cover image Seaside Gardening: Plantings, Procedures, and Design Principles

Seaside Gardening: Plantings, Procedures, and Design Principles

Susan Littlefield. Simon & Schuster, $12.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-671-60242-0

Glorious color photographs illustrate Littlefield's engrossing history of coastal gardening and her directions for cultivating plants under harsh conditions. Such plants must be able to tolerate salt, sand, bad weather and other elements peculiar to the seaside environment. The author spells out the necessary steps to establish a seaside garden and maintain it successfully. Most of the book's pictures of dazzling edens imply professionalism and sizable financial investments, however. These gardens flourishing in the Bahamas, Massachusetts, Florida, etc. may be beyond the average gardener's ability, but they can serve as ideas for modest approximations to the grandeur. Littlefield coauthored Garden Design. Macmillan Book Club and Garden Book Club alternates. (March)