Taylor's Master Guide to Landscaping: Everything a Homeowner Needs to Know about Designing, Maintaining, and Renovating a Home Landscape

This is the most often used book I continually return to for landscaping reference and guidance. It's well written and will have you on the way to improving your landscape after the first read. One reviewer mentions Rita is opinionated. This is true. So you'll have to read around some of the opinions and decide for yourself what holds true for your property. If you need just one landscaping book, I would highly recommend this book. It has a great balance of ideas, pics, & text. It is well structured and organized.

I admire Rita Buchanan's style.In a time of the pre-digested, summarized 'Idiot's Guides', she addresses landscape design in a methodical and logical progression. The text doesn't get bogged down in species' names and planting plans, but instead opens our minds to the larger questions of overall goals and needs. As such, I have found this to be the perfect companion as I plan my garden, opening my mind to the wider possibilities that I hadn't considered.Having said that, you might be disappointed if you are looking for a book to 'dip into' for rapid solutions. I have found this book more rewarding if you have 30 minutes to spare with a comfy chair and cup of coffee, rather than just a 3 minute break.

An incredibly complete guide to landscaping your home with many illustrative photographs and diagrams. The author covers everything from the setting up landscaping goals to the techniques of putting in edgings, paths, fences and on to choosing and caring for plants. The author does not pull her punches, coming out, for example, clearly against landscape fabric. Although information on the plants themselves is limited, it is an excellent overall gardening book that can be supplemented by more detailed plant guides.

This landscaping guide truly is a book about decisions, and we all know how hard decisions are to make. Author Rita Buchanan recognizes that drawing up a landscape design means making many decisions at one time, and that may be too much for some people. She gives several ways to visualize a planting, including a three-dimensional mock-up with garden tools and string or hose. She steps you through different types of paths and edgings, walls and fences and bridges. She devotes a large portion of the book to plant care. This section could stand on its own as a plant care guide.

This book is an outstanding overview of landscape design. The book is divided into small, easily readable segments discussing every aspect of design including evaluating your site, hardscape, and plant selection and care. This is not a how-to book; readers interested in this would be happier with any book by Sara Jane von Trapp. Instead, Taylor's Master Guide to Landscaping paints the execution of garden design in broad strokes. There is an emphasis on working with your individual property, and the book provides you with the knowledge needed to determine what will work in your yard (and what will not). A lot of information is contained in well-organized, cohisive prose. The photographs are beautiful and appropriate to the subject matter being discussed. I found this book very difficult to put down, although it is organized in such a way that it would be easy to digest in small portions (as well as refer back to later). In conclusion, no gardening fan should be without this book.