Gardentopia

Starred review from March 18, 2019
Readers with even the slightest interest in beautifying an outdoor space—large or small—should find something of value in this expansive guide from landscape designer Johnsen (The Spirit of Stone: 101 Practical & Creative Stonescaping Ideas for Your Garden). She emphasizes the importance of deciding upon a goal for a garden and visualizing its final appearance before beginning work on it, declaring that the sum of any such project is greater than its parts. Johnsen takes care to dissect these parts, revealing creative possibilities (accompanied by practical guidance) for each nook and cranny. For example, to recover the lost art of “garden strolling,” the design can include a widened, curving walkway that coaxes the stroller through a garden’s various turns and twists. With proper planning and plant placement, the garden will “reveal itself in stages, hiding and offering up its delights in turn.” Cedar steps on a wooded hillside can function similarly, offering an insect-resistant feature that helps set the pace of traversing the garden. Replete with eye-popping color photos, detailed explanations, lists of the tools required, and creative ideas, Johnsen’s guide will be, for avid and committed gardeners, a gift that keeps on giving.

Starred review from April 15, 2019
This is foremost a photo library of garden-design ideas for the browsing reader, as it should be. But Johnsen adds value through smart organization, spot-on pairings of images with the design concepts she's trying to convey, conversational but info-packed captions running 150-200 words, and a good, wide range of possibilities for gardeners to consider. For example, the chapter on theme gardens includes examples of pollinator, rock crevice, strolling, kitchen, scent, birdscaping, medicinal, and fern gardens. And the chapter on walls, patios, walks, and steps is chock-full of photos?with accompanying captions?of projects, many of which even the average home gardener can pull off. Johnsen admits that the landscapes shown here are primarily from the northeastern U.S., but she helpfully indicates hardiness zones, which extend beyond her territory, for many of the plants she recommends. And, for browsers, there's a nice catchall section touching on such accents as Adirondack chairs, runway lights, pillars and poles, the principle of three depths in a garden, rustic furniture, the placement of planters in beds, and the use of portals. And an entire chapter plays with color in the garden, from the almost garish pinks and reds of coneflowers to the snowy whites of tulips, dogwoods, and anemones. Inspiring.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)