The Less Is More Garden: Big Ideas for Designing Your Small Yard
(eBook)

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Book Cover Information

Hoopla Extract Information

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    [year] => 2018
    [artist] => Susan Morrison
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    [language] => ENGLISH
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    [title] => The Less Is More Garden
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    [synopsis] => When it comes to gardens, bigger isn't always better, and “The Less Is More Garden” shows you how to take advantage of every square foot of space. Designer Susan Morrison offers savvy tips to match your landscape to your lifestyle, draws on years of experience to recommend smart plants with seasonal interest, and suggests hardscape materials to personalize your space. Inspiring photographs highlight a variety of inspiring small-space designs from around the country. With The Less Is More Garden, you'll see how limited space can mean unlimited opportunities for gorgeous garden design.

With practical tips and high-end design ideas, The Less is More Garden can help you turn your small backyard into a unique space that is lovely to look at, family-friendly, and low maintenance. Susan Morrison is a nationally recognized landscape designer and authority on small-space garden design. She has shared her strategies on the PBS series, Growing a Greener World and in publications such as Fine Gardening. Morrison has also served as editor-in-chief of The Designer, a digital magazine produced by the Association of Professional Landscape Designers. Preface

Once upon a time, small gardens were mainly confined to the condos, courtyards, and terraces of crowded urban areas. In contrast, the typical suburban landscape tended to be large and sprawling. But in the past forty years, America's suburban lots have shrunk, from the Southeast to the Midwest to the West Coast. In fact, the term small garden is gradually losing its meaning, as many of us live on a quarter, an eighth, or even less of an acre. Urban and suburban aren't so different anymore.

Small has become the new normal.

In my practice as a landscape designer, most of the backyards I design measure less than 2500 square feet, layouts are rarely more than 40 by 60 feet. I no longer think of that as small; it has become standard. Interestingly, while active gardeners are often concerned with fitting everything into a space that is generally smaller than the backyards they grew up in, I am just as likely to hear from homeowners more interested in creating a space that will be as simple as possible to maintain. In our time-crunched, overworked, two-career society, taking the time to envision, create, and maintain a garden can seem overwhelming. No one wants another to-do list item, but most of us want a backyard that's a refuge: a place where we can unwind, entertain, and enjoy ourselves in whatever forms those pursuits take.

This shift in how we live, work, and play is what led me to develop the less is more approach to garden design and outdoor living. My clients want to spend more time enjoying the outdoors, but less time fussing with and maintaining their space. I understand what they're looking for, because the hypothetical family I've described could be mine.

I spent my middle school and teenage years in a ranch-style home on a quarter-acre lot in Southern California. While the house was a mere 1600 square feet, the large backyard more than made up for the elbow bumping my family of four tolerated inside. We spent as much time as we could outdoors. Our backyard was home to a swimming pool, two full-sized patios, flower beds, fruit trees, and a vegetable garden, not to mention plenty of lawn on which to play games and run around. With that much space, it's easy to accommodate an active, multi-generational, outdoor lifestyle. Of course, my childhood memories aren't just about fun in the sun. Looking for a space that big took a lot of effort. Growing up as the designated lawn mower and pool cleaner meant my Saturday mornings weren't exactly my own.

Fast-forward to my first house in a newly constructed development. Despite the fact that the backyard was a fraction of the size of my childhood home's yard, I did what so many of us do, and modeled the landscape on
    [url] => https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/15218684
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    [subtitle] => Big Ideas for Designing Your Small Yard
    [publisher] => Timber Press
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