Best Backyard Landscape Design

best landscaping ideas, diy landscape design books for sale

2. Taylor’s Master Guide to Landscaping by Rita Buchanan

Taylor’s Master Guide to Landscaping is a great book for anyone learning to do their own home landscaping, whether you are an experienced gardener or if you are completely new to landscape design. This book covers how to choose plants that are appropriate to your climate, avoid common mistakes, plant your landscape and plan for future growth. It also covers creating an outdoor living room, and design and build walks, paths, steps, fences, walls and hedges. There are separate chapters dedicated to individual types of plants, covering care for trees, shrubs, vines, ground covers and perennials.

Price: $18.07

Pros:

Cons:

Not a lot of inspirational photos
Does not cover patio design
Some reviewers noted contradicting statements

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3. The Living Landscape: Designing for Beauty and Biodiversity in the Home Garden by Rick Darke

The Living Landscape takes a different approach to landscape design than many DIY landscaping books. This book shows how to have a home landscape that not only provides beauty and structure to your yard, but also nourishes and fosters wildlife. This book teaches strategies for creating and maintaining a home landscape that meets your needs and preferences while also serving the needs of the wildlife communities in your local area. It covers native plants in detail and how they can work together to attract wildlife and keep it coming back.

Price: $27.65

Covers native plants
Focuses on conservation
Teaches you the skills needed to attract wildlife

Does not cover how-to projects
Does not cover traditional landscape design topics
Only covers a certain ecoregion

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4. Edible Landscaping by Rosalind Creasy

Rosalind Creasy, the author of Edible Landscaping, first popularized landscaping with edibles over 25 years ago. Today, there is a lot of interest in healthy eating, organic gardening and growing your own food. Creasy is an expert on both landscaping design and edible plants, and her book has been considered a classic since it was published in 1982. This new edition has been expanded upon with over 300 full color photos for inspiration. This book covers in detail how to plan a home landscape using vegetables, fruits, nuts and berries that will be attractive as well as provide delicious food. The book also features appendices that cover planting and maintenance, pest control and organic practices.

Price: $18.51

Includes over 300 color photographs of edible landscapes
Has examples of gardens all across the country
Focuses on an aspect of landscaping that other books do not cover

Some reviewers stated that the format is hard to follow
Some reviewers found the book to be repetitive
A lot of the information can be found online

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5. Lawn Gone!: Low-Maintenance, Sustainable, Attractive Alternatives for Your Yard by Pam Penick

Lawn Gone is another book that takes a fresh new approach to landscaping design. This book focuses on ways to design, plant and maintain a beautiful and functional landscape as a replacement for the standard lawn. This approach has a lot of benefits, including less watering, no mowing, and saving money. It covers topics such as alternative grasses that don’t need mowing, drought-tolerant plants, regional recommendations, artificial turf, and step-by-step instructions on removing your lawn. This is a great book for both beginners and experienced gardeners looking to change their attitude towards home landscaping.

Price: $14.69

Includes recommendations for all around the country
Has a lot of new and innovative ideas

Reviewers mentioned there are not a lot of photos
Not all of the ideas focus on water-saving plants
Not a very long book

These urban gardening books prove that you don't have to live in the country to grow your own food, and it is easy to bring some green into city living.

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Source: heavy.com

Landscaping Tips

Though your home is your castle, there is no necessity to surround it with a moat. Here are 5 tips that will help you to make your landscaping feel more warm, welcoming and cozy.

1. Put some flowers nearby your entrance. Flowers make any area look more welcoming and attractive, so greeting your guests with Petunia, Snapdragon, Lily-of-the-Nile or some other garden flowers is always a great thing to do. What is more, to add some space between your house and the entrance, you can consider adding a little white fence. It will create an illusion that your front yard is bigger than it actually is. What is more, adding fence will create a great space for planting flowers to add some color and coziness.

2. Add rambling vines to make your yard look absolutely lovely. You can not deny that rambling vines always create romantic and even magical atmosphere. So why not to use this tip while decorating your yard?

3. To hide the unattractive driveway, consider adding some color, texture, and height. You can easily do it by adding various sorts of flowers. To start, create an island of green lawn right in the hub of a drive. Then add a couple of low boxwood hedges with flowers toward the back of your island.

4. If you want your yard to blossom and flourish bust still do not have enough time to maintain it, consider planting low-fuss lilies. Such flowers look absolutely gorgeous and come in the variety of rainbow hues, so you can pick the one you love most. What is more, low-fuss lilies do not care about the sort of soil, they love the sun and welcome hot, they do not afraid of drought. In other words, Crinums is an ideal flower for all those who are looking for low-maintenance solutions.

5. The last tip also touches the low-maintenance aspect. To make your life easier, group plantings into beds and islands. This will help you to avoid mowing and trimming around each individual plant, save a lot of time and even money.