It's summer time and the reading is easy. I polished off two books this week which I wanted to write about.
Creating Rain Gardens is a must have book. How many times have I said that over the years? If you're a designer or want to design a rain garden, get this book. Now! Cleo doesn't mess around.
Although not the prettiest book you'll see (no color) it has everything you need, including how to design, build, plant and maintain a rain garden. There are case studies, worksheets (!), charts (for rainfall runoff, for instance), plants to use, steps to take and materials needed to complete a project.
Awesome book.
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Released in February 2013, The professional design guide to green roofs by Karla Dakin, Lisa Lee Benjamin Mindy Pantiel, is part coffee table, part instructional guide. As the book jacket asserts, it does examine the factors that influence successful green roofs from the professional's point of view, including chapters on site analysis, pre-design, planning and conceptual design, encouraging biodiversity on rooftops, contracts and the future of landscape design.
The bottom line? Although it's exactly 300 pages, 100 of that is solid text helpful for a professional just starting out. Said professional may want inspiration, to know
more about the ins and outs of the business, bidding for a project and working with prospective clients or things to be wary of once
a project is in the works. But to be honest if you're an experienced green roof professional this
is not a book one needs to own, despite what the foreword says.
It is essentially the Green Roofs for Healthy Cities 201 manual with some very nice photos, the aforementioned content and comments from experienced, long time professionals from around the US (with a few international experts and projects sprinkled in).
If you have a few ($27) extra bucks and are just starting out, this book might be a decent addition to your shelf.
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