Gardening Basics: A Complete Guide to Designing, Planting, and Maintaining Gardens

I bought this book because I'm moving into a new home with a COMPLETELY undeveloped yard, and I've never stuck hands in soil before. This book was absolutely wonderful in it's designing ideas, and its explanations of what plants do well where. However, my only complaint is that the appendix detailing different species of plants only gives their scientific names in the headings... to get the "real" name (that people like ME would understand) you have to read through the whole paragraph about it. While reading the book cover to cover may be the best way, someone like me with little time would like as many shortcuts as possible.

Many gardening topics are covered with great close-up, step-by-step pictures. There are a lot of ideas for garden lay-outs and hard structures such as patios, walkways and fences. This is a great book for beginners and has good ideas for the more advanced also.