Let’s start the week off with a giveaway, shall we? I have one copy of Home Outside: Creating the Landscape You Love, by Julie Moir Messervy to give to a lucky reader.
In Home Outside, award-winning landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy demystifies the art and practice of landscape design. By introducing an easy, tangible yet intuitive process, she helps professionals and homeowners turn their property into a place of enjoyment – their own “home outside.”
“Ultimately, my goal with this book is to get people back outside onto their land by helping them realize the pleasure that’s involved in being out of doors,” explains Messervy. “I want to revive the home landscape as a place of importance in people’s lives. By teaching people what I know about landscape design, I’m hoping that they will learn how to create the spaces they love and go outdoors to enjoy them.”
This is a big, beautiful book that will be equally at home on the coffee table or next to the bed. Packed with inspiration, this is a user-friendly guide to creating a unique and personal landscape. Clear and concise writing, together with beautiful photographs, before and after images, diagrams, green tips and case studies, all illustrate that good landscape design is approachable, affordable and attainable.
You want? Just leave a comment on this post telling me why you need this book. A winner will be chosen randomly. Contest closes March 31, 2009, PST.
I have a large yard that I am planning to turn into a little farm, but I would like to have some areas that are “just for pretty” so a landscape book would be very helpful.
I need it because we have the most boring plot of land that is all grass! My husband and I really want to transform it, but knowing where to start is really hard.
I need the book because it will help me realize the pleasure that’s involved in being out of doors, as promised by the author.
Oh… why? Weeeeell, we have a huge (and I mean it) backyard in the middle of the city. Beautiful, with a grape arbor and all… but it’s been growing randomly for the past twenty years, there are too many trees that give too much shade, walkways too narrow for two people, weeds out of control, nothing is easy to access… Daunting. I need help.
My husband and I are about to buy a vacant lot next door to our urban rowhouse in Pittsburgh. Right now the lot is just an overgrown gravel parking lot and we hope to turn it into a garden full of veggies, flowers and perhaps a fruit tree. Just the front cover of the book alone looks like it would provide inspiration for creating a quaint space. Thanks for offering the book – what a generous gift to random readers!
I live on a large, treed prairie property for which I have dreams of paths to different areas of discovery – a firepit, a bridge over the pond where tadpoles grow each spring, a beautified version of my 7 foot deer-fence around the veggie garden, plenty of milkweed for butterflies. I have more ideas and space than focus and know-how. It sounds like the author would love to help me!
I would love to have this book because it is the first year in our new house where I don’t have a teeny baby to take care of and I’d LOVE to transform our yard into another room of the house.
I am seriously the worst garnder ever and I’m looking to improve my lack of skill this year. I need some inspiration. So glad I found your blog!
I need this book because I don’t have nearly enough gardening books.
i bought a home this fall, and the planning livable space in the back yard is the springs prokject!
I would love this book! Our whole backyard is asphalt, which we will be ripping out this summer, and I need ideas! I will literally have a blank canvas to work with!
I would like that book because we just moved into a house and the yard is dismally neglected and I need the inspiration!
I need this book because our yard is classic suburban northwest but thoroughly uninspiring: rhodies and mulch. I’d like something more interesting but I don’t know what.
We have lots of grass that I don’t want to waste water on and a vegetable garden that is fully functional but far from eye catching. I need a plan to make the yard both sustainable and a pleasure to be in.
Like the author, I too have a similar career as a landscape architect. Day in and day out, we pour our hearts and souls into the design of our clients “sacred spaces,” and in turn often neglect our own personal outdoor havens. If I had this book, I am sure I would use it, tab it and dog-ear the heck out of it! I love the retro furniture on the cover too, as I was just scouring the internet this weekend, trying to narrow down my next garden furniture purchase! Hope I win!!!
I need this book because we are about to embark on a complete backyard makeover this spring/summer. I’d love new ideas.
I’m a beginning gardener with a large lot. I really need to do something more to spruce up the place, but I’m feeling totally lost. I’ve put in hours and hours of work, but my garden is lack luster and I am criticised by my neighbors. Help!
Oh, this would be perfect! We have big plans to really start tackling our yard, garden and porch this Summer. Right now there’s not much more than daffodils and weeds, and once the daffodils stop blooming in a couple weeks, it’s going to look really sad out there :o)
We have three little spaces around our townhouse that we don’t know how to effectively utilise. This looks like a book that might help us find some solutions.
I’m great with the growing, just not so much the design. I wish I was one of those people with an innate design sense.
Thanks for following me on Twitter!
I have a big back yard that presents a lot of work and very little relaxation (my spouse calls it the prison garden). I need this book for inspiration and to create more of any oasis back there! Thanks for the giveaway.
I want to know how to create more of a “home landscape” — I love that term.
I’m always looking for new inspiration and landscape ideas!
There once was a lady in Texas,
Suffocating in the weeds of her “ex’es.”
Her soul’s soil is depleted -
Loamy inspiration is what’s needed –
A lush book has the nutrients in excess!
I love planting but I have no idea where to start in my new yard!
I have so many plans and not a shred of designer ability in me. OooOh I hope I win!
I want because I need. We moved into this mature property last year when our son was 4 months old. The elderly people that lived here before didn
My yard is very large with lots of possibilities I think but what they are and how I should proceed is a mystery. This book will help.
My house is so small I’m always looking for ways to improve my outside space to make it more liveable.
This book would be a tremendous inspiration to me. I’m a novice gardener and first time homeowner with big dreams to transform my front and back yard into places that my family, friends and neighbors will enjoy. I want my landscape to be a canvas to inspire everyone who sees it!
I need to add more whimsy to my mini farm
eleisa
Any inspiration for the garden/landscape is always great–always looking for new creative ideas on art & achitecture for the outdoors :)
I am stuck in a cubicell 8-10 hrs a day. I want to to go home to the outside and i need help.
Our house is below street level, and built on a north slope, so we get a lot of shade. We need to create new landscaping that invites people down to the house, rather than making them feel that they’re descending into a dark hole.
I’ll be leaving my full time employment and embarking on my new career as “full time stay at home mom” just in time for spring (yay!) Thus leaving less money for my indulgences, but more time to dream (and drool) over such beautiful spaces…
i need this book to help fulfill the deep yearning for nature and free my withered city soul
I need this book because my garden nerd is always showing.
I just plain love gardening books, especially ones about design! My yard is slooooowly transforming from a muddy dog run/prize winning weed patch to something beautiful, but it still doesn’t have what it takes to make me want to spend time out there. Right now all I see are the jobs that need to be done…
I need this book because I’ve already taken out all the books at the Vancouver Library on design and I’m still kind of stuck. Alternatively…if you feel like a project…wanna come over and help me fix my borning back yard?
Thank you for offering the book.
I’d like it because we finally got a house with a big yard that is currently full of nothing.
…nothing but ivy, blackberries, nightshade, dying fruit trees, and one enormous sequoia. Where to start?
I’d love to transform my stark suburban landscape but have no idea where to start. I think this book will inspire me.
In the summer, my daughter (now 2 1/2) and I pretty much live outside in the garden. As soon as breakfast is over, we hit the beds – and we stay out there until dinnertime! Last year she learned about watering and how to pick up the weeds I pulled out. This year she will be helping to plant her own little garden. I am always looking for new ideas on how to create garden spaces, combine plants or other elements to make our outside home even more of an oasis. I would love to add this book to our collection!
hmmmm…
I’d love to add this book to my vast library of garden books that I continually thumb through … they are like worry beads for me.
But what I REALLY want is a garden book by the awesome ANDREA BELLAMY!!!
… so I’ll wait for that one and congratulate the winner of this book!
XOivette
I am convinced I can transform our little East Van yard into an urban oasis… but I need all the help I can get! Thanks, Andrea!
I need this book because I’m a writer who used to support herself by teaching part-time, until all the colleges I teach in cut back on classes. So now I’m home, no classes to teach, and the only thing that keeps me calm is GARDENING! I have discovered gardening IN A BIG WAY the last few months, and even though I know our situation is precarious (hubby works in a start-up), I feel each plant or seedling that I buy is a way to put in a long-term investment, at minimal cost. When I garden, I don’t feel POOR. I’ve been gardening obssessively all day, every day, and all this sweat equity is showing me that — it IS possible to transform my shady backyard into a garden.
I need inspiration to turn my newly acquired five acres into useful relaxing fabuloius outdoor garden rooms
Why do I need this book???
I need some inspiration to make my back
yard private again. As my new neighbours house towers over my small rancher I’ve
noticed we haven’t been enjoying our
back yard as much as past years.
Good-bye beer guzzling bachelors!! (Hopefully)
I am also looking for inspiration for my yard. I love to be able to have a beautiful and restful space for my family and friends and inspire and help my neighbors to do the same in our neighborhood.
I have a small city yard that was dominated by a large cedar tree. The tree is now gone and so is the covered patio which it took out when it fell, I have sunlight in the yard, and a huge pile of cedar chips. It’s time to start over with an updated design inspired by this book.
because it looks like a wonderful and informative read as well as a good coffee table book thanks for the giveaway
I need this book because I don’t have doors on my bedroom and my three sons are driving me insane and they never go outside for fear of wilting so I would like to turn my back yard of my first home into a special place that one of us can go for some peace & quiet!!!
Oh- I so need this book. I have a huge backyard that I haven’t had a clue of what to do with all the years I have lived here. So now it is just a weed patch with a few odd trees and bushes here and there. This book would be great. Thanks for the chance.
I need this book because my garden/yard is crying out for help: bare patches, dying shrubs, mud pits, and moss everywhere. Can this book save my outdoor space?
Hooray, another giveaway!
I’ve enjoyed your blog since I started a landscaping certification program where I work. My ultimate goal is to help people design edible/livable spaces in small residential settings, and now that I’m gaining a designer’s perspective, I realize the need for descriptive imagery. Having always been a visual learner, I rely on books and other examples that I can show to prospective clients. At this point, however, I have only beginner’s library. This garden book seems like a wonderful picture book for the adult, and I would love to have it on hand to provide inspiration for myself as well as anyone that I can help assist in creating their own small-scale paradise.
Thanks as always for your creative blogging, and happy Spring wishes!
This book would really help me, it would inspire many ideas!
I need to start working on getting my yard together.
Thanks for the giveaway!
kimspam66(at)yahoo(dot)com
I need it because I like to dream.
this book looks very inspiring…We have recently moved to a small town on North Vancouver Island and our house/yard are basically our universe…we are putting all our energy and resources into making it a safe and fun space for our family.
We are forever improving our yard and outdoor entertaining spaces, and I can never have enough inspiration.
After ten years, we have finally gotten the inside of the house to almost where we’d like,now it’s time for our big old yard to get a facelift
We just bought a new (to us) house and I am at a total loss what to do with the landscaping. This book looks like it’s “user-friendly” and would work well for a novice gardener like myself.
digicat{AT}sbcglobal{DOT}net
We just bought a small 4 acre farm!
The plan is to transform the 3 acre field into an organic market garden. But our priority is to create an interesting, inviting space which draws people from the entrance along the winding paths filled with butterfly and bee gardens, outdoor rooms, free-range hens, fruit and nut trees, etc.
The advice from this book would be inspirational!
I think that I need this book the most, because I have a two-fold reason:
1. I live in an apartment in which the backyard / patio area is severly lacking and I need some cost-effective ways to make it look welcoming – so that we actually want to spend time there….
2. My parents just moved into a house that is absolutely boring landscape-wise. They need some help and I have offered, but I am plum out of ideas.
Pick me!!!!
Great book!
I’ve a concrete terrace that is as gray as a Vancouver fog. I need help! The terrace needs colour, inspiration and some direction to get in tip top shape and producing veggies. I’ve the “man power” to build me some planter boxes, but need the design know-how to make it beautiful. So far it appears more like a landing pad for a mega testosterone bar-b-que and his constant companion the earth machine. I need to interject some yin to the yang and get the terrace blooming beautiful.
Love your blog and have enjoyed it for many years! Cheers.
I have a small corner unfinished area in my yard that needs some loving. It has sat there for the past 20 years with a neglected dirt pile and old pipes. I can use some inspiration to bring this corner back into the mix of things of the rest of the outdoor living we enjoy.
Rumpling corner of this comment, hoping you’ll pick me! Thanks!
That would be a great win! My outdoor space consists of a lot of overgrowth, a broken concrete patio, and two patio tables, one with a broken off umbrella in it…wow that’s embarassing…
I would love this book, it would help me with my little – “design issue”
Thanks for offering the ‘give away’! Sounds like a great book – if I don’t win, I might have to check it out and add it to my library anyway. Have spent the morning going through your posts that I have missed. Now I should go and plan my veggies for the year. My tomato seedlings are getting tall on the window ledge – just waiting for the snow to disappear :).
With a big yard, outdoor living is easy. Guess I took that for granted, having never lived in the city. Now I live in a small apartment that lacks light but has great little garden space where I’m planting veggies and perennials. I’d much rather put effort into making this outdoor space livable then reminiscing about what I used to have.
i need this book because i live on the 7th floor of a high-rise apartment building and i need something to look forward to. i can’t move until the end of the year, but when i do, it will be a small house with a little funky backyard where i can grow a small patch of veggies and hang lights from the trees and watch my kitties nap in the sun. i need this book for ideas on how to make that happen!
love your blog, just discovered it today…
many thanks, gail
I need this book because it is: pretty; I must have it; and our yard is a nightmare and needs all the help that can be thrown at it. Thank you for the nice giveaway.
My neighbors think I’m nuts and I’m devaluing their properties with MY garden “design” ideas…I need help from the experts. This book will not only help me have a dream garden that I can be proud of, but also help me get back in the neighbors’ good books….help!
Wow, I love that cover. I wish my TINY yard could fit a lovely shed in it. I would love this book as I am always open to new ideas in my garden, though I have it pretty jammed packed with plants I am always fiddling with it and changing things around. I also share my books with friends and family so we can all enjoy them.
i’ve turned 90% of my small front yard into garden beds and now have issues -either with the design/scale or performance – of about half the stuff i’ve planted! this book could save my yard! thanks for doing the giveaway.
I would love this book so I could learn to make my apartment sized yarn more than a collection of containers and pots.
seems to be a great source of inspiration… And I am always open to new source of inspiration …
I just moved into a new home. and there is a lot to do. this is so exciting. there is a lot to do but this is so full of possibilities :)
thanks for sharing . and keep up with this great blog you had. just discovered it and already love it :)
i am a day late for the deadline – this book would go a long way to inspiring me to be more on top of things like planting and harvesting on time! and that would go a long way to making my view from the porch a whole lot nicer. land-e-scape!