David Culp is the creator of the gardens at Brandywine Cottage in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. He has been lecturing about gardens nationwide for more than 25 years and articles about him have appeared in Gardens Illustrated, Horticulture Magazine, and numerous other publications.
The days might be getting longer, but we have the doldrums of February to get through before we can even think about spring. So get David’s book The Layered Garden, take a seat by the window overlooking your garden with a glass of wine or cup of coffee and begin to plan new gardens that provide amazing vistas through all four seasons.
“As Joanne and I plan our new gardens, we have been using The Layered Garden as a resource. It’s been very helpful for inspiration and factual information and we can’t wait to get started.” – Whit Harvey
The Layered Garden shows you how to recreate Culp’s majestic display. It starts with a basic lesson in layering — how to choose the correct plants by understanding how they grow and change throughout the seasons, how to design a layered garden, and how to maintain it. To illustrate how layering works, Culp takes you on a personal tour through each part of his celebrated garden: the woodland garden, the perennial border, the kitchen garden, the shrubbery, and the walled garden. The book culminates with a chapter dedicated to signature plants for all four seasons.
“In the Garden, I express myself in two distinct ways: as a plantsman who enjoys collecting specimens of a variety of genera and watching how they grow and express themselves, and as a designer who enjoys playing with plants to achieve a desired effect.” – David Culp