Designing Your Gardens and Landscapes: 12 Simple Steps for Successful Planning [Plastic Comb]

Janet Macunovich (Author), Janet Maconovich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 2000

Both first-time gardeners and professional landscape designers will find that this is the book to reach for first. Macunovich's unique and practical 12-step approach takes the mystery out of landscape design. Through helpful checklists, practical illustrations, and creative design techniques, Macunovich makes it easy to plan a beautiful, functional, and elegant garden for every landscape.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In Designing Your Garden and Landscapes, Janet Macunovich lays out a simple 12-step plan that can enable you to design the perfect garden space while eliminating the guesswork. If you're a first-time gardener or a novice, chances are you'll find her sensible approach useful. The book was created as a how-to manual and workbook, so many pages leave space for priority lists or diagrams, and the plastic ring binder means it holds up to plenty of wear.

Macunovich begins by focusing on the importance of setting goals. Why do you want a garden? How will you be using it? What are your favorite plants? This process takes time and compromise, and provides the perfect beginning for moving on to the next steps: setting a budget and planning for maintenance. Once these basics are decided, the real fun begins--the actual design. Important subjects such as site assessment, plant selection, and border mapping are given thorough attention. Macunovich also does new growers a service by decoding plant-marketing comments. For instance, "does well in dry soils" can translate to both tolerating drought and rotting if overwatered, depending on your perspective. By the time you've finished these 12 steps, you'll have all the information you need to design a smart garden space. --Jill Lightner

From the Back Cover

Design the Perfect Landscape for Your Home - In 12 Simple Steps!

Let Janet Macunovich's practical approach to design help you transform your yard and garden into the landscape of your dreams! New homeowners and first - time landscapers will love this specific, easy-to-understand method. Experienced gardeners will appreciate the professional advice and helpful tips for improving their yards and gardens. Whatever your experience, this book will help you avoid costly and time-consuming mistakes. Most important, it will teach you how to customize a landscape design unique to your needs.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Plastic Comb: 128 pages
• Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC (January 10, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580173152
• ISBN-13: 978-1580173155
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #618,115 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

157 of 157 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The One With the Answers, July 11, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Designing Your Gardens and Landscapes: 12 Simple Steps for Successful Planning (Plastic Comb)

Since moving into a new house, I've been devouring every landscape book on the market, in hopes of acquiring information that will enable me to transform the weed patch and ugly bush that are the only features of my front yard into something beautiful. This is absolutely the best of the "how-to" landscape books! A real laboratory manual of landscape design, this book avoids the two major failures of many others on the market. First, unlike those that offer page after page of photos of beautifully manicured lawns from which I am expected to magically intuit the rudiments of landscape design, this book assumes rightly that I know absolutely nothing about landscaping. Then, the author uses clear diagrams and graphs to gently but methodically guide me through all stages of a design and implementation process that will enable a previously clueless me to transform my ugly view into a photo-worthy scene. Second, this book avoids the weaknesses of landscape books that so overwhelm me with the theoretical intricacies of landscape design that I am tempted to throw in the trowel and hire the work out (perhaps the authors of those books wanted me to do that all along?). By contrast, this book sequences in clear and concrete language the questions requiring decision that I will confront, lays out a range of possible actions, and then offers specific suggestions (with diagrams and graphs) for implementation. This book is sturdy and it needs to be. Rather than grace your coffee table, it will be with you as you get down and dirty in your yard with tape measure, string, and clipboard to work through the pages of this book on your way to something beautiful.

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No stone unturned!, July 10, 2002

By 

Sheri Mystina Jacob (Rogue River, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Designing Your Gardens and Landscapes: 12 Simple Steps for Successful Planning (Plastic Comb)

This book takes you through every step you will need to landscape your yard and garden. The format is somewhat like a workbook but with a ton of useful information presented in a way that makes it easy for even a "brown-thumb" like me to understand. I especially like how the author left room for notes and grids for designing the garden. Pair this with "The Encyclopedia for Organic Gardening" and you will need no other gardening literature.

12 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous, March 2, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Designing Your Gardens and Landscapes: 12 Simple Steps for Successful Planning (Plastic Comb)

Well worth the money. If you ever get a chance to see her in person, do it. Very Knowledgeable, very practical.