Gardening with Stone: Using Stone Features to Add Mystery, Magic, and Meaning to Your Garden
by: Jan Kowalczewski Whitner

Hardcover. NY, Macmillan, 1st, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 212 pages. Stone is an important, though often overlooked, element of creating the perfect garden. Stone can combine with plants and water in an infinite array to bring us landscapes that range from the serene and contemplative to the boisterous and exuberant. While much has been written about plants and water in the garden, only scant attention has been paid to stone. Jan Kowalczewski Whitner finds this an injustice. "Stone is eloquent, and it speaks in many voices," says Whitner. "Some of our most imaginative gardeners have used stone to transform ordinary plots of land into the cumulatively rich and evocative landscapes we all hope to create." With photographer Linda Quartman Younker, Whitner travels across America, exploring some of the most imaginative uses of stone in gardens ranging from orderly formal gardens to relaxed and cozy cottage plots. A good deal of the book is devoted to specific types of stones and stonework, such as using gravel or working with outcrops, with accompanying lists of plants that work well with each. Clean copy.