BOOKreviews

Inside Your Japanese Garden: A Guide to Creating a Unique Japanese Garden for Your Home Authors: Sadao Yasumoro and Joseph Cali Publisher: Tuttle Publishing List Price: $24.99 Order Link: https://amzn.to/3o6nF3h and https://bookshop.org/ a/79479/9784805316146 Reviewer: Jamie Oberg Inside Your Japanese Garden is a collaboration between Sadao Yasumoro and Joseph Cali. Cali, a writer and designer who graduated from Rhode Island School of Design and has been an interior and graphic designer in Japan for more than 30 years, records Yasumoro’s over 60 years of experience in designing and building Japanese gardens. Hironori Tomino rounds out the team with stunning photography alongside illustrated garden diagrams by Yasumoro. The introduction to this guide is a brief biography of Yasumoro that allows the reader to see gardening through his eyes. This impressive outline of his credentials leads into an explanation of how to get started with garden design for the layperson, with Yasumoro asserting “that you should develop your own approach to the Japanese garden, not rely too much on the ideas in a book.” I found this to be an interesting and honest approach for a guide book, immediately intriguing me. This section also lists explanations of Japanese design elements such as meisho (a reference to literature or a real place), a preference for odd numbers and asymmetry, spirit vs. technique (“Spirit comes first. Technique will follow.”), miekakure (hide and reveal), and mitate (double meanings). Although it is essentially a glossary, this section filled me with awe at how deeply Japanese gardens are thought out. The book goes through 20 different gardens in Japan created by Yasumoro. Included are the garden of a NASA astrophysicist, a garden made with the help of birds, a garden in the middle of an urban jungle, and a Buddhist mountain retreat. The gardens are organized by themes separated by chapter and each is accompanied by breathtaking photographs. The first of these chapters is focused on entrances and automobiles. In Japan, garages are uncommon, so cars are usually left visible in front of one’s home. “In other words, the car becomes part of the architecture,” Cali and Yasumoro write before explaining how to design a house entrance where cars and nature can live alongside each other. It is a great introduction to how culture and design can intermingle. Chapter Two moves from the front of the house to the back, discussing how the purpose of a backyard affects its design. The most extreme example of this is a garden made from a landslide. Since the main purpose was preventing the land from sliding further, the design incorporated large piles of stones, concrete curbs, terracing, and a place for water runoff. The real-life application of this landslide garden is incredibly impressive, with Yasumoro noting that several other designers passed over the project because of its danger and difficulty. This chapter also includes multiple temple gardens as examples. Chapter Three scales things down to look at smaller gardens. The small side of things focuses on tsubos and tea gardens. Tsubos refer to miniature gardens, as well as small courtyards within a particular structure of Japanese houses. In both meanings, there is a connotation of intimacy. Teahouses and tea gardens are a large part of Japanese culture that have deep historical roots, but Yasumoro provides his own interpretations. Especially when compared to the larger gardens in this book, which go up to 9,500 square feet, the smaller gardens featured that are as little as 26 square feet sound miniscule. Still, Yasumoro is able to inject a remarkable amount of nuance into each that inspires those with even the littlest of gardening spaces. The last chapter is a guide to working with different materials. Along with vocabulary, it includes different projects that can be made with stone. The first few projects are different types of walls and walkways. From there, the chapter explores bridges, water basins, arrangements, gutters, and more. This chapter also goes into working with mud and bamboo. Mud is primarily used for walls and floors, while bamboo is for fences. The guide explains how to mix different materials with clay for different projects. It also outlines the process of working with bamboo, from cleaning to cutting to “tying, nailing, and screwing.” It is a more practical chapter, but no less important or thought-provoking than the others. This book also includes detailed instructions for varying projects, from smaller builds such as an earthen bridge to more intimidating works such as the amigasa mon (a type of garden gate often associated with a teahouse). While much of the guide is geared more toward inspiration than strict directions, these sections provide concrete projects for the reader. Inside Your Japanese Garden is a unique garden design guide. It teaches about an entire culture, with a snapshot into its history and customs, through gardening. It feels as inspirational as, yet more educational than, the average garden design book because of this deeper breadth of information. The gardens throughout are beautiful and the Japanese garden conventions explained allow readers to think about design in an entirely different way. If you have any interest in Japanese aesthetics and culture, or just want a new way to view your garden, Inside Your Japanese Garden is sure to fill you with inspiration through detailed explanations, extensive garden design experiences, and belief that “[a] good

garden will continue to show you something new every time you look at it—just as nature does.” o

Jamie Amadea Oberg is a rising senior at the University of Maryland (UMD). Jamie is an intern this summer session with Washington Gardener.

The Old Farmer’s Almanac Flower Gardener’s Handbook Editor: Janice Stillman Publisher: Old Farmer’s Almanac/ Yankee Publishing List Price: $17.95 Order Links: https://amzn.to/3Pa6YQm and https://bookshop.org/ a/79479/9781571989284 Reviewer: Tori Vandergriff The Flower Gardener’s Handbook from the folks at the Old Farmer’s Almanac is an “all-new planting guide that gets to the root of growing a flower garden that’s as lovely to behold as it is easy to maintain,” according to the official press release for the book. This book contains the profiles of 32 of the most popular flowering plants throughout the United States and Canada. The Old Farmer’s Almanac is an employee-owned company in Dublin, NH, providing expansive knowledge about plants, soil, climate patterns, and more. If you’re looking for it, the Almanac has it. The Flower Gardener’s Handbook was released earlier this year and is intended to provide gardeners at all skill levels with the information they need to create and maintain healthy flower gardens. I was immediately drawn to this book because of the vibrant photos of various flowers adorning the front cover. The word “handbook” in the title also intrigued me since it signaled that this would be a “How To” for all things flowers. If I could only choose one plant to garden for the rest of my life, it would easily be flowers (simply for cutting purposes), so it only made sense that I’d review this book for the month of July. Simply put, this review is for my own selfish gardening purposes. The Flower Gardener’s Handbook completely delivered on its promise to be an all-knowing guide on how to create a thriving flower garden at home. The book opens with a note from the editor, warmly welcoming readers and outlining the contents of the text. The first section of the book is record-keeping. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in gardening with flowering plants or even as a gift for the flower lover in your life. An almanac will never go out of style and this one is definitely here to stay for the gardening world. o

“Ground Rules” and discusses topics such as native versus non-native plants, how to start seeds and soil types. This portion is extremely helpful for beginning gardeners who don’t know where to start and a great refresher even for seasoned gardeners. The next portion was my personal favorite: flower profiles. The handbook gives extremely in-depth information about 32 different flowers, such as delphinium, lilies, hydrangeas, lilacs, hollyhocks, and many, many more. Each profile includes the Latin name for the flower, the history of the plant, how to care for and harvest them, and even recommended varieties of the flowering plant. I found this section really cool and unique because it lays out everything someone could possibly need to know about the flower in an easy-toread format with pictures included. The “Flower” section is definitely the highlight of the handbook and makes the entire book worth the read. After the profiles section are the “Inspiration,” “Growing Concerns,” and “Lore and More” parts of the book. These portions answer all the questions that could pop up after the flowers have bloomed, including what to do about diseases, what’s perennial in specific regions, and how to care for cut flowers. This is another very informational section with an interesting and eye-catching layout. The most personal aspect of the book is the use of sections entitled “Journal Pages.” Here, readers can log their own garden information in the book, including soil pH, color inventory, pest records, and more. These pages are sporadically placed throughout the book where they make the most sense. For instance, the “Native in My Garden” log page is placed after the book describes native versus nonnative plants. Here, readers can log their own garden information. I love this aspect of the book because it allows readers/gardeners to learn from the pages, then add their own experiences by physically taking the book into the garden with them! It’s a super-cool way to encourage beginning gardeners to keep track of their gardens’ conditions and allows expert gardeners to stay organized.

The Flower Gardener’s Handbook is an interesting and unique read that also serves an important purpose:

Victoria Vandergriff is finishing up her senior year at the University of Maryland as a journalism major with a history minor. She is an intern this summer session with Washington Gardener

Sustainable Gardening: Grow a “Greener” Low-Maintenance Landscape with Fewer Resources Author: Vincent Simeone Publisher: Cool Springs Press/Quarto List Price: $24.99 Order Links: https://amzn.to/3IKkeJ8 and https://bookshop.org/ a/79479/9780760370360 Reviewer: Jim Dronenburg This book tries to touch every aspect of sustainability, and therefore tends to gloss over these aspects rather than going into great detail. Sustainability, per the book, is “the capacity to endure…long-term care and maintenance of the world around us…(and) must include the idea that what we do today should not negatively affect future generations.” This may be

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approached in several ways at once, including using less in the way of chemicals/fuels/pesticides; not fighting the nature of one’s garden—instead, putting in plants to suit the conditions present; reducing the size of your lawn; or using more ecological practices on that lawn (and anywhere else). Where the book bogs down is in the details. One example that comes to mind is the caption (p. 12) stating, “Even small actions, such as growing some of your own food…can add up to a big reduction in your carbon footprint.” The picture is of a raised bed of rather substantial lumber and soil that looks very like pure compost, holding what appears to be four clumps of chives, eight red lettuces. and about a dozen of some other lettuce-like thing. On the face of it, rather a spectacular use of resources for a small return. On page 25, there is a picture of a person putting things in the ground, with the caption, “When planting new trees and shrubs, be sure to properly space them to keep them from being crowded when they’re mature.” The accompanying text says that too often, things are planted with an eye to what they look like right now, with no consideration of the long term. That is totally true, and something to avoid (not that your reviewer hasn’t fallen into the same trap). But on the next page, the author gives the “One Half Rule,” which is to find a plant’s eventual size and assume it will get to half of that in your lifetime, and plant it in that half of the eventual space. At best, this is encouraging what page 25 is telling you not to do. At worst, it’s leaving a spectacular mess for someone else to clean up after you’re gone. The book does make some very good points, chief among them that you should establish priorities and have a short- and a long-term plan before charging in, to avoid mistakes and re-dos. You should use resources wisely, and recycle/compost what you can. Start composting within the first six months, and keep it up. Try to plan any hardscape at the start, and put it in as close to the start as you can. The book mentions wise use of water, including ways to minimize that use. There are sections about workhorse trees (9), shrubs (13), perennials (13), and grasses (7), and a one-page list of 12 workhorse annuals/bedding plants (which makes sense; they are a use of resources to replace each year). This batch of short lists succeeds about as well as any list that short would. The book mentions “The Pros and Cons of Going Organic.” Of this, two photos take up one-and-a-half pages. Other subjects are treated in a similarly “gloss” fashion. In short, this book seems to be for those who have not gardened before, and who, for their own protection, should read more detail elsewhere on any subject in it. o

Visit DCGardens.com for Photos of the 16 Major Local Public Gardens in the Washington, DC Region shown in each month of the year.

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Jim Dronenburg is a retired accountant and now gardens full-time in Knoxville, MD.

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These books were reviewed by volunteer members of the Washington Gardener Reader Panel. To join the Washington Gardener Volunteer Reader Panel, send an email with your name and address to: KathyJentz@gmail. com. We look forward to having you be a vital part of our local publication and its gardening mission. o