Price : $17.87

Amazon.com Review

The need for keeping a garden diary is as apparent as the limitations of our memories. Not only do we frequently lose plant names, but also freeze dates and garden triumphs as well as failures. Beautiful enough to give as a gift, and practical enough to use yourself everyday, The New Three-Year Garden Journal should work better than the many notebooks one begins and discards over the years.

Each month begins with advice on plants and design; herbs, climbers, shrubs, trees, annuals and bulbs are all discussed and illustrated with color photos. Then for each month, weather warnings are given by region of the country (April: danger of frost continues in the Northeast, September: extreme heat still possible in the mid-South), and tasks for each week of the month, divided by the same seven regions. Pruning, fertilizing, planting, and maintenance tasks are described alongside lined pages for each of the three years.

It is clear that The New Three Year Garden Journal was designed by a gardener. Chock full of information, it is spiral-bound to lay flat so it’s easy to write in. Carry it with you into the garden, glue in photos or sketch ideas on the pages of graph paper, dream over the lovely color photos. This is a book to use over and over again during the three-year period it covers, then look back at for years into the future. –Valerie Easton

Customer Reviews

Review date : 2008-01-18
This book gives a column for each week and a grid map for each month and that is all. There is no space alloted for email addresses, nursery listings, plans, etc. Despite being spiral bound, the book will not bend enough to make it comfortable to write on the left side. It does give plenty of information, but it is really a gardening book not a gardening journal. Those of us who make copious notes are out of luck. A cheap notebook from the grocery store would have been better.

Review date : 2007-01-29
This is the beginning of my tenth year using this book. It is very convenient to look back and see where the garden is in relation to past years. It is especially fun in an unusual year like this one, when winter hasn’t seem to arrive yet, though it is nearly February. When and if it comes it will be much shorter than usual. I use the book to record rain totals, bloom times, maintenance issues and to put reminders for next year where I will notice them in time. The book binding and pages hold together very nicely for the three years, despite some dirt and water from the garden, and many repeated openings and closings.

Review date : 2004-12-10
While there are wonderful photos and a very nice layout in the book, the regional gardening guide completely omits the Upper Midwest. I was very disappointed because the growing conditions in places like Minnesota, Wisconson, Iowa and Illinois are not represented. I would also conclude if you live in places like Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, you may also be disappointed because those climates and growing conditions are also not represented. While one could follow the regional guides for the Plains, Mid South or the Northest in these areas, omiting these regions really is not acceptable. For about a third of the country, this is not a good choice for a garden journal.

Review date : 2004-09-02
As an experienced gardener, I’ve used a number of journals over the years. This one ranks among the best for utility and beauty. There are a number of full color photos scattered throughout, along with (loosely) season-specific design guides: Designing with Vegetables in summer, Designing with Houseplants in winter, etc. The back of the book also includes garden maintenance information on pruning, winter protection, propagation, and other areas. None of this maintenance information is especially new or comprehensive, but it’s handy to have as a quick reference. There are also blank graphing pages throughout for your own design ideas.

The real value in this book for me is in the week-by-week "to-do" lists for each region and in the many blank lines for my notes. For example, in the second week of October in the mid-Atlantic, the book advises that you prune and fasten climbing plants against wind damage and take hardwood cuttings to increase plant stock. These to-do lists are great reminders for when to fertilize the lawn, prune woody plants, plant peas and lettuce, etc.

Each week also has three columns of blank lines for your notes, with a blank header line to fill in the year. This layout is especially appealing to me, as I may use all three columns the first week of January to lay out my design ideas one year, but I still have three weeks of note space left for the following years’ January notes. During growing season, I use only one column per week to track weather, pests, and so on.

The only gripe I have about this book is that while it is spiral-bound to lie flat, it’s not possible to fold in back on itself like most spiral notebooks. It’s also a fairly large book so you pretty much need to lie it flat on a table to be comfortable writing in it — or at least I do. If it folded on itself, it would be a lot easier to take notes with the book resting in my lap in the garden.

Otherwise, highly recommended.

Review date : 2000-04-30
This is a great book. There is plenty of space provided for you to write about your garden for every week of the year. It is also very informative. It gives specific info. for every zone in many different gardening topics for every month. And it has a special topic it goes into depth for for every month of the year. There are beautiful photographs throughout the entire book. It also has graph pages for designing gardens. I have recommended this book to quite a few friends who have loved it.

Price : $39.42

Product Description

A celebration in words and breathtaking images of thirty-five landscapes created for private clients by today’s preeminent designers.

This is a time of renewed originality in garden design. The last twenty years have seen a lucky confluence of money and talent lavished on gardening, and the results are surprising, enchanting, sometimes even controversial. The range of possibilities suggested by these thirty-five gardens is extraordinary: from Jacques Wirtz’s undulating beech hedges that recede mysteriously into the mist to Penelope Hobhouse’s latest interpretation of the traditional English garden, to Martha Schwartz’s Texas creation of red, yellow, and pink painted garden rooms.

These hidden masterworks of modern gardening are unlocked for us by the authority, experience, and resources of House & Garden magazine. Every page is an invitation to explore landscapes that have never before been seen by the publicand may never be seen again. International in scope and lavish in its production, this book is the last word on the state of design in the garden world. 340 color photographs.

Customer Reviews

Review date : 2008-01-05
This book is a collection of stunning photographs of private gardens from around the world that were created by top garden designers of our time. Although most of us can’t afford to hire a world-class designer, these photos provide inspiration for our own creations and enjoyment just paging through the spectacular photos.

The book contains a variety of design styles (traditional, cottage, modern, natural, etc) and showcases gardens from locations including England, France, the Netherlands, Japan and the US as well as many others. Each garden has its own subchapter in the book with approximately ten or so pages of pictures and text describing the designer’s style and philosophy and how this was used in the garden.

This is a huge, oversized book with over 400 pages capturing 35 gardens. It is a gorgeous book that serves as a great garden "dream book"!

Review date : 2007-12-30
My father is a landscaper and loves to travel to see gardens. I bought this as a Christmas gift and he loves the book.

Review date : 2007-11-23
I have just finished writing the ZEN OF WATERING YOUR GARDEN. Which some may consider a "coffee table book" but it is really a challenge to the reader to get out and garden. This book of private gardens is filled with beautiful grdens which i think are nice to look at but untenable for any gardener to achieve.

Review date : 2007-05-08
This book is huge and a most for garden reference. It’s organized in seven chapters that will impress all kind of taste:

The New Classicism: Magical gardens from places such as NY, Spain, Germany…
The New Traditionalism: Enchanting pictures from NY, IL, France, Japan…
The New Naturalism: Beautiful gardens from NY, Idaho, France, Arizona, England.
The Plantsmen: Magnificent proposals from New England, California, The Netherlands…
Personal Visions: NY, California, and Texas
The Cottage Garden Reinvented: Lovely gardens from England, France and Ireland.
The New Modernism: The best and trendiest gardens of California.

You’ll be able to see some of the best gardens from places such as Arizona to Japan. Some of my favorites gardens where from England, The Netherlands and France.

The text is pleasant to read and full of details no only about the flowers portrayed but also to the architect and artist that created such beauty. The balance of text and picture is excellent. The quality of the pictures is excellent, full pages pictures trout the book. House and Gardens did a tremendous job and it’s absolutely clear that the took at least ten times the number of pictures in the book since you’ll only see the best angle and light possible for each picture.

The only con is the lacks of tropical gardens since most part of the book are focus on the northern hemisphere.

Review date : 2007-05-07
Wow! This book is incredible, a treat for the eyes and imagination!

Price : $49.29

Product Description

For everyone interested in enhancing the beauty found in and around the home, The New Victory Garden promises to be the season’s most valuable gardening tool. 230 full-color photographs and 100 line drawings. Size C. 50,000 paper. (Gardening/Indoor-Outdoor)

Customer Reviews

Review date : 2008-08-28
Excellent book for the beginning gardener. It goes into a detailed and extensive garden plan from breaking ground to harvesting crops. Because it is so in-depth, the reader can pick and choose what he needs.

Review date : 2007-01-07
Even though I’m an organic gardener, I’ve fallen in love with this book. In fact, now that I’ve bought my own copy, I’ve actually paid less than I’ve paid to the library in overdue fines for this book. It’s just a visually stunning masterpiece in the sense that it inspires me to get out into my own garden and to imagine what it could potentially look like. Of course, the author seems to have unlimited time to garden and an almost unlimited budget. I’ll never achieve his masterpiece, but it’s nice to dream. I especially love to curl up with this book in January when the seed catalogs are just coming out.

It lost a star for me because it is decidedly NOT an organic gardening book. The author relies heavily on chemical fertilizers and black plastic mulch. Although he does mention compost and soil improvement, I don’t recall him even mentioning earthworms, which are a definite indicator of soil health. He does, however, try to use less harsh methods of pest and weed control.

Chapters are arranged by month, detailing the author’s gardening chores and schedule during that month, from starting seeds to transplanting out, to weeding, watering, fertilizing, caring for tools, and constructing gardening architecture. Since he gardens in the north, I can’t go by his schedule, nor can I grow the same veggies or varieties thereof that he does. If you’re looking for a how-to book, this probably isn’t it, unless you happen to live just where he does and are willing to use chemicals. But if you’re looking for inspiration, this book is well worth it.

Review date : 2006-02-02
This was one of my first gardening books and is still my favorite one. Perfect for the beginning gardener. Why aren’t more gardening books organized like this one?

Review date : 2005-09-03
In my periodic attempts to grow vegetables, this book — and its predecessor, "Crockett’s Victory Garden," have been my constant and favorite companions. It’s past time for this 1987 book to be updated and republished.

This is Cadillac gardening as Crockett and his successor Bob Thomson apparently had a large budget, a full toolshed, and endless time to produce a perfect garden. My pitiful efforts never yield much in the way of edible products, but I enjoy reading about how I would grow vegetables if I were not such a lazy and shiftless person.

The book is broken down by months with a long list of vegetables for planting, tending, and harvesting for each month as well as other garden tasks. The monthly labors are for Boston. Being further south, I tend to do things a month earlier in the spring and a month later in the fall than Thomson prescribes. "The New Victory Garden" is full of solid gardening advice for an establishmentarian gardener. If you’re into organics or (like me) inclined to low-impact, no inputs type cultivation, you might not like Thomson’s reliance on chemical fertilizers — but he makes up for it with good advice on compost, natural fertilizers, and lots of touchy feely stuff. The pictures are beautiful. Someday, in some future world I’ll have a garden like this. Yeah, sure. Dream on! But I like reading the book and I occasionally try to follow the advice.

Smallchief

Review date : 2003-05-08
In my opinion, this book needs to be actively published again! I used this book as a guide to grow my first vegetable garden in Richmond, VT. It thoroughly explained EACH step in the process with text and illustrations/photos. My neighbor, whom I hadn’t met yet, left a letter in my mailbox around August of that year. It contained a photo of my garden and a note saying that mine was the most beautiful vegetable garden she’d ever seen and thought I would appreciate the picture of it! I have checked this book out of the library each spring since and this year it was listed as "lost!" That’s why I’m here on-line: buying an "acceptable" condition copy used rather than do without! BUY THIS BOOK IF YOU CAN!