The Green Garden: The Art of Foliage Planting

A volume in the ``Gardening by Design'' series, this recommends eight garden designs ranging from a ``flower arranger's garden'' (employing more foliage than flowers) to a garden for ``the sloth,'' or lazy gardener, to the ``pocket handkerchief garden,'' to the ``suburban strip.'' The helpfulness of designs is limited: size notations are not included, and a surfeit of plant materials is suggested. (The 129 different plants urged for the flower ar ranger's garden would leave little space for flowers and overwhelm design criteria.) On the other hand, the 30 color photographs of foliage combinations serve as effective teaching tools, though some could be better identified and reproduced. And the chapter on foliage plants not green in colorgold, variegated, red, silver, bluewill interest readers intent on brightening shady spots or dressing up gardens without flowers. Assuming a knowledge of plants, de Bray chose not to include illustrations in her otherwise informative ``A-Z'' plant list. (Jan.)