Gardenista

If you love Gardenista.com, sister site to Remodelista.com, you ll be as happy as I am to have a photo-rich look-book for modernist gardens in hand. The focus is international, with up-to-the minute planting ideas, including lots of tempting DIY projects. <i><b> Seattle Times</b></i> A big bouquet of ideas that you can digest over the winter and use to inspire your own outdoor space come spring. <i><b> Toronto Star</b></i> Includes lushly photographed tours of 12 enviable gardens and planning guides for a variety of climates and colour palettes. The most gorgeous gardening book I ve seen in ages. <b> <i>The Bookseller</i> (U.K.)</b> This book by Slatalla (editor-in-chief of the website Gardenista) consolidates years of research and practical experimentation for transforming the basic garden or back yard into an extension of indoor living space. More than mere garden planning, the book explores the additional elements of furnishings, accessories, accoutrements and color, integrating nature and luxury to create an outdoor home setting as a place of personal retreat. Horticultural advice is also woven into the plan so that, for example, an outdoor space that incorporates a color palette of burgundies, silver, and purple is well-served to cultivate Cotula leptinella as an optimal ground cover between pavers: 'Aptly nicknamed dollhouse fern, low-growing Platt s Black has foliage with a purple sheen . . . grows densely and has a shallow root system, which makes it ideally suited to creeping between stones.' Aided by 480 color photographs, this beautiful book showcases innovative gardening concepts based upon real homes, highlighting details the placement of beeswax tea candles, tablecloth clamps, and butterfly chairs in harmony with shade trees, hedge shrubs, and stone walls. The end result is a display of outdoor living space that integrates plants, color, balance, design, and also functionality. Color photos. <b><i> Publishers Weekly</i></b>