{"id":998,"date":"2014-02-16T02:00:24","date_gmt":"2014-02-16T02:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ongardening.com\/?p=998"},"modified":"2014-02-16T02:06:53","modified_gmt":"2014-02-16T02:06:53","slug":"inspiring-landscape-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/?p=998","title":{"rendered":"Inspiring Landscape Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been pouring through the new edition of the Sunset Western Garden Book of Landscaping: The Complete Guide to Beautiful Paths, Patios, Plantings and More. This book is hot off the press, having been published in February of 2014. It complements the Sunset\u2019s New Western Garden Book (9th<\/sup> edition, February 2012), which is about plants.<\/p>\n

The book provides over 600 color photographs of gardens in the western states, with ideas for home gardeners and landscape professionals. It is organized under five headings: Gardens, Structures, Plants, Finishing Touches, and Planning. Each section visits numerous topics, illustrating each in one-to-eight pages of comments and captioned photographs. The text identifies almost all plants that are shown, and the excellent index lists them all as well.<\/p>\n

Each topic could motivate the reader to seek detailed information in other sources.<\/p>\n

Editor Kathleen Norris Brenzel notes that the book is primarily about inspiration, with an underlying theme of earth-friendly, sustainable design. In a brief introduction, landscape architect William R. Marken defines sustainability as basic to the \u201cnew golden age of landscape design,\u201d which has grown out of Thomas Church\u2019s four principles:<\/p>\n