This all-inclusive volume explores landscaping solutions and provides easy-to-follow guidelines for designing plant beds and terraces, private steps and paths, serene seating areas, and soothing waterfalls on slopes of varying degrees. A guide to planting covers plant selection and installation, and includes advice on erosion control, and plants for walls and crevices. 200 photos. 80 illustrations.

Designing real gardens on slopes for real people forms the central core of this book. It demonstrates that making plans for gardens on slopes of all types really works. Not only that, they are a necessary part of the process of turning challenging sites into attractive gardens. This is a really useful book that shows how good design helps to avoid costly common mistakes. It is a simple and informative guide detailing from survey to construction and planting. Not many gardens are completely flat. Just one step in a garden makes a big difference, adding more interest to the site. But slopes do present more of a challenge when designing gardens and definitely add to the expense of a building project. A select portfolio of beautifully designed gardens shows projects from start to finish. These are not simply attractive garden plans - they actually work! Not only does this book inspire, it will show how to master hilly sites. There are currently no books that deal specifically with this common problem: in fact, in many books, designing gardens on slopes is barely mentioned. Students of garden design, qualified garden and landscape designers, landscape builders and architects, and owners of sloping gardens will therefore find this book particularly useful.

When it comes to slippery slopes, one thing you dont need is a steep learning curve. Thats why Sunset is releasing a new edition of its popular Hillside Landscaping book. Hundreds of photographs illustrate just how beautiful hillside gardens can be, accented with elements such as streams, terraces, and boulders. Step-by-step instructions guide you through basic construction techniques for walls, paths, steps, waterfalls, and more. The garden chapter includes top plants and how-tos for rock gardens and water gardens. Whether your slope is slight or imposing, youll find both inspiration and specifics here.

Frustrated with your awry looking lawn? Aprrehensive to spend to much on your not-so-beautiful patch but still want to revive its lost glory?

Grounds for Improvement helps homeowners solve those landscaping problems and make over their outdoor space in style. Jackie Taylor and Dean Hill, hosts of DIY Network’s Grounds for Improvement, teach techniques ranging from basic landscaping to intricate hardscaping. They demonstrate how to lay sod, plant shrubs, trim trees, install water features, construct arbors, erect fences, create pathways, and much more. All this knowledge is put to use on some of the most practical, beautiful, and luxurious projects ever--all presented with vivid illustrations and detailed instructions. Any home can get an uplift from the tiled patio and retaining wall, pergola, courtyard with stone planters, waterfall, or outdoor kitchen. And who wouldn’t love having their own putting green and hot tub right in their own backyard? Throughout the book, dozens of photos capture the amazing difference between "before” and "after”--a difference that anyone can make when they do it themselves.