World of Garden Design: Inspiring Ideas from Around the Globe to Your Backyard

You'll find it hard to tear yourself away from the gorgeous world tour of garden photos of this colorful book. More inspiration than practical guide, there's plenty to admire no matter what your style preference. Choose from among stately formal gardens, shady riverbanks, tidy herb beds, or complex succulent showcases, all presented with stunning depth of color on pleasingly glossy paper. Each photo has accompanying suggestions and design hints from the gardeners responsible for such glory. The text is scant, but what there is makes for interesting reading.

Design histories, the practical needs for each environment that resulted in creative and stunning plant choices, important elements of each type of design--these are all included as the sidelines to the incredible pictures. In the section entitled "Bringing It Home," the text expands to practical tips to help you duplicate the looks you've admired on previous pages--each style is covered in slightly greater depth, but the focus is on design, rather than plant care or environmental suitability. The perfect book to pore over on a cold and rainy day, The World of Garden Design is fabulous fodder for brainstorming sessions in developing fresh ideas for your own gardens. For those lucky enough to travel the world seeing various gardens in person, this book will give you ideas for new places to visit, or lovely reminders of the places you've been. --Jill Lightner