Landscaping for Dummies [Paperback]

Phillip Giroux (Author), Bob Beckstrom (Author), Lance Walheim (Author), The Editors of the National Gardening Association (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 27, 1999

A beautiful landscape reflects well on your house, making it a  welcome part of a  neighborhood or native terrain. And it  dramatically increases your home’s value. Landscaping also makes your house and yard more useful and better able to complement your family’s lifestyle. Trees shade your home to reduce energy use. Thorny shrubs deter prowlers. Lawns reduce dust from bare ground and give children the perfect play area. Patios and decks are great for entertaining. And a vegetable garden can yield fresh, delicious salads to eat on that patio or deck.

Landscaping for Dummies has everything you need to turn the little patch of earth you call your own into a personal paradise. Whether you’ve waited for the day to have property to landscape, you’d never given it a second thought until you had to, or you want to improve on an existing landscape, this book offers a clearly written wealth of knowledge on:

• Designs
• Fences, walls, gates, and paths
• Decks, patios, and outdoor rooms
• Trees
• Shrubs and vines
• Ground cover

From the basic principles of landscape design, to all the ins and outs of hillsides, balcony gardens, and water gardens, this book will show you how to:

• Think like a designer
• Dream up the right landscape for your family’s needs
• Increase your home’s resale value
• Conserve energy
• Deal with contractors, nurseries, and hardware suppliers
• Create an edible landscape

Full of helpful problem-solvers for all kinds of landscapes, Landscaping for Dummies also features sample plans, “theme” landscape ideas, and a brilliant color photo section to inspire the imagination. Accessible and informative to both beginner and expert landscapers, this is the complete guide to creating the yard you’ve always wanted.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This guide is intended as a basic reference for those who want to improve their landscape. Beginning with a Wish List, the authors help gardeners achieve the yard of their dreams. Each step of the process is explained: designing a layout, building "hardscape" (paths, fences, arbors), selecting plants and trees, choosing a contractor or deciding to do the work yourself. Icons are used to point out important information. Many illustrations, checklists, a hardiness zone table, plant lists, lists of mail-order suppliers, 16 professional landscape designs, recommended readings, and online resources provide inspiration. The tone of the book is upbeat and humorous. Recommended for public libraries. (Color photographs not seen.)ANancy Lee Myers, Univ. of South Dakota Lib., Vermillion
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"I was amazed at its comprehensiveness and thoroughness--you can tell that the authors really have done this stuff before." -- About.com

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 392 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 1 edition (January 27, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764551280
• ISBN-13: 978-0764551284
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #74,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #12 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > How-to & Home Improvements > Decks & Patios
  • #74 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Botany

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

172 of 182 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Wasting money for dummies - buy this book from me, March 28, 2001

By 

James L. Graham (Dearborn Heights, MI United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Landscaping for Dummies (Paperback)

You are just as likely to need the assistance of the above referenced title as you are to gain information from this book. It could be re-titled: "Gardening for Dummies" and possibly pass muster as a helpful guide. For landscaping - save your money and invest it in plantings. Most of the text is dedicated to construction projects (decks etc.) what plants are good for what purpose (height, width), and the value of good landscaping. Unfortunately the text discussing HOW to landscape effectively is breezed through with only the briefest nod to the MOST elemental concepts. A (with liberties taken) paraphrase," You will need dirt. Dirt is available at garden centers. Plants will not grow without it, so make sure you have some before you attempt to establish your plants." For any but the most significantly stupid, this book is useless for the purpose it alleges to serve. I would have given it a "0" star rating, but that isn't an option.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Only an overview, February 26, 2004

By 

gdesignr (Tampa, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Landscaping for Dummies (Paperback)

I found the book to be useful in terms of providing some overall ideas for what can be done to a landscape, but useless in terms of actually getting down to the business of landscaping.

For instance, the section about grass types lists 8 different grasses for my region, which is nice, but it doesn't give you any real way to compare and contrast those 8 types to choose which one you want. For some grasses it tells you if they are seed or sod, but it doesn't give that info for all the grasses. Same thing for shade or sun, disease resistance, etc... In the end I had to go to other sources to figure out which type of grass I wanted in my yard.

Same thing happened when picking shrubs. Pictures of different shrub types would have been helpful, but instead there were just basic descriptions that were hard to compare and contrast among the shrub types.

This book is very general and not that useful for people who are actually ready to start landscaping and need help making the decisions about what will go into their yard. I was pretty disapointed because I've had great luck with other For Dummies books.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Okay for the basic landscaper, February 12, 2006

By 

Guy McCord "dirty hands make a clean living" (Tampa Bay, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Landscaping for Dummies (Paperback)

I've been working in commercial landscaping off and on for nearly four years now. I borrowed this book from a friend just to check it out. I think if you are a new homeowner and don't have much experience in landscaping then this book will probably work. If you are familiar with planting tree's and shrubs, bricklaying, fencing, and bordering, then maybe you should try and find something a little more advance. I suppose it depends on how big the project is you are working on.