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.
fugitiveartist says
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.
Abby says
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.
blossom says
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.
Ana says
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.
Rebecca says
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!
Erin H says
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!
Rebecca says
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.
Angela says
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!
Jim/ArtofGardening says
I need this book because I don’t have nearly enough gardening books.
metis says
i bought a home this fall, and the planning livable space in the back yard is the springs prokject!
Lauren V says
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!
Jaspenelle says
I would like that book because we just moved into a house and the yard is dismally neglected and I need the inspiration!
Michelle says
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.
David says
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.
Tyla B. says
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!!!
KBO says
I need this book because we are about to embark on a complete backyard makeover this spring/summer. I’d love new ideas.
Jenn S. says
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!
marn says
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)
Janet says
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.
Eva says
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!
Susan says
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.
kelly says
I want to know how to create more of a “home landscape” — I love that term.
Steph says
I’m always looking for new inspiration and landscape ideas!
Stemme Fatale says
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!
MJ says
I love planting but I have no idea where to start in my new yard!
Katie says
I have so many plans and not a shred of designer ability in me. OooOh I hope I win!
Ms. S says
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
ALLY in WA says
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.
Kat Bryan says
My house is so small I’m always looking for ways to improve my outside space to make it more liveable.
Shawn Klinkner says
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!
eleisa says
I need to add more whimsy to my mini farm
eleisa
Amber says
Any inspiration for the garden/landscape is always great–always looking for new creative ideas on art & achitecture for the outdoors :)
Eric says
I am stuck in a cubicell 8-10 hrs a day. I want to to go home to the outside and i need help.
Don says
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.
Jaime says
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…
heidi says
i need this book to help fulfill the deep yearning for nature and free my withered city soul
Gwen says
I need this book because my garden nerd is always showing.
Lisa says
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…
Hannah says
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?
Patrick Gracewood says
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?
Freedom24 says
I’d love to transform my stark suburban landscape but have no idea where to start. I think this book will inspire me.
Carrie says
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!
germi says
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
kevin says
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!
Marianne Villanueva says
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.
melanie says
I need inspiration to turn my newly acquired five acres into useful relaxing fabuloius outdoor garden rooms
luv2dig says
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)
Jean says
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.
Teri says
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.
mindy says
because it looks like a wonderful and informative read as well as a good coffee table book thanks for the giveaway