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The Well-Designed Mixed Garden
Building Beds and Borders with Trees, Shrubs, Perennials, Annuals, and Bulbs

by Tracy DiSabato-Aust

0-88192-559-4
460 pages; 10" x 11"; hardcover
227 color photos, 25 color illustrations, 2 b/w illustrations, 1 map

The Well-Designed Mixed Garden is a design book with a difference. Written for gardeners who are passionate about plants of all kinds, it reflects decades of professional experience and artistic innovation. It is a master class of design fundamentals, with an emphasis on often-neglected topics, such as site evaluation, color theory, and planning for maintenance. It is also a gallery of detailed design plans that show how ideas are put onto paper and then translated into three dimensions. Lessons learned in its first two parts are strengthened in an "Encyclopedia of Plant Combinations," and the lifetime care needs and unique design characteristics of featured plants are summarized in useful charts and lists. The result is a nearly foolproof guide to every aspect of designing superior gardens with superior plants.