Sustainable Gardening

Practical answers from nature-loving garden gurus

• Home
• How-To
  • Getting Started
  • Sustainable Gardening
  • Organic Gardening
  • Low Maintenance Gardening
  • New Research
  • Gardening on a Budget
  • Tips with Teeth
  • Garden Design
  • Weeding
  • Pruning
  • Pest Control
  • Compost
  • Garden Wildlife
  • Water / No Water
• Plants
  • Lawn
  • Lawn Substitutes
  • Perennials
  • Shrubs / Trees
  • Roses
  • Bulbs
  • Groundcovers
  • Vines / Climbers
  • Native Plants
  • Edibles
• Materials & Tools
  • Compost
  • Mulch
  • Soils & Fertilizer
  • Tools & Stuff

Garden Design

Garden design can be intimidating, and it's easy to feel judged by designers. And the notion of design makes us nervous that we'll have to give up our favorite plants because they clash with each other, or just aren't cool enough. But with truly minimal attention to design, you can have it all! Really.

Articles on this Site

• NEW! Top 10 Landscaping Blunders and How to Avoid Them by Don Engebretson, the Renegade Gardener is fabulous.
• Design/Install Lessons Learned follows the redo of a large border, with photos.
• What I learned about design in Master Gardener School.
• Plants and Design for Screening includes my favorites and those of Scott Aker at the National Arboretum.
• Container Gardening includes design considerations, planting, care, and plant choices.

Eye Candy on this Site

• Cool combos — just photos with plant IDs.

Stories from the Garden

• Have a Seat makes the point: What's a garden without seating?
• The Myth of Planning stirred up quite a row over on GardenRant.
• Me and My Landscape Architect is about the make-over of my own front yard, with a little help from a professional. (It served as my response to the Myth of Planning.)
• Uncool Plants can be used in cool ways, as seen in Michele Owens's Upstate New York neighborhood.

More Great Info on Line

• Landscaping 101 is essential reading for anyone starting out. It's written in the always-entertaining style of Minnesota writer/landscaper Don Engebretson — the "Renegade Gardener".
• Fast Privacy is a good article about the all-important design challenge of screening for privacy or to block some nearby ugliness. Excellent plant suggestions, too.

And in Print

• Dirt: The Lowdown on Growing a Garden with Style by Dianne Benson
• Down to Earth by Helen Dillon, and here's a review on GardenRant
• Gardens are for People by Thomas Church
• Outside the Not So Big House by Julie Moir Messervy
• Small Gardens by John Brookes
• John Brookes' Garden Design Course
• The Well-Designed Garden
• Room Outside: A New Approach to Garden Design by John Brookes
• Penelope Hobhouse's Garden Designs
• Garden Style by Penelope Hobhouse
• Taylor's Master Guide to Landscaping
• Ann Lovejoy's Organic Garden Design School
• Naturalistic Gardening by Ann Lovejoy
• The American Mixed Border by Ann Lovejoy
• Architecture in the Garden by James van Sweden
• Gardening with Nature by James van Sweden
• Tasha Tudor's Garden by Tovah Martin
• The Making of a Garden by Rosemary Verey
• Planting Design by Piet Oudolf
• Designing with Plants by Oudolf and Kingsbury
• Dream Plants for the Natural Garden by Piet Oudolf
• Planting the Natural Garden by Piet Oudolf
• Anyone Can Landscape! by Joel Lerner
• Exotic Planting by Christopher Lloyd (his last) and here's a review on GardenRant