A useful guide for anyone who has moved into a new house and needs to create a garden that will meet their needs for decades to come.

Garden Design and Planning shows you how to convert a bare patch or an existing layout into the garden of your dreams. Lavishly illustrated with photographs and drawings, it guides the reader through every stage of the process, from the initial planning to the finishing touches, offering practical advice on a variety of projects that are well within the reach of the average gardener or DIY enthusiast

"Gardens and Plants of the Getty Villa" is the long-awaited companion volume to "Plants in the Getty's Central Garden" published in 2004. In the first part of the book, garden historian Patrick Bowe explores the design, planting, and uses of the ancient Roman garden and describes how J. Paul Getty's vision to create such a garden in California was brought to reality.

The second part includes a sumptuously illustrated guide to the plants in each of the five gardens at the Villa. Bowe introduces each of the gardens, describing the underlying concepts and the relationship to the ancient Roman models as well as their architectural and sculptural elements present. He also documents how plantings have been renewed in light of new knowledge emerging from excavations conducted in the Roman gardens of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Horticulturist Michael DeHart provides informative descriptions of the growing habits and characteristics for each of the plants, citing medicinal, culinary, and ritual uses for many of them.