Landscaping with Stone

We landscaped our backyard last year complete with flagstone patio, gardens and a rock retaining wall. This book was straight forward and extremely helpful. I would highly recommend it to anyone.

Sunset does a good job here of providing basic information on using stones in landscaping, including a very nice part on pebble mosaics. This book is better than the Taunton book on the same topic. Taunton suffers from sloppy editing, e.g., too much duplication on garden paths, and insufficient explanation for the DIYer. The main criticism here that I have is 1) lack of modernism. There is almost no coverage for modernist applications of stonework in architectural landscaping. 2) An adversion to including significant "commercial" installations. For example, the garden at the Getty Center, or any similiar garden, could have been included for inspiration and ideas. Overall though, its worth the money, and better than the Tauton competition.