Colour in Garden Design: An Introduction to Colour Theory and Design for Gardners - Hardcover

Austin, Sandra

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1561581879 ISBN 13: 9781561581870

Publisher: Taunton Press Inc, 1998

Synopsis

Packed with two hundred full-color photographs, a guide by a professional landscape designer explains how colors work together in a garden and why, providing readers with a thorough understanding of color and fresh ways to use it.

About this title

From the Author

A look at garden color through the eyes of a designer
If you're at this site looking for something a little unusual in books on garden design, I think you're at the right place. I wrote this book looking at the garden as an artist or designer would, so in addition to lots of pictures of flowers and gardens, there are also illustrations of color relationships that apply in all the arts. This is a book that can be appreciated on lots of different levels--you can look at the pictures and illustrations, you can read parts of the text that interest you, or you can sit down and read the whole book, cover to cover.

One of the first things that you'll notice when you pick up the book is that it talks about the science of color--perhaps a funny way to begin a gardening book! The reason is that when I started working on the book (while I was teaching design classes), I quickly found that much of what is written about color in the garden is based on old assumptions about color. Most garden writers still think that the primary colors are red, blue and yellow and that the complementary color of blue is orange. These are just two of some of the myths about color and color relationships that plague garden writing, and it seemed important to me to get the facts straight as I began to write about design.

Don't be put off by these color facts--they're no more unusual than the scientific information in other gardening books relating to botanic names and cultural conditions. It's just a little different than what most of us were taught, and so you'll have to read--and look at the pictures--with an open mind. I think you'll find, as I have, that this corrected information will make a lot of sense, and you'll find yourself saying, "so that's why" things look a certain way.

Nearly everyone who has read the book has said to me that they look at their garden in a completely different way. I think this is the greatest compliment, since one thing that I hope will happen as a result of this book is that garden designers will allow themselves to break some of the old color rules about certain color combinations being good or bad. The more you understand about how colors relate to one another and how people see color, the more you'll be able to design your own garden to reflect your own color likes and dislikes--and shouldn't that really be the intent of good garden design?

Edition details

• Publisher: Taunton Press Inc
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1561581879
• ISBN 13: 9781561581870
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 160