Ann Lovejoy's Organic Garden Design School A Guide for Creating Your Own Beautiful, Easy-Care Garden

by Lovejoy, Ann

• ISBN13: 9780875968360
• ISBN10: 0875968368
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-03-07
• Publisher: Rodale Books

Summary

An organic gardener all her life and a garden writer for more than 15 years, Ann Lovejoy began her foray into gardening by growing vegetables and herbs but soon branched out into making ornamental gardens as well. Today, her gardens combine plants of all kinds, edible and beautiful, in carefully arranged communities. Her garden designs and plantings echo the layers found in nature. Ann groups plants with similar needs, according to their roles in their native habitats, and encourages cooperative relationships between people and plants. In these pages, you'll celebrate the beauty of Ann's gardens and discover how to apply her organic design principles to your garden. You'll learn how to create healthy, self-sufficient gardens that are easy to care for, ecologically sound, and enduringly beautiful. Ann's own gardens contain thousands of plants, yet they require only a few hours a week to maintain. She started her garden school to help gardeners learn how to make satisfying, sustainable gardens like hers. Ann shares a lifetime's worth of gardening experience and teaches you how to transform your site, large or small, into a naturalistic garden filled with healthy plants. Along with the fundamental design principles that apply to every garden, you'll discover techniques and ideas for moving beyond the basics. You'll learn how to use space wisely, design interior flow patterns, choose regionally appropriate plants, and create an ambiance and mood in your garden that reflects your personal style. Ann also addresses practical questions that emerge as gardeners move past the beginner stage. The hands-on workbook section contains exercises to guide you through the process of designing a garden to suit your needs, helps you evaluate your site to maximize its potential, and offers valuable advice on creating plant combinations. Ann Lovejoy creates gardens with solid organic principles in mind: Make great soil and your plants will grow well. Create healthy, ecologically sound plant communities, and they will take care of themselves. She is frequently asked how she gardens so successfully. This book is her answer.

Author Biography

Ann Lovejoy ranks among the country's leading garden experts and has been featured on HGTV, National Public Radio, and national public television. She has written more than 18 gardening books, including The American Mixed Border, Further Along the Garden Path, Fragrance in Bloom, and Gardening from Scratch, and is a regular garden and food columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Ann Lovejoy's garden school classes are offered throughout the Northwest. Some of her more unusual classes introduce gardeners to beneficial bugs and compost teas, and her workshops on Bulldozer Gardening teach students-often including professionals-how to use heavy machinery efficiently and without harming existing trees. Her classes accommodate both small and large groups and garden clubs and sometimes include continuing education programs for regional Master Gardeners. Garden school travel programs take gardeners as far afield as Europe and Costa Rica, where Ann has developed a gardeners' eco-tour program for EcoTeach, a nonprofit foundation that supports environmental protection projects in Costa Rica.

Ann is the founder and director or the Sequoi Center for the Healing Arts, which offers daily classes in tai chi, yoga, and meditation, and is host of a women's community circle. The Sequoia Center, also the site of Ann's home and garden, is visited by as many as 100 people a day. Her public volunteer gardening project (The Town in Bloom) turns neglected public spaces into thriving gardens entirely maintained by volunteers. This program recently won a national award and is the model for projects being developed in other communities.

Ann lives with her two teenage sons on Bainbridge Island, a ferry ride away from Seattle, Washington.

Table of Contents

A Destiny and a Dream	viii
Creating a Natural Garden	2	(16)
Organic Design Principles	18	(22)
Gardening Where You Are	40	(18)
Green Architecture	58	(28)
Seeing the Possibilities	86	(12)
Creating a Natural Backdrop	98	(14)
Sandwich Gardening	112	(18)
Combinations and Vignettes	130	(24)
Seasonal Flow	154	(20)
Care and Feeding of Your Garden	174	(16)
Making Beautiful Dirt	190	(12)
The Art of Mulching	202	(14)
Troubleshooting in the Healthy Garden	216	(54)
Organic Garden Design School Workbook	232	(38)
Sources	270	(3)
Photo Credits	273	(1)
Index	274	(6)
USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map	280