Garden Design

Reviews / Votes

At the heart of every great garden is a great basic structure and this is the point that Ali Ward puts across in this ambitious book. It does not matter how many exotic, unusual plants are planted in a border or how many water features or statues there are - if they do not flow with other elements of the garden they will not work. They will remain at odds and stand out as mismatched features. Ali's three main principles are: have, want, need ie what is already in a garden? what do you want in a garden? what do you need from your garden? These three points are reiterated throughout the book, emphasising their importance to professional garden design. After dealing with basic structures such as paths, boundaries and water features, plants based on Ali's favourite die-hards are looked at, from trees and shrubs to perennials and bulbs together with planting schemes for themed gardens. A chapter simplistically entitled "Getting Started" explains the basics of surveying and measuring a plot and marking out the requisite features. The final part of the book deals with eight different familial and locational sites, accompanied by Ali's charming water-coloured technical plans and in-depth descriptions. Ali Ward, trained at De Montfort College, is certainly experienced enough to write this book and her designs are neither over simple nor outrageous. However her style of writing can be patronising and the chapter on surveying is likely to lose many readers though it's complexity. But for a model, turned jobbing gardener, turned BBC garden presenter, she has the ability to communicate her ideas through her writing, turning this into a practical guide for all serious amateur gardeners.