Home & Garden

Planting in a Post-Wild World inspires gardeners to design landscapes that function like naturally occurring plant communities, and shows us how to maintain them, as well. Thomas Rainer and Claudia West, two leading voices in ecological landscape design, reveal how plants fit together in nature and how to use this knowledge to create landscapes at home that are resilient, appealing, and diverse. “The authors make the case for breaking with horticultural tradition to create sustainable landscapes that are no less beautiful.” —Architectural Digest

Gabrielle Blair, author of the hugely-popular blog, Design Mom, is definitely my design twin. I love her aesthetic: bright, colorful, stylish-yet-comfortable, organized, and modern. In her first book, she shares room-by-room advice and solutions for decluttering a home and making it beautiful. Make no mistake: she knows the realities of life with kids (she has six!) and she’s not striving for perfection. But she also knows that a well-designed space can contribute happiness and sanity to life at home. “A happy marriage of interior design book and parenting guide.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review       

If you’re interested in learning more about permaculture—sustainable, nature-based design—this is a thorough introductory guide that includes detailed information on the plants, water, waste, energy, shelter, food, animals, and structures that make up the garden. “With astonishing thoroughness and admirable dedication, Bloom and Boehnlein meticulously outline every aspect of permaculture, providing inspiring examples and impeccable advice for analysis, design, implementation, and plant selection.” —Booklist

Filled with evocative images of homes around the globe, Rethink illustrates how design game-changers are weaving age-old resourcefulness with new technology, creativity with sustainability to construct a more meaningful existence. We can think small (bringing more nature inside) or big (installing moving walls for multifunctional spaces), but the point is to rethink our design choices today for a more sustainable tomorrow.

You can’t go wrong with guides from Sunset, which are written for west coast gardeners. Their newest book showcases plants and design plans for low-water beds, borders, and containers—focusing on specific plant groups that are easy to grow, belong together, and take the same conditions. With the drought on everyone’s mind—but the desire for a beautiful garden remaining—this book couldn’t come at a better time.  

As someone who just dug up her front yard and put in a vegetable garden (on a street with many passersby), I’m feeling some pressure to make sure that what I grow looks as good as it tastes. Growing Beautiful Food gives me hope that I can. A showcase of gorgeous greens, peppers, tomatoes, plums, berries, herbs, edible flowers, and much more, it provides tons of inspiration as well as information.       

Twenty homes, designed in a free-spirited, no-rules style, are featured in this beautiful, colorful, and creative book. “The New Bohemians is definitely my favorite new book of 2015…. I think this is destined to be the most read, loved, Instagrammed and ‘photographed on people’s coffee tables’ book of the year, so if you’re looking for some new inspiration for spring decorating, check out Justina’s new book.” —Grace Bonney, Design Sponge

Piet Oudolf is best known for his now-iconic designs for the High Line in New York City and Millennium Park in Chicago. Hummelo, his own garden in The Netherlands, serves as his personal design and plant propagation laboratory and is visited by thousands of gardeners each year. This new book takes you through not only his garden, but Oudolf’s development as a designer—from his first interest in gardens and plants at around age 25 to his renown today as one of the world’s top designers. 

If you've ever wondered about plants that get you drunk, this book is perfect for you. Not happy just covering the basics, Amy Stewart goes into the history, culture, and lifestyle of the various plants, grains, trees, fungi, and herbs that make up our liquor cabinets. Feeling adventurous? Try out some of the recipes shared throughout the book.