The Perennial Gardener's Design Primer - by Stephanie Cohen & Nancy J Ondra (Paperback)

About the Book

Two top garden writers and teachers offer fun, organized, and attainable advice on how to create gorgeous gardens using beloved perennial plants. The authors walk the gardener, step-by-step, through the process of creating new gardens and bringing new life to gardens that have lost their luster.

Book Synopsis

Turn your outdoor landscape into a rich, living canvas of color and texture. Encouraging experimentation, Stephanie Cohen and Nancy J. Ondra show you how to plan a garden that incorporates unique combinations of plants to achieve stunning effects. With an overview of garden design fundamentals and 20 sample garden plans, Cohen and Ondra will inspire you to play with creative juxtapositions of vibrant hues and subtle textures. Let your imagination run wild as you create your own unique and original garden designs.

From the Back Cover

Put Perennials in Their Place!

Stephanie Cohen and Nancy Ondra are both thoroughly obsessed with everything about gardens and gardening -- with digging, planting, designing, and creating great canvases of living color and texture. In this book they generously share both their passion and their knowledge about garden design. Their encouraging words, based on practical experience and the belief that there is more than one right way to create a garden, boost confidence and promote experimentation. After all, Stephanie builds her garden combinations around harmonious colors and contrasting flower forms, whereas Nan's love for colorful foliage leads her to feature dramatically contrasting leaf colors and textures. Along with design basics, they present 20 garden plans, as well as the before-and-after stories of gardens they've created for themselves and their families.

About the Author

Stephanie Cohen, "The Perennial Diva," has received awards from the Philadelphia Horticulture Society, was elected a fellow of the Garden Writer's of America, and was named a Garden Communicator of the Year by American Nursery and Landscape Association. Cohen founded the aboredum at Temple University and served as the director for five years. She has written for Country Living Gardener, Blooms of Bressingham Perennial Program, American Beauties Program, The Pennsylvania Horticultural Magazine, Organic Gardening, Fine Gardening, and Green Profit.
Nancy J. Ondra, author of Container Theme Gardens, is a garden writer and editor as well as the former owner and operator of a small rare-plant nursery. She is the author or co-author of a dozen gardening books, including Foliage (winner of the 2008 Book Award from the American Horticultural Society), The Perennial Gardener's Design Primer (winner of a 2006 Silver Award from the Garden Writers Association), Five-Plant Gardens, The Perennial Care Manual, Fallscaping, and Grasses. She currently gardens in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and blogs at www.hayefield.com.