The Essential Garden Design Workbook: Completely Revised and Expanded

by Rosemary Alexander, Rachel Myers

A bestselling classic completely revised and updated

The Essential Garden Design Workbook  has been the go-to guide for students, professionals, and any gardener passionate about well-designed outdoor spaces. Now, eminent designer-educator Rosemary Alexander has teamed up with rising design star Rachel Myers for a complete update. 

New garden plans, new photos and diagrams, and updated profiles of 50 top plants offer timely insights for today’s designers. Advice on designing for sustainability and diversity has been added, along with guidance on planning for garden spaces large and small, using computer-aided design, and starting a garden design business. Detailed sections that lead you through the entire process—pre-design, concept, layout, planning, planting, and maintenance—are more relevant than ever. Invaluable for experienced pros and the next generation alike, this expanded classic is for anyone interested in designing beautiful, successful gardens.
 

Genres: Gardening, Reference, Nonfiction, Horticulture, Design, Professional Development, Landscaping

392 pages, Hardcover

First published May 11, 1987

Reviews

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It was a good refresher on garden design. It definitely has an English flair to it--much of the garden design suggestion pointed to traditional English gardens, as well as climate and plant info specific to England.

The audience didn't quite seem clear--it was at times too complicated for a homeowner, but too simple for a professional garden designer. I used it as a refresher for previously taken garden design classes and it worked well for that.

I would have liked more useful information out of the book for instance worksheets to fill out, checklists, and summaries. Doubt I will return to it because it lacks that.

[Shae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Organized and laid out like a college level textbook -- it has diagrams, colored pictures, glossary, index, further reading.

Chapters include: Research, Preparation and Design Appraisal; Developing the Design: Focusing on the Ground Plane; Finalizing the Garden Layout Plan; Creating a Planting Plan; and, Visualizing and Constructing the Design.

A dense book, but one I would tackle in the winter if I was designing my own landscaping.

[Rebekkah P · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is aimed at folks who are going to be planning many gardens, one imagines mostly for other people. It’s got a lot of good information, from advice on developing a questionnaire for prospective clients to techniques for drawing. It’s also a little bit geared towards large spaces - not huge ones, but generous suburban yards at least. It wasn’t very helpful for me trying to think about what to do with my postage-stamp city-centre yard, but there were a few good insights anyway.

[Christy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whew! Extremely technical. Fantastic information.

[athousandsorrows · Rating 5 out of 5]

👍

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Essential Garden Design Workbook by Rosemary Alexander; Rachel Myers This book is filled with so much information. It is a wonderful way to plan not only your personal gardens but to do it on a professional level. A lot of the books is pointed towards the professional level but I was able to learn a whole lot on the personal level. There are forms in the books that can be used to work out your ideas and plans. There are also tons of tips.
 
I have never personally done a blueprint of my gardens I just plant things where I think they will look good. Sometimes it works out sometimes not so much. Now I have a better understanding of how and where to put the plants I want and have them actually grow.
 
I received this book from the Author or Publisher via Netgalley.com to read and review.

[penny shima glanz · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this workbook is geared more toward a budding professional landscaper than most home gardeners, it provides useful information for the entire spectrum of garden design and designers.
Personally I found the design & post-design phase sections most useful for my home garden. For me it was valuable to learn tips for measuring and creating a rough layout sketch to both the existing elements and my goals for the space. This skill allows me to work more effectively with a professional.
My own work assists clients in organizing and utilizing their business information, so I found this part of the book beneficial as well. The basic forms and checklists will help get a new landscape designer started on the right organized foot.
This third edition is a welcome update to this title.
I received an eARC of this title from NetGalley in exchange for a review. The FTC wants you to know.

[Lindsey Lawntea · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Essential Garden Design Workbook is a great tool for landscapers and business owners. It covers the entire process from pre-design through post-implementation. It is not particularly good for people who are just starting to learn about garden or people who garden casually, although the design section still has some useful pages of examples for planning, mapping out a blueprint, and selecting plants to fit your vision. I was not expecting the book to be this expansive or technical when I requested it, so it definitely was not for me, but it does appear to be pretty comprehensive when it comes to professional garden design.

Note: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. Special thanks to the publisher and author for providing the copy.

[Gang Chen, Author of "Planting Design Illustrated" · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good and very practical garden design book

This book covers all phases of garden design, from original research, obtaining the owner's requirements, site survey sketch, checklist and inventory, to conceptual diagrams, presentation plans, theme plan, preliminary garden layout plan and final planting plans.

It discusses space, light, proportion and scale, color plates, ground plane, vertical plane, overhead plane, materials, texture, principles of planting design, planting styles, practical considerations, seasonal effects, and rendering techniques for various plans. It also has a plant list and plant hardiness zones at the end. This is one of few books that actually discuss the design aspect of gardens / landscaping. Very practical!

[Lynndell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helpful and useful for complex garden planning.
Thanks to NetGalley and Timber Press for the opportunity to read and review The Essential Garden Design Workbook by Rosemary Alexander and Rachel Myers!
I thought this book was for a layperson to help with designing landscapes but it's geared more toward professional landscapers. The design phase section is helpful to both with tips on shapes, patterns and unification of gardens. Helps on furniture and containers are included also. The garden layout plan section helps to visualize what you want your landscape to look like. Some photos are included but most of the book is illustrated. Helpful but a little too complex for the average gardener; still deserves a 5 star rating for the complete directions of landscaping from start to finish!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't truly rate this book. I think it's for professional garden designers, or people who are interested in pursuing lansdscaping as a hobby or profession. I couldn't really read it, but I picked it up and looked at it a lot.

Plus: tons, tons, tons of drawings and pictures. Scads of ideas about everything. More information on every page than I knew existed.

Minus: more information on every page than I knew existed. Investment of time and energy required to follow her advice far greater than I have. Written for England and so the "native species" are not applicable to my area.

Definitely worth looking at, but overwhelming.

[Monica]

I need this book like a hole in the head. In the garage was a vast collection of plant tags gathering dust for the last 17 years. Now they're washed, sorted to a piles for perennials and annuals and I'm doing my best to toss duplicates. For a few years I've been gathering research, creating documents with pertinent information, plant specifications, symbolism and care for each specimen, with additional notes on where they were planted, how much they cost, how they faired, when they were transplanted, etc. It's a satisfying hobby, for some of us, anyway.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book on what to think about when planning your garden. Very detailed if you wish to draw out your own plans or what do look for if you are lucky enough to have someone else doing the landscaping. I plan to add it to my library.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extremely technical book, describing how to make a detailed site plan. It seems to be geared toward British gardens, but the advice carries for my urban US lot. Suburban spreads may not find as much of use here. It's a good complement to Home Outside.

[Amy Madden · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is by far the best book on the subject I've found. Love it, just need the time to do it...

[Sherri · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was too complicated for me. This is what the people I hire need to have read! The explanations were good but too technical for me.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most valuable takeaway from this one was the idea of using a grid system to plan one's garden. This was a very helpful concept for me to help me organize my plan for the backyard.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful guide, Have not managed to work through it, but plan to one day.

[Trish Remley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always working to increase my knowledge and this book covered a lot of fundamentals and steps of actual design drawing so that I can make a more professional presentation.

[Lise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book for starting garden design... but it's necessarily an overview so in places I would appreciate more detail (or examples). Based on UK gardens, but that's not too much of a hinderance.

[Miriam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thorough and technical foundation for landscaping (geared towards professional landscaping business) definitely from the perspective of UK gardening—the long skinny garden plans are a real tell😉