by Kate Jonuska
a simple guide for a perfect outdoor space
DATE YOUR HOME. Find your gardening personality. Recipe cards inside! Chatty and accessible, Ryan McEnaney brings the easy, causal tone of your favorite magazine into the realm of garden reference books in “Field Guide to Outside Style: Design & Plant Your Perfect Outdoor Space.”
That chatty tone stems from deep experience: McEnaney is a fifth-generation family member and owner at Bailey Nurseries, founded in 1905 in Minnesota, where he serves as spokesperson. And his light framing of what can be an overwhelming subject—planning an entire garden—is delightful as well as instructive.
For instance, he uses a dating analogy to walk readers through planning and prepping a garden area. The brunch date encourages guests to collect jars of dirt to test for composition, which makes a party out of soil testing.
“Each date,” he explains, “will check a box from something you need to remember when we actually get to planning your garden and choosing plant recipes.”
Similarly, the book outlines three main gardening personalities: Martha (classic), Tommy (minimalist) and Kelly (naturalist). As entertaining as an online quiz and full of visual examples, these archetypes are genuinely helpful for gardening newcomers to determine their taste and goals. McEnaney sets up example spaces and explains how a Kelly might approach the space differently than a Martha or a Tommy.
Then later during the nitty gritty of plant planning, he again uses these archetypes to set up “recipe cards,” meaning suggested combinations of plants for different climate zones, e.g. for Kellys in cold, temperate or subtropical areas. Certainly, you’re encouraged to riff on and evolve those recipes, but such cheat sheets are priceless distillations of expertise to the novice and intermediate gardener.
By not taking an overwhelming subject too seriously, “Field Guide to Outside Style” encourages readers to start from wherever they are and move toward the beautiful outside space of their dreams.
