Complete Landscaping (This Old House Complete)
For readers considering doing their own landscaping for the first time, the home improvement experts at This Old House offer a full-color, traditional how-to of modern American landscaping. This isn't Landscaping for Idiots-it assumes a certain amount of handiness on the part of the reader, who also must know how to use graph paper. Mainly, the book provides an overview of the entire landscaping process, from the initial planning to the satisfaction of laying down the plants. The editors cover all the basics: patios, paths, benches, hot tubs, children's play areas, arbors, decks, pools, ponds, fountains, trees, shrubs and perennials. Several chapters contain step-by-step instructions on smaller projects, such as installing low-voltage outdoor lighting and making a simple patio fountain. Helpful hints are dispersed throughout on how to choose between sprinklers and drip irrigation, the best way to estimate concrete and gravel amount, and how to correctly choose a tree. Before and after photos provide inspiration, and the easy-to-read, magazine-style layout allows for interruption of the text with relevant pictures, graphics and illustrations. This might not be the only book readers will need to successfully make over their yards, but it's nevertheless worth a small space in their landscaping libraries.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.