Many professions are involved directly or indirectly with tropical landscape, yet there are few sources of readily digestible information for the student to turn to. This book gives guidance to the newcomer about tropical landscape design. It describes the work of the professional designer, but is sufficiently down-to-earth to be accessible to the amateur for whom professional consultation is not available.

First and foremost, this is a book about New Zealand landscape architecture and urban design, viewed through the lens of Isthmus, an award-winning design studio that for more than twenty-five years has been shaping and reshaping the way we experience our
land and cityscapes. It is also a story about New Zealand, about changing perspectives and attitudes
to the use of land and water, the way we organise our cities, the way we play, live, and work, and the lessons from the past that can influence the way we build new communities. Coast. Country. Neighbourhood. City. presents twenty-five projects, from small playscapes that put children back at the heart of the city right through to large infrastructural works, such as the New Plymouth Coastal Walkway, that have transformed cities by turning them around to face the water. These works are set against a background of contemporary debates about making the new New Zealand, housing and population intensification, urbanisation, and landscape protection. It is hoped that this book will bring these integrated works of landscape, urban design, and architecture to a wider audience. This is a generous, well-crafted, and beautifully photographed book that also explains the process of design through drawing. The twenty-five projects illustrate design ideas, the stories behind them, and the impact that these project have had on their communities. Importantly, Coast. Country. Neighbourhood. City. is the first published compilation of works detailing the output of one New Zealand design studio with a strong record of innovative landscape architecture practice.

Without fail, visitors to the great gardens of the world are enchanted by their topiary art. These great, green sculptures, often in the form of animals, but sometimes in geometric or abstract shapes, are formed by carefully binding and trimming a living plant. The patience and skill required may seem intimidating to those who wish to try their hands at it, but in this book the art is made accessible to every gardener. Well illustrated, with easy-to-understand instructions, three topiary projects are offered, a peacock (with instructions for its transformation into an angel), a Gothic arch, and a duck. The projects shown use small, potted plants from the nursery, but the techniques are readily adapted to shrubs and bushes in the garden. The tools and materials needed for topiary are common, owned by almost every gardener; with this basic guide, all that is needed is a little creativity and time. The results will astound.

The Good Gardener? Nature, Humanity, and the Garden illuminates both the foundations and after-effects of humanity's deep-rooted impulse to manipulate the natural environment and create garden spaces of diverse kinds. Gardens range from subsistence plots to sites of philosophical speculation, refuge, and self-expression. Gardens may serve as projections of personal or national identity. They may result from individual or collective enterprises. They may shape the fabric of the dwelling house or city. They may be real or imagined, literary constructs or visions of paradise rendered in paint. Some result from a delicate negotiation between creator and medium. Others, in turn, readily reveal the underlying paradox of every garden's creation: the garden, so often viewed as a kinder, gentler, 'second nature, ' results from violence done to what was once wilderness. Designed as a companion volume to Earth Perfect? Nature, Utopia, and the Garden, this richly illustrated collection of provocative essays is edited by Annette Giesecke, Professor of Classics at the University of Delaware, and Naomi Jacobs, Professor of English at the University of Maine. Contributors to this wide-ranging volume include photographer Margaret Morton, landscape ethicist Rick Darke, philosopher David Cooper, environmental journalist Emma Marris, and food historian William Rubel.

SMART Landscape is a significant contribution to the conversation on sustainable landscape design, providing energy efficient models and water saving landscape ideas. There are many factors that would help realize energy efficient landscapes, including (but not limited to) the use of energy saving lamps, such as LED; the integration and adoption of renewable energy, including solar-powered and wind-powered landscape lighting; energy-efficient landscape design, particularly through the correct placement and selection of shade trees, and the creation of wind breaks. This book shows techniques for creating landscapes that also save water, for example by choosing correct planting materials; reducing stormwater run-off through the use of bio-swales, rain gardens and green roofs and walls; reducing water usage in landscapes through best-practice water-wise garden techniques, including irrigation using gray water. Permeable paving materials can also help to reduce stormwater runoff and allow rainwater to infiltrate into the ground and replenish groundwater rather than run into surface water systems.