Garden Stone: Creative Landscaping With Plants and Stone

Rating:
Summary: Garden Stone Review
Review: I realize that there are already several books about using stones in the garden and they all contain similar information, but this book is still worth a read if you plan to use stone in your garden. It is full of photographs that show ways to use rock in the garden. In fact, several of these photos are the inspiration for two new projects I started in my own garden.

The first section of this book discusses the history of stone in gardens and talks about the types of stone. I enjoyed reading the history, but quickly moved on to the meat of the book. The next chapter discussed pathways and included patterns, stone recommendations and how to's. I found this section particularly helpful, since I was in the process of laying a path when I started to read the book. Many of the tips are common sense after you complete projects, but who wants to find out how to do things the hard way? The following sections of the book deal with making steps, drainage problems, retaining walls, walls in general, stone in water gardens and rock gardens. All of the sections are well written and have many tips and instructions to help you complete your projects.

Something I really enjoyed about this book is the fact that each section had a list of plants that grow well in that environment. For example, there is a special section on plants for crevices and one on plants for steps. I also enjoyed reading some of the general information. There are sidebars such as "12 Ways to Move Stone" and "Cutting Stone" included in the book. If you've ever tried to move a large rock, you know how important it is to know how to move stones.

Even though there are several other good books on stonescaping, this book is well written, well organized, and will find a permanent home on my reference shelf.