Book title: Designing and Creating a Winter Garden
Author(s): Susan Gregson
Photographer(s) / Illustrator: various
Type of book: winter garden, garden design, garden planning
Publisher: The Crowood Press
Year: 2022
Length: 160 pages
quick thoughts
A gorgeous book on how to design a garden for winter interest.
gardening content
amount of information: Design considerations are the typical recommendations – soil testing, light, water sources, etc – but she also talks about how designing for winter has its own specific considerations. A big factor is placement; closer to your home, within view of the windows or paths you frequent in wintertime is essential.
quality of info: Gregson knows her stuff when it comes to winter gardening. She has a whole chapter about the use of color and light in wintertime.
The second section on specific plants has a lot of great options for your garden, organized by structure (trees), hedges and shrubs, other evergreens, shrubs with colorful bark/stems, winter flowers, etc.
citations: Gregson ran a nursery for over 30 years, as well as authored several books and writes for magazines.
book presentation
cover: Perfect examples of how a garden can still be a point of visual interest, even when covered in frost and snow.
layout – sections, chapters: Gregson first talks about what to consider when planning out a garden [Part I Design Considerations] then goes into specifics [Part II Choosing Plants for Winter]. All good gardening books do this, but she also includes great photos to go along with it.
photos, infographics: Beautiful photos with both how the plants and gardens look in winter, with how things look as your planting in spring or autumn.
appendix / index / sources: Give resources on winter gardens to visit for inspiration. Well-designed index.
Check out my full walk through on YouTube
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