Midwest Gardens

by Pamela Wolfe, Gary Irving (Photographer)

Overview

Gardener and teacher Pamela Wolfe and award-winning photographer Gary Irving collaborate to create an informative guide on how to create fantastic gardens in the Midwest.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781556521386
Publisher:	Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	11/01/1991
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	10.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Pam Wolfe is the author of 200 Tips for Growing Flowers in the Midwest and 200 Tips for Growing Vegetables in the Midwest. She teaches horticulture at Chicago’s Morton Arboretum and writes for Chicagoland Gardening and other magazines. She lives in Downers Grove, Illinois.

Editorial Reviews

“An inspiring and glorious-looking guide to how gardeners can triumph splendidly.” —Woman’s Day

From the Publisher

An exceptionally fine collaboration between gardener and teacher Wolfe and award-winning photographer Irving, Midwesterners both, this ``inspiration'' and ``practical guide'' showcases 22 outstanding gardens from the Upper Midwest. And though the Midwest is often considered too harsh climatically to yield gardens in the grand English style, Wolfe and Irving convincingly claim otherwise. Under the tutelage of such gardeners as Thomas and Helene James, for example, poetic borders of old shrub roses and European perennials can flourish in Wilmette, Ill.; in White Bear, Minn., Betty Matthew's collection of miniature roses and delphiniums thrives. Other gardens in this eclectic anthology bypass the perennial border, ranging from Russell O'Harra'ssic baroque displays of hostas to Polly Rabion's ambitious garden designed for handicapped visitors to Pat Armstrong's restoration of native Illinois prairie, in which she uses the traditional annual burn as a method of controlling weeds. Irving's photographs focus on color, texture, and small-scale patterns as they intimately detail the gardens, while Wolfe's text homes in on the creative strategies behind them. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This selection of 22 private gardens from six states shows that despite clay soils, sub-zero winters, and steamy summers, the Midwest is home to some truly inspirational and personal landscapes. More than 170 color photographs by nature photographer Irving document this eclectic tour of urban, suburban, and rural properties. Midwestern native Wolfe integrates plant information with interviews and quotes from the gardeners themselves and sidebars offering gardening tips inspired and suggested by each garden visited. Similar in feel and presentation to Peter Loewer's American Gardens (S. & S., 1988), this book is recommended for Midwestern libraries and for other libraries where interest in garden photography and private gardens is high.--Virginia A. Henrichs, Chicago Botanic Garden Lib., Glencoe, Ill.

Library Journal