Beyond the Lawn: Unique Outdoor Spaces for Modern Living

Homeowners reluctant to""make the investment of time and resources that lawns require"" should consider gardens sans grass, insists garden designer Davitt--but while his ideas for rock gardens, ground covers and terraces are on the whole appealing, most look like they'd take more maintenance (and money) than a traditional lawn. In chapters that highlight pebbled gardens, bricked gardens, gardens with water and other themes, Davitt picks admirable specimens and then analyzes them according to""the look,""""what works and why,""""variations on a theme"" (in which he makes suggestions for changes) and""where this style can be used""--a tactic that some readers might find helpfully consistent and others repetitively intrusive. One garden, with its pattern of contrasting stones, evokes a creek bed; another features a deck devoted to succulents. There are many different plans here, and plenty of illustrations, though the design of the pages themselves is blocky and not particularly attractive. Arial shots and layout drawings reveal the gardens' shapes clearly, while side notes with titles like""Nothing in a garden exists alone"" and""What is a garden?"" seek to add a kind of semi-philosophical gravitas. A book that belongs in a workroom rather than on the coffee table, this volume should offer disenchanted grass-growers plenty of new ideas. Color illustrations throughout.