A breakthrough in inspiring yet practical do-it-yourself garden and landscape design, including dozens of detailed plans.

Finally, homeowners can tackle new garden designs and fix old ones with the confidence and know-how to succeed. Professional garden designer Gordon Hayward provides the tools by demonstrating the guiding principles behind his own designs: take clues from the style, materials, and proportions of existing features, particularly your house, but also garages and outbuildings, property lines, streets, walls, and walkways. Look closely at these features, and they will suggest good design.

Over sixty color photographs and over one hundred detailed watercolor sketches of Hayward's plans for his clients show how to read the clues and then design gardens that relate to their surroundings and unify entire properties. Many tricks of the trade are given, including how to make inviting, sheltering entry gardens; screen unsightly features and utilities; and reclaim narrow, shady side yards. Surefire methods for designing front, side, and backyard gardens are explained. 200 color photographs and drawings.

"Every homeowner needs this book!"—Julie Moir Messervy, garden designer and author of The Inward Garden

"Garden design has never had a better teacher. Read Your House, Your Garden and make everything look right."—Roger B. Swain, Science Editor, Horticulture magazine

Garden and landscape designer Gordon Hayward and his wife, Mary, take the measure of their home garden in process for more than twenty years and tell readers how to make their own gardens welcoming and personal, truly a reflection of their needs and dreams. As the Haywards point out, "successful gardens grow naturally out of their owners; great garden design is honest, authentic, and unself-conscious." Gordon explains how aspects of his and Mary's lives are woven into their garden, but also how those aspects remain firmly fixed in universal design principles that apply to every garden. With the practical advice and achievable aims that make his other books so rewarding, Hayward lets readers in on the secrets that make his garden outstanding. Almost 200 stunning photographs specially commissioned for the book show key garden views in all four seasons, giving readers a rare look at a year in a garden. Before-and-after shots, detailed garden maps, and plant lists are included."