, Lovejoy invents her own terms. Her style resembles English gardening, except she warns against the nostalgic impulse many gardeners fall into, determined to create gardens from another era or another country. Lovejoy's an advocate of "gardening where you live," not forcing a dream of another place onto the landscape. She emphasizes native plants, designing around slopes or flaws, working with shade or sunlight as they appear. Perhaps most instructive are her "five senses" of the garden: the sense of welcome, enclosure, and entry, flow, and place. "Rather than physical attributes," she writes, "these are more subtle aspects that give each garden its own flavor and character." --Emily White
