Hardscaping: How to Use Structures, Pathways, Patios & Ornaments in Your Garden

by Keith Davitt

The flowers are blossoming, the foliage looks fantastic, and the plant combinations are gorgeous. So why doesn’t your garden satisfy? The problem just might be a lack of hardscaping—structures like arbors, paving, walls, fountains, pools, and decks that delineate, ornament, animate, and add dimensionality to a garden. Using both his own and others’ layouts, a top garden designer reveals why these structures are so important and how to incorporate them into the landscape. Each chapter examines a specific principle (creating balance, instilling motion, establishing focal points), and features illuminating discussions of style, function, application, and plantings, as well as magnificent projects. Bring fresh life to a garden with a curvaceous patio with a rill, a sculpture plinth on a terraced platform, or a Victorian “room.”

A Selection of the Homestyle Book Club.

Genres: Gardening

256 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2006

Reviews

[Amberwench · Rating 4 out of 5]

Includes a few before and after photos, as well as images of a garden with hardscape elements removed so the reader can compare how a single element can make a garden more attractive. Excellent over all examples of paths and patios in formal and rustic styles. Includes tiny brownstone backyards and rolling suburban yards equally.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Keith Davitt makes great use of photo editing to show how a simple sculpture or a grouping of stones can make a world of difference in how a garden looks. This simple technique is eye opening and shows the gardener how to create focal points and to balance items in their landscape. The photos could have been edited better, but the lessons are obvious regardless. While the lessons taught in this book are universal, it primarily deals with small city lots so owners of larger plots will find it a bit lacking. I was disappointed that Keith Davitt did not make use of layouts to make the design more obvious. Davitt spent a good portion of the book on the how tos of making fountains, water gardens and various raised beds. I would rather he had expanded the types of hardscaping that he addressed and looked at larger lots.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of particular interest are the case studies featuring before and after photographs.

[Jan Deelstra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fabulous concepts for landscaping even the smallest of spaces. Beautifully done.

[Bri · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has lots of info and great ideas. The photo editing they did is horrible. But once you get past that the book is very helpful in improving your garden

[Alicia]

my dad and i might start a business, this might be good for it