The Essential Garden Design Workbook (Paperback)
by Rosemary Alexander

A well-designed garden provides pleasure to owner and visitor alike but often eludes even the most experienced gardener. The Essential Garden Design Workbook guides you through every stage of designing a garden, from site assessment to drawing up plans and selecting suitable materials. Here you will learn how to assess your site and experiment with design ideas that fit well with the garden's surroundings. You will find easy ways to measure large spaces, estimate the height of a tree, and determine the right proportions for a deck, pathway, or steps. The book includes clear instructions for drawing up plans --- from initial concept diagram to final design. This book is tailormade for hands-on gardeners who want to rework their gardens to achieve that sought-after 'designer finish'. Hundreds of explanatory drawings and quick-reference diagrams make this workbook a vital addition to the bookshelves of every gardener, design student, and professional. By working through this book from start to finish, a designer garden is within everyone's reach.

Succession Planting for Year-round Pleasure (Hardcover)
by Christopher Lloyd

Most gardeners want their borders to be interesting and colorful over a long season, even year-round if winters are not too severe. With this book, Christopher Lloyd shows how he chooses and orchestrates plants so that the borders always look their best. Once having covered the principles of succession planting, Lloyd explores the ingredients necessary to ensure continuously lively borders---from anchor plants and permanent perennials to drop-in plants and self-sowers. Packed with fresh ideas and practical advice for every season, Succession Planting contains all the information you need to create brilliantly successful year-round planting schemes.

A Garden Gallery : The Plants, Art, and Hardscape of Little and Lewis (Hardcover)
by George Little, David Lewis

Celebrated internationally as artists and gardeners, George Little and David Lewis open the gates to their renowned garden retreat and share the personalities and enthusiasms that have shaped its wild fantasia of plants, hardscape, and art. Little and Lewis are long-time collaborators whose concrete sculptures and installations have been collected around the world. Their Puget Sound garden is the primary showcase for their artwork but also for the unique gardening qualities that epitomize their style. Water features, oversized and broadleaved plants, expansive use of color, zone-pushing tropicals, architectural emphasis, and elements of classicism and mystery --- all combine to create a deeply personal and magical space. In this long-awaited book, Little and Lewis describe how any gardener can achieve this kind of excitement and space for reflection in his or her backyard. From practical advice on how to make a slow-drip natural fountain, choose complementary colors, or build an inexpensive Tuscan-style wall to conceptual discussions on laying out borders and making use of water, Little and Lewis offer inspiration and encourage gardeners to use imagination and take risks. Stunning and unforgettable photographs by Barbara Denk provide a lush visual interpretation.

New Jersey Gardener's Guide (Paperback)
by Pegi Ballister-Howells

Written by Pegi Ballister-Howells, a leading gardening expert in the state of New Jersey, this proven format has helped gardeners experience success and enjoyment from their gardens.

Gardening is now the favorite leisure pastime in America. Homeowners are realizing the health benefits derived from gardening, and the resulting increase in their home's property value.

Making the Most of Shade:
How to Plan, Plant, and Grow a Fabulous Garden that Lightens up the Shadows
by Larry Hodgson

Shade ... a welcome retreat for gardeners who want to escape the heat on a hot day. This book explains varying degrees of shade and their advantages and disadvantages, revealing that plenty of shade does not exclude one from having a lush and beautiful garden. For gardeners who want more shade, it offers detailed lists of the top shade trees and shrubs; the book's second half features nearly 300 shade-loving plants (perennials, annuals, climbing vines, and more), plus detailed information on growing, top performers and varieties, and problem solving. Design tips on how to combine colors and textures as well as a presentation of five garden plans in various themes (Japanese, Victorian, Native, Textured, and Annual) keep gardens looking bright and beautiful. Most helpful is the chapter on how to cope with problems like root competition from trees, growing plants in dry or moist shade, and what to do when your neighbor or a storm knocks down the tree that is your shade source.

Tree Houses You Can Actually Build : A Weekend Project Book
by David Stiles, Jeanie Trusty Stiles

Tree houses capture the imagination of the child in all of us, and they have never been more popular than they are today. This inspirational yet thoroughly practical guide shows even the most inexperienced weekend carpenter how to design and build a lifetime of memories for the entire family. With more than 200,000 copies of their popular Weekend Project Books sold, David and Jeanie Stiles have become America's First Couple of do-it-yourself woodworking. In Tree Houses You Can Actually Build, they explain basic building procedures through clear, simple instructions and non-technical line drawings that illustrate every step of the project, from the earliest sketches to the final cedar shingle. The authors outline five basic designs that can be adapted to virtually any set of conditions, and throughout the book, they emphasize safety for both adults and children. In addition to line drawings, the book contains a section of full-color photographs highlighting a variety of tree house projects, plus helpful building tips based on interviews with their owners.