The New Low-Maintenance Garden: How to Have a Beautiful, Productive Garden and the Time to Enjoy It

297 Pages·2009·15.76 MB·English

by  Valerie Easton

The New Low-Maintenance Garden

The NEW Low-Maintenance Garden
How to Have a
Beautiful, Productive
Garden and the
Time to Enjoy It
Valerie Easton
PhoToGraPhy by Jacqueline M. Koch
Frontispiece: This starkly modern terrace is softened with one big pot stuffed
with rosettes of Canary Island aeonium (Aeonium canariense) that play
beautifully off the fluffy leaves of the African fern pine (Afrocarpus gracilior).
These two plants make a striking statement yet are easy to care for because both
require the same conditions of sun and drought. Sekhri garden, Jeong Hyeon Lee
design, San Francisco, CA.
Copyright © 2009 by Valerie Easton and Jacqueline M. Koch.
Published in 2009 by Timber Press, Inc.
The Haseltine Building
133 S.W. Second Avenue, Suite 450
Portland, Oregon 97204-3527
www.timberpress.com
2 The Quadrant
135 Salusbury Road
London NW6 6RJ
www.timberpress.co.uk
Mention of trademark, proprietary product, or vendor does not constitute a
guarantee or warranty of the product by the publisher or author and does not
imply its approval to the exclusion of other products or vendors.
Printed in the United States of America
Second printing 2010
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Easton, Valerie.
The new low-maintenance garden: how to have a beautiful, productive garden
and the time to enjoy it / Valerie Easton; photography by Jacqueline M. Koch. —
1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-88192-916-4
ISBN 978-1-60469-166-5 (pbk.)
1. Low maintenance gardening. 2. Landscape gardening. 3. Gardens—Design. I.
Koch, Jacqueline. II. Title. III. Title: New low maintenance garden. IV. Title:
How to have a beautiful, productive garden and the time to enjoy it.
SB473.E235 2009
635—dc22
2009008199
A catalog record for this book is also available from the British Library Book
design: Karen Schober, Seattle, Washington
To my nongardening family, who by enjoying the garden
in their own ways have taught me the breadth of its pleasures.
Their disinclination to pick up a shovel led to my simplifying the
garden so that I’m able to care for it joyously and by myself.
—VALERIE EASTON
Always to my mother, who first got me into
the garden, and to Chris, who keeps the garden of
my life abundant, rich, and full of discovery.
—JACQUELINE M. KOCH
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THE SIMPLIFIED GARDEN: A NEW LOW-MAINTENANCE MANIFESTO
DESIGN WITH MAINTENANCE IN MIND
MAKE IT WORK
SNATURE’S RHYTHMS
EAT YOUR GARDEN
CAREFREE CONTAINERS
SMART CHOICES: EDITING YOUR PLANT PICKS
INDEX
GARDEN CREDITS