Cover Image: Beginner's Guide to Garden Planning and Design

Beginner's Guide to Garden Planning and Design

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Member Reviews

This book has beautiful photography and I enjoyed reading about different styles of gardens. I also like the numerous tips offered throughout for designing a space based on your taste, or what challenges you may be working with (space, a fence you don’t like, lack of privacy, etc). I gained some inspiration for things to try in my small city garden.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book!

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Review coming soon!

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC.

Opinions are mine.

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I love this so much! The pictures are divine and I love the practical advice. It is gardening season now, so I am using this as a guide.
I hope the library buys a copy.

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This was a fun gardening book. It contained many different gardening ideas supported by beautiful full-color photos, tales of personal experience, tips, and related suggestions.

As the title suggests, this book is primarily geared toward beginners, but I would call it a worthwhile read for anyone who enjoys gardening. I have read a lot of gardening books over the years and even a few on garden design, but I still learned things from this book that were new to me. For example, I learned more about a type of gardening I was unfamiliar with (moss gardening). I also learned a great formula for determining the size of foundation gardens.

But this book isn't just about ideas and inspiration. It's also a practical guide, especially useful for newbies or those planning to design or overhaul their gardens. It provides a list of 10 recommended pollinator plants, a helpful resource for anyone looking to attract beneficial insects to their garden.
Of course, a more in-depth book would be necessary for someone trying to maintain a garden, diagnose plant problems, etc. This book is not an encyclopedia or a complete reference. However, it is a good starting point for someone looking for garden ideas via text and photos.

Overall, this is a great book, and I would like to see more from this author and publisher.

Thank you Creative Homeowner for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

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This book is perfect for giving you outdoor space an update and to add some new and intriguing ideas to you landscape. Container gardens, country/cottage gardens, and herb gardens are a few that the book covers. Adding color, depth and movement are essential to a visually pleasing garden and landscape. I cannot wait for the weather to break and get outside to play. So many ideas within this book. A great gift for any new homeowner or family member that could use a bit of inspiration.

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Each garden design ‘lesson’ is broken up into small, clear steps to think about as you dream your garden into existence. You get enough to educate & inspire you, but not too much to overwhelm you.

I especially enjoyed the sidebars in each lesson- Gardening with confidence. This included things to consider about applying that particular lesson, usually by way of the authors personal experience in her garden design.

Several design ideas I previously had only seen in passing, but this time, through the pages of this book, I stopped and took a deeper look, say, into moss or rock gardening. These stops were delightful and inspiring.

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This book is so beautifully done. I grew up in North Carolina, and all the visuals remind me so much of my mother’s garden growing up (the author lives in NC, so it makes sense) and the joy I had learning about plants. So much of the advice in this book feels like it came straight from my mom: layering plants, critter control, etc. I am moving out of the city soon and will have a backyard to start gardening in, so this book was a great starting point for me. I think the author’s narrative writing style is helpful, but at times it can be difficult to follow when a bulleted list will do. Though it has some specifics, I had to remind myself that this guide doesn’t provide specifics of what to grow where and when. I do love the “Gardening With Confidence” section in every chapter. I will definitely be gifting this book to my mom!!

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I really enjoyed this book. I've been looking for something similar to help expand my skills and this was absolutely perfect to achieve my goals.

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What a stunning book. The photography is absolutely amazing. The text is spot on, easy to read with many ideas and examples. It’s also feels familiar and not technical or wordy. It’s more like friendship text. She also encourages gardeners to think outside the box and not always play it safe when planting. This is the perfect book for beginning gardeners as well as seasoned gardeners. I love the different chapters and how small they are before moving to a different type of garden. Tips and tricks are plentiful. I will be delighted to share this book with fellow gardeners as a keeper in their own library
Thanks you #netgalley and #foxchapelpublishing for allowing me the opportunity to review this book.
Absolutely stunning

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