Beth in Iowa says:

Lovely designed landscapes, but short on examples and suggestions I checked this book out of my local library after requesting my library purchase it, believing that it would prove a useful book for aging gardeners in my Midwestern area. However, I was somewhat disappointed with this book after reading it through.The first chapter is about sustainable design, filled with exhortations to “live lightly upon the land” and such, with some obvious tenets: Leave nature alone, conserve water, use pervious paving, etc. The rest of the book then shows ginormous mansions and get-away cabins with professionally designed and maintained landscapes, weed-free swathes of closely clipped lawns and large swimming pools — hardly small-footprinted abodes, one would think. I have absolutely no issue with people spending their money to live the way they wish, and I understand that landscape designers depend upon the income from wealthy clients, but it just seems somewhat hypocritical to be urging us to live lightly (or rather, to make a few minor adjustments that make us feel good about “saving the Earth,” regardless of their actual effectiveness) in such a book. Also, those pavers interspersed with grass leading up to the front door might work OK in Georgia, but they sure look like a nightmare to shovel here in the snowy Midwest.The book is filled with beautiful photos of well-designed landscapes and a few gardens in the US and England, although there were also some fairly ridiculous shots of people doing Yoga (yes, we get it: space to move around is desirable in a landscape). There was also an interesting section on house design; the ideal direction for houses to face (south) and for courtyards in warm climates, and the four parts of a landscape: Approach and Arrival Sequence, The Hub, The Perimeter, and Pathways and Destinations, which are helpful for big-picture planning of landscapes.But it wasn’t until the last chapter that the subject of designing landscapes for multiple stages of life (what I thought the entire book was to be about) is dealt with, and only then in a very general manner. It would have been nice to see a number of examples of landscapes designed for the various stages of life or for multiple stages, but instead all we see is a few photos of children playing on lawns and elderly people doing Yoga (again) and happily composting.Perhaps since every locale is unique, it is impossible to really write much about the specifics of designing for each stage of life and each property, but I feel that the book did not cover this subject very well. The book has some nice photos of professionally designed landscapes, but is not really as helpful in any specific way as it could have been.