Rooted in Design-Blogging for Books

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Tara Heibel and Tassy de Give’s book Rooted in Design. The printing and photography are exceptionally well executed throughout, and it’s certainly the most beautiful book to look at I’ve picked up in the last few months. I appreciate that it could function as a coffee table book without taking up the inordinate amount of space that most “coffee table” books require. Within the beautifully printed pages, however, are a feast of excellent ideas for the uninitiated hoping to bring some green life into their house. From wall mounts to suspended chandeliers and terrariums, Heibel and de Give provide thoughtful and creative ideas for decorating one’s interior home with plants, moss, and arrangements. Even a cursory thumb through the book gave me several ideas that I immediately brought to my wife’s attention. (We’ve yet to put them into execution, however.) Especially helpful are the 13 pages at the end which provide sufficient but not overwhelming details for looking after plants, watering, and pruning. I would suggest, were a second edition ever to be released, that the photographs be identified with common English names of plants and referenced alphabetically at the end of the book with the Latin names italicized beneath, instead of the other way around. I would also suggest that a wider variety of domestic settings be photographed, as the majority of the photos appeared to come from urban apartment settings of a uniform age and state of decay. (There were few photographs of the sort of suburban house which I inhabit.) I am very grateful to the authors for their guide to indoor planting.