The Bartlett Book of Garden Elements: A Practical Compendium of Inspired Designs

The definitive book of elements used to design, structure and beautify your garden with practical advice on installation. From bridges to gates, gazebos to fountains, sculpture to bird houses, this book gives many illustrations to inspire the professional or amateur garden designer. The text introduces each garden element, and the photographs illustrate how these can best be used in every sort of landscape.

Once the horticultural bones of a garden have been laid out, the next questions generally considered are the manmade objects that are required. There are any number of approaches, and the savvy gardener, after determining what designs would be best suited to the site and how additions should be positioned, wonders: "What are the options?" Whether it's benches, bridges, or bird-houses, paving stones, fountains, or gazebos, this book is the "go to" source to find the answers, the best of their kind, hundreds of examples, all illustrated in color, and representing solutions from around the world.

Here, in over 1000 photographs, are the possibilities that can be considered. On every page are multiple images of what can be bought "off the shelf" or reproduced by a master craftsman, structures and solutions displayed in every sort of position and environment.

Whatever the challenge, the Bartletts have seen it, solved it, or recorded the best that exists. In twenty chapters, they lay out possibilities from around the world, each chapter preceded by a lengthy essay on the history and evolution of the structure in question and the best way to approach the challenges of choice and location. For years to come and for gardeners worldwide, this will be the standard reference, an ambitious, comprehensive, and colorful compendium of the very best garden ornaments and elements presently available.

Includes: arbors, beehives, birdhouses, boot scrapers, bridges, fences, fountains, furniture, gates, gazebos, paving materials, pergolas, planters, pools & ponds, sculpture & statuary, sun dials, topiary, walls, and more.