The Essential Garden Design Workbook (ISBN 0881926647)

Book Description:
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 tailor made 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.

Excellent for even experienced landscape professionals:
I am using this book as a textbook for a Garden Design class. I have several years of garden design experience and have many more years of gardening experience. This book explains the design process in an easy to understand and inspiring way. I have found that it addresses planting and design in subtley different ways that jog my mind to be more creative. It is well written, well designed and very informative.

Excellent presentation:
I have been looking for a garden design book for some time that would be heavy on how to lay out the design professionally on paper. This book goes through the progression of the design process and shows each step in the process. It has been extremely helpful in my designing of a three acre property.

A good and very practical garden design book:
This book covers all phases of garden design, from original research, obtaining the owner's requirements, site survey sketch, checklist and inventory, to conceptual diagrams, presentation plans, theme plan, preliminary garden layout plan and final planting plans. It discusses space, light, proportion and scale, color plates, ground plane, vertical plane, overhead plane, materials, texture, principles of planting design, planting styles, practical considerations, seasonal effects, and rendering techniques for various plans. It also has a plant list and plant hardiness zones at the end. This is one of few books that actually discuss the design aspect of gardens / landscaping. Very practical! Gang Chen, Author of "LEED AP Exam Guide" & "Planting Design Illustrated." LEED AP, AIA

For the professional as well as the do-it-yourselfer...:
Whether you're a landscape designer or hands-on gardener, this is an excellent step-by-step workbook. There are many such guidebooks on the market but this is the most comprehensive. It's packed with sketches to illustrate each point the author makes and offers a space-planning system for anyone suffering moments of 'writer's block.' Having worked as a landscape desginer for many years, I pick up this book regularly and rediscover something new each time.

Garden Design:
Very good book! This is a must have book for a beginner landscape design. A lot of examples to understand a process of garden design. I would most definitely recommend this book!!