The Basics of Planting Design
A special discounted price of £21.00 is available to bona fide garden-design and landscape architecture students.

- Date of publication: November 2013
- ISBN-10: 1 85341 144 2
- Paperback ISBN-13: 978 1 85341 144 1
- Pages: 110
- Images: 148 colour plates and 21 black & white figs,line drawings & plans
- Dimensions: 210 x 297 mm (A4 Landscape format)
- Weight: 433 grammes (unwrapped)
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Synopsis
Planting design is the selection and use of plants to achieve a designer’s objectives. There are now many new and interesting planting ideas and fashions, but municipal planting in particular and some gardens as well, can be pretty dire through lack of careful planting design. What is needed for all garden designers – who may well have come to design via a deep interest in plants – is an understanding of the basics of this vitally important design discipline: designs are three-dimensional, to be walked in and round, and viewed from all sides; designs will change over time; plants live and die and need to be tended for maximum effect; there is a huge choice of plants, a working knowledge of which takes experience. There are many pitfalls to be met in planting, therefore, which can be largely avoided by getting the basics of planting design right. This book will help designers to build a solid foundation for their future success and experience.
This book is part of the series, Workshops on Garden Design.
Contents
The Design Process; The Use of Plants; Planning Planted Areas; The Visual Qualities of Plants 1 - Shape, Habit & Texture; The Visual Qualities of Plants 2 - Colour and Size: Plant Selection; Planting Plans: Book List, Index; Plants Listed in the Text.
Readership
Students of Garden Design and Landscape Architecture; landscape contractors and owners of medium to large gardens.
Reviews
... 'this is a manual aimed at landscape and garden design students rather than the general public, and it contains the distilled experience of Lucy Huntington, who has been designing for over 40 years. She writes with clarity and straightforwardness that unravels the complexities of the design process ...[Where this book] ... is different and particularly useful is in Lucy's advice on the placing of plants, on their specifications to British Standards and on working out quantities. Clear illustrations show the importance of readable plans; what symbols work best, how to annotate with plant names, and how to draw groups of plants. Above all, it is with the client in mind that Lucy explains the difference between a confused plan and a clear one. All in all, this is a hard-working book that will be very helpful to design students.'
Susie White in the Garden Design Journal, May 2014.
Distribution
Direct from Publisher; RHS Wisley & Harlow Carr bookshops; RIBA Bookshop, London; Foyles, London; Gardners Books, Eastbourne (wholesaler).