The Harmonious Garden: Color, Form, and Texture

For many gardeners, selecting pleasing plant combinations is a hit-or-miss affair, largely reliant on ideas poached from nursery catalogues, neighbors or magazines and books. This thoughtful volume takes much of the guesswork out of garden design and should endear Ziegler, a professional landscape designer, to rank-and-file green thumbers as well as to her peers. Her show-and-tell approach is particularly useful: starting with a 16-color wheel to explain the principles of color harmony, Ziegler instructs readers in harmonious plantings with photographs of successful combinations. Organized by hue (Blue/White, Violet/Yellow-Orange, etc.), the pictures are accompanied by accessible discussions of composition, form and texture, as well as nuts-and-bolts information on optimum plant quantities and space and environment requirements. A lengthy section on individual plants includes the expected information on lighting, moisture and zone recommendations and additional noteworthy associations (accompanying plants). There are several appendices and cross-reference lists to boot. It's a rare gardening book that offers substance enough for the expert without intimidating the beginner: Ziegler accomplishes that feat with aplomb, and her book will be as rewarding to those who read it closely as it is to the browser. (Oct.)