Specialized Books

While this isn't an all inclusive guide to japanese gardening, its a fun and inspiring read. After reading this book I set about building my own japanse style garden; and while I didn't find myself referring to it for specifics of actually building the garden - I did find myself referring to it for motivation. Egan's self-effacing sense of humour is particularly enjoyable, as he struggles with such tribulations as moving a large rock, or dealing with a leaking pond (problems that I also found myself dealing with). I would highly recommend this book to any do-it-yourselfer thinking about building a japansese style garden.

Get this book if you have been suspicious about the hype surrounding the Zen of garden building or if you want a hilarious account of a brave amateur confronting the sham purity of Japanese garden design. But this is also a serious and wryly understated account of how to confront the task armed with the basic philosophy of the design of a garden and teahouse, and as well, a humorous introduction to the kind of characters you might meet if you go past the DIY stores to meet the suppliers.

I cannot remember when I have had so much enjoyment in reading a book about plants. This is not a simple "how to identify" work, but rather a story by and of three very knowledgeable men, scientists, traveling through the countries of Bolivia, Peru and Argentina, not as tourists, but rather than scientist. For a book which is primarily about plants, i.e. cactus, it is so much more. We get a wonderful and insightful travel story/book thrown in. As another reviewer pointed out, this could quite well have been a very boring read. This it was not! I have actually given this one three reads simply because it is fun! But, most importantly, this volume is simply packed with wonderful information about cacti, their history, their origins and environment. This work in not simply a field guide or a bunch of pretty, sterile pictures of cactus setting on a shelf photographed with a bunch of high tech gear, it actually gives information about these wonderful plants as they grow in their home environment, their natural state, the wild. The photographs are all field photographs and for field photos, quite well done. The text is very precise and easy to follow, not being over the head of the amature (such as my self) yet providing so much information to the advanced student. Discriptions are great. I did have trouble at first with the Latin names of course, but this forced be to pull out my old high school Latin books and do a bit of brushing up...this was good. All of the photographs are in color and well captioned. As an added note, Timber Press did a wonderful job on this book (I wonder if all their books are of this caliber). I wish all books were of this physical quality. Of even more importance than anything else, my knowledge of this particular plant family took a 100 percent jump in depth. For that I am grateful. I very much suggest you add this one to your library. Recommend highly.

Since I started growing my first cacti nearly 30 years ago, certain books have been of great importance for my knowledge and development, when it comes to growing and understanding cacti. But never has one single book put so many pieces together as this one! The book is just packed with knowledge and I really became overwhelmingly inspired!
The authors travel through several South American countries and habitats, diverse as they are because of the andean influence. You just want to go there and travel yourself!

After reading this book twice in a short time, I view the whole consept of cacti and environment differently. How the tectonic plates moved and forced plants and animals to evolve and adapt to the new niches and habitats, from the ancestors in Gondwana, to the first cacti in south America, later spreading into the adjoining north American continent. How the cactusgenera are related. How a cactus works.
In fact I learned too many tings to mention everything; just read the book! It could seem very technical and boring, but believe me; its not! At least if you have a relation to growing cacti. Its all in there! Highly recommended!

This little book is packed full of nice ideas. I've read it over and over and look forward to picking it up again. And I've given it often to grateful friends. Great taste is hard to beat.

This book is great! The pictures and ideas are fabulous. I really like Strong's writing style and his advice. If you are looking for a well-written, practical, and fine piece of gardening escapism, this is it! I have gotten this book at the library a number of times. I finally decided to buy it. I am now ordering a copy for my sister. Look at his other gardening too.

The Sacred Wood at Bomarzo, Italy is arguably the most puzzling and fascinating garden in all of Europe. Created in the mid-sixteenth century by Vincino Orsini, Lord of Bomarzo, as a tribute to his late beloved wife, Giulia, it lies in a wooded valley below the Orsini palace so that Vincino could look out upon his spectacular composition.

Many of us have visited and strolled the more formal gardens - the Farnese or Borghese. This, the Bosco dei Mostri (Monsters Wood) as it is also called, is a far cry from sculptured hedges and carefully laid out pathways. It is the home of enormous, often grotesque creatures - a two-faced herm, the Mask of Madness, and the Mouth of Hell. These denizens of the garden confound most, and it is left to Classic scholar Jessie Sheeler to explicate not only the statuary but also the carved texts accompanying them.

The garden is considered to be a reflection of Vincino's thinking, perhaps his search for meaning. Fortunately, many of his letters are still in existence, which give us an inkling of his ideas. We can read his comment to a friend, "I prefer living here among these woods to being immersed in the falsities and vanities of the courts, especially that of Rome."

While a precise account of who the man was is probably lost to us, his garden remains an incredible sight after having been restored some 25 years ago. Mark Edward Smith's photographs are stunning and The Garden At Bomarzo is both a treasure and a puzzle for both historians and garden enthusiasts.

- Gail Cooke

Bomarzo is a place in central Italy. The Lord of Bomarzo in the middle part of the 1500s was a Vincino with a wife named Giulia. Vincino lived a long time after his wife died. Though he displayed a sense of melancholy throughout the rest of his life and occasional periods of depression, this cannot be attributed solely to the untimely loss of his wife. For from the garden he founded and remained involved with during his life as well as what other sketchy biographical facts there are to go on, the Lord of Bomarzo had a rather gloomy soul; though one enlivened by intellectual curiosity about diverse interests of the Renaissance, including classical culture, mythology, alchemy, literature, and sculpture. The Garden at Bomarzo was not particularly a memorial to the Lord's departed wife, but rather something of a museum of sculptural representations of the Lord's varied intellectual interests.

A war elephant with its trunk curled around a soldier, a small classical theater, a temple, large stone acorn, the three-headed mythological dog Cerberus, and a dragon being attacked by lions are among the statuary of the Renaissance garden. The "riddle" of the garden is posed by inscriptions in Latin in prominent spots of many of the statutes. "The cave and the fountain free one from all serious thought" and "I want to tell you, and make you in amazement/purse your lips and raise your eyebrows" are two of these. Sheeler--who has a background in classics studies--does not solve the riddle, but to the extent possible makes sense of the garden's diverse objects and cryptic statements. The Renaissance-era personality of the Lord Vincino go a long way toward this explanation. "The ambivalences and the attractive intelligence in his own character find an expression in the variety and puzzling allusiveness of the [garden's] works...." The Lord was a respected soldier who also had leanings toward "Epicurean pacifism"; he sought out the company of his social superiors for intellectual stimulation while chaffing against the social conventions of the time; the balance between his sensuality and intellectuality shifted at different times of his life. The Lord of Bomarzo shows something of the modern spirit of individuality and independence arising in the Renaissance, while still referring to medieval symbolisms and beliefs for expressing itself. The many color photographs, several full-page and a couple double-page, of the moss-covering, in some cases partly deteriorated statutes of the Bomarzo garden are a treat in themselves of classical and baroque statuary.

As a landscape architect, I find this book is an excellent resource for hardscape ideas for the garden. The book is divided into the basics planes of the garden ... floors, boundaries & dividers, overhead structures, etc. The wonderful photographics are invaluable as well as the discriptions telling the history, uses and construction of the site elements. I would recommend this book to professionals and weekend gardeners for its inspiration and knowledge.

I have owned this book for several years now and still use it regularly as a design reference. The examples and illustrations are pretty much all classics whether historic, traditional, or contemporary, and always seem fresh to my eye each time I pick up the book.

I just loved all the information and pictures it has on pruning your evergreen and trees. I found it very informative.

Visually appealing with its hundreds of bright color photographs and encyclopedic in its scope and content, this reference also has the clarity of organization and practicality of a garden handbook. Each of the listings of the hundreds of Japanese plants gives notes on appearance, cultivation, and use (e. g., ground cover, attractive spring flowers, potted plant) of the particular plant along with the Japanese and English names, interesting points, and related plants. As noted in the Foreword by E. Charles Nelson, the Japanese, with their insular culture, had no desire to go abroad seeking foreign plants--nor did they need to with the variety available in their homeland. Yet American gardeners and others readily took to Japanese plants when Japan opened up to the West, and continue to do so increasingly in recent years. This attractive, complete, useful reference fully satisfies an interest in the variety of Japanese plants. Both authors have extensive backgrounds and solid reputations in horticulture.

Michael Grant proved himself many times over to be a master of the ancient Mediterranean world. The depth of his knowledge was astounding. This guide, like many of his others, offers scholars and laymen alike a comprehensive guide to the ancient Mediterranean world: cities, towns, rivers, countries, mountains, etc. But us goes beyond simple data listings. It is replete with insights into their origins and surrounding history and events, people associated with, the later impact of, and myths and legends of each and place in the book.

Thank goodness Michael Grant was so very prolific and loved to share his immense knowledge with the world. We owe him a substantial debt.

Michael Grant has assembled a valuable dictionary of the classical world. It is one that I often refer to first when I want to know not only the location of a site but some of its history as well

For example, there is a two-page article on Thessalonica. The city was founded c 316 BCE by one of the successors of Alexander the Great. Grant continues his history through the late 5th century CE and ends with a mention of a 1978 earthquake.

Grant's more than 700 page book includes a series of maps which are found at the beginning of the book. There is also a list of ancient sources found in a bibliography at the end of the book.

Readers whose interest focuses upon the Ancient Near East will find that Grant focuses primarily upon the Greco-Roman world. Grant sets a timeframe which usually begins with the first millennium BCE.

And though there are articles on Elephantine, Syria, and Babylon, there are no articles on Sumer, Mari, Israel, and only a handful on any site whose name begins with Tel. Also the short two/thirds page article on Egypt is under Aegyptus.

It's a valuable dictionary. However if one's interest focused upon the Greco-Roman world, one would find Michael Grant's _Guide to the Ancient World_ even more valuable than I did.

It is a concise book however it is best paired with ither books. Nevertheless i missed stuyvesant by TEN points

Hello! I am about to inform YOU about this great new KAPLAN SCI HI PREP BOOK! It has everything needed to help you review for the SSHSAT! PARENTS: If YOU buy this book NOW you will recieve a great bargain because now it is at a special price of [amt.]! BELIEVE ME ! THIS IS AN EXCEPTIONAL BOOK

ANY book by Mr. Caduto and Bruchac is both authentic and well researched. This book is another fine contribution by this team. A must have for a science teacher, for Native American curriculum, home schooling etc. I plan to purchase ALl the books by these authors.

An excellent reference for teachers and parents alike, this book contains Native legends related to gardening as well as projects based on the tales, gardening tips, helpful suggestions for beginners, recipes to use your garden's new- found bounty, and much more!
Joseph Bruchac is a very well-known storyteller in the Native American community. Along with his various co-authors in his different books, he combines storytelling with various teaching and family-based activities. I collect his books, because they are both a great reference for Native American mythology and belief, but also because my daughter and I can then turn around and learn together about the great past of the United States.

This book should not be missed! Bill Heritage is one of the true experts in water gardening. While you can find books that are more current and have more photographs, it is hard to find one that is so well written and factual. Whether you are a novice or experienced water gardener, you will frequently refer to this book.

Bill Heritage has put together one of the easiest to understand and complete guides for installing water gardens, for both the beginner and experienced water gardeners, on the market. The various construction methods are explained completely and no existing knowledge is assumed

One of the most valuable aspects of this book is the way he walks the reader through setting up a pond so it will balance naturally, without expensive pumps and filters, thus allowing a minimal expenditure of money for maximum pond enjoyment.

After six years, I still refer back to this book frequently for trouble shooting, cleaning schedules, and planting ideas.