Penelope Hobhouse's Garden Designs

A friend of mine introduced this book to me when I was doing research and writing "Planting Design Illustrated." I loved it. It has many great photos to illustrate garden design. It is a collection of garden design done by Penelop Hobhouse and her partner. It enlightens you and encourages you to look at a design issue at a detail scale. Very good images. It'll show you how brilliant human beings can be. Penelop Hobhouse is one of the best writers on gardening and garden design, her books always have great print quality and very nice color photos. No offence, she is also one of the great people that dare to call a garden a garden, not "landscape." She is actually talking about landscape design issues, but she prefers to use the term garden or gardens and make her book closer to ordinary people. As a design professional, I love her books also. Gang Chen, Author of "LEED AP Exam Guide" & "Planting Design Illustrated." LEED AP, AIA

I've had this book for several years now and keep coming back every year as an old faithful source of planning inspiration. Beautifully illustrated with plans for many scenarios. Many of the books written by or about English gardens are beatiful to look at but don't stand much of a chance at being reproduced in the typical suburban garden. Hobhouse has, in my opinion, shown us extraordinary gardens, gorgeously photographed, along with plans that can actually be implemented in your garden. I've got a library of garden books, some serving as inspiration and some serving as pure tools (almanacs, etc.) - this is by far the best inspirational garden book I own.

Hobhouse's book combines the look of a coffee table book with the practicality of a manual with her many varied garden design examples. Each design has an explanation followed with outstanding photos. However, the best part is that she illustrates in plan how her plants are grouped so that the beginning gardener can learn about spatial concepts while also about plant placement, color, texture, etc. This is a thorough, but not overwhelming design source and guide that is both useful and inspiring.