Really nice new book..see if your library has it..

This is a great book..Designer Plant Combinations by Scott Calhoun. I freely admit to being one of those who cannot plan beds. I simply have to find a place to fit in all of the plants that I have to have. This book will make you want to run right out and create new beds..it will also make you want to run right out and get the plants to do them with..lol...
In fact, it makes such a difference when people can see things growing in the ground and different plant combinations,that I think I would like to do 'blocks' or vignettes of different combinations..rather than large beds or borders and blending it all together..separate squares of say 3-5 plant combinations, each a small garden in itself....displays.

Blooms and I did that for the largest single bed I have, east side of our sidewalk. Vignettes of Abutilon, Ledger's Iris, a Duranta, etc. It worked well for two years (the sleeping and creeping years). Then all those perennials got their gumption at once and proceeded to fight it out for the next couple years. Two years ago (I think, although possibly it was only last year?) I replaced all of it with Lady In Red salvia.

Now, perhaps if I'd had this book I wouldn't have been so without creativity this time around. But LIR sure are trouble-free!

I keep telling myself that people with those beautifully designed and maintained beds have a gardener/landscaper doing them. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it! LOL

Too true KC, that kind of garden doesn't happen by an accident of Nature. : - )
Don't like most landscapers because they don't listen. I've noticed the best gardens are tended by gardeners, who can also be landscapers, but those good landscapers who listen are hard to find.
Although sometimes gardens can take on a life of their own. LOL!
wc, I'll have to check into that book for ideas. Yummy! (Wiggles eyebrows up and down in anticipation!)
Thinking of banning DH from the yards. He can have his lawn, but I really wish he'd quit whacking my stuff down without asking first! Oh well, it'll grow back, but it'll put me behind schedule. Drat!
WIB!
SW

Hey, your DH must be related to mine! (whacking my stuff down without asking first)
~'s!~

Therein lies the difference (or at least one of, anyway ) between a "landscape" and a "garden".

When I worked for a landscaping co., the majority of the jobs we did were for people who were NOT gardeners. They didn't want things that were perennial and left "holes" during their dormant period...or plants that needed to be deadheaded regularly...many even balked at the idea of deciduous trees. Everything had to be able to get by with whatever care the mow and blow gardener gave them...which was minimal at best. Nothing that required any specific type of pruning or shaping...thus in a few years time, what was originally intended to be a nice design became a sea of geometrically shaped plants and you couldn't really tell one thing from another.

When I started doing garden design on my own, I learned the hard way that unless the people you're doing it for are in to plants, it's a waste of time as well as a waste of their money because they won't keep it up as intended...or they don't want to pay a knowledgeable person to maintain it as per the original concept, and it ends up another clipped and hedged mess.

All too true, JD...that's why they have someone do the landscape for them...when I somehow got ahead of myself last year and propagated 300 s. Anthony Parkers, it was suggested to me by several people to contact and grow for landscapers...landscapers don't use Anthony Parkers, gardeners do. Landscapers now use greggii's, but that's about the extent of it. Of course, there are landscapers who are true gardeners and have customers who want what these known and gifted landscapers do, but then they are left with plants that they don't know what to do with anyway and neither do the mower / blowers, so you end up with beautiful ,large, mature greggii's and xylosmas and abelias and everything else sheared into cubes.

I love Designer Plant Combinations by Scott Calhoun! I have so many flags in that book.

Two other books that are really cool are:
Natural Gardening in Small Spaces by Noel Kingsbury and
The Southern California Native Flower Garden by Susan Van Atta

I love Kingsbury's book for space-challenged gardens like mine. It was a wonderfully freeing and inspirational book, with tons of tips, particularly with regard to design, an area in which I'm lacking. I practically stood up and cheered when he said we didn't have to feel guilty if we don't use all natives (although I'm going more and more native...lol!). He uses a lot of grasses. I love this book. I think even people with acres and acres of land on which to plant would enjoy this book and get something out of it.

I just got the Van Atta book and it has the coolest feature inside (lower part of picture) with the pages in thirds, and plants and their descriptions and info arranged by size (smallest on bottom, middle in the middle, and taller on top). You can flip the pages back and forth and see what works good together color and design and wise, and most importantly, water wise. Some might think it was gimmicky, but I thought it was...very cool!

Oh, I like the sound of that (Van Atta) book! I'm very visual - got to see it or I can't "see" it, if you get my drift. I like the drawings, too. Thanks for mentioning it.

I adore grasses.....I think I'm going to be doing a whole lot more of them.....I have a lot already, but....well,.....

Having now planted enough so our land won't wash away WHEN it rains, we are realizing some mistakes we made and we'll be making some changes. Perhaps I can learn something about planning....er, did I just use the P word? gulp

surfcity, they do make smaller sticky notes, just for marking pages. Your book made me smile 'cause right now it looks like a colorful paper hedgehog. : - )
Gardeners agonize over their babies, and sometimes it works by luck, and sometimes it doesn't. Can't get sun loving lavender to grow for me. But things that aren't supposed to grow for me. Go figure.
I like wild hedges that don't require trimming. I have my own inner vision of how I want my garden to look. How do you explain that to someone else?
I will see about those books when I get back, maybe I will get lucky. Worse case, I will ask for them for Christmas. : - )
I love the idea of the companion plants being listed too. I might have to find substitutes but it's less likely that I'll be flipping through five books at the same time.
I draw my garden out on draft paper each winter showing what survived the summer and where I planted it. Doesn't go into the ground until it survives a full year out here. (Except the trees of course, cause they're bare root).
Thanks for sharing those titles, surfcity, I hadn't seen a couple of them before! Can't wait to see what you do with 'em.
WIB!
SW

Here I go, going overboard again, but I just can't contain my excitement over these books, too. Thx for starting this thread, wc. I promise, this is it...I think.

Grass fans! Gotta have these books.
Grasses, by the great and powerful Ondra, .Nancy J., that is; beautiful, inspirational, tons of ideas
Landscaping with Ornamental Grasses (a Sunset book), practical for us Californians, great ideas
The Encyclopedia of Grasses for Livable Landscapes by Rick Darke, pricey at 60 bucks, but worth every penny, lots of info about individual plants I haven't found anywhere else.

If you loved Scott Calhoun's Designer Combos, you'll love Perennial Combinations by C.Colston Burrell, too. It, too, is flagged, or hedgehogged (LOL!) to death.
The Low-Water Flower Gardener by Eric A Johnson and Scott Millard, also flagged mercilessly.
The Perennial Gardener's Design Primer by Stephanie Cohen and the great and powerful Nancy J. Ondra
Big Book of Garden Designs (a Sunset book), another practical book, tons of ideas, also flagged until it cried "Uncle!"

Going to see right now if they're available in our system and request them from the library if so.....thanks. So many garden books are so-so and then there are the really good ones!

Surfcity, Did you get the Kingsbury and Van Atta books from the library, or do you own them? If you bought them, can you tell me where you found them? It's not like I need more books, but why stop now?
Carol

Got them at the Barnes and Noble in Bella Terra (HB). I was thinking I could bring these books to the RU and people could look through them if they want to to determine if they'd like to buy their own copy, or check them out in the library. Maybe we could start a book exchange? Should I bring them?

Absolutely! I was looking on Amazon.com today and they have the Van Atta book - our library system doesn't. So I would like to look at it before I buy it.

I had a book with the three-part pages for regular garden plants. I think Blooms has it for safe-keeping. How cool is that there is one for SoCal natives, are we special or what?!!

~'s!~

Thanks for the info. I'm not going to make it to the RU, but I will check Barnes and Noble. That is the one closest to me.
Carol