[.uk] Northwest Home Landscaping: Including Western British ... (ISBN 1580113222)

Book Description:
Northwest Home Landscaping: Including Western British Columbia is an updated, expanded edition of Creative Homeowner's award-winning best seller on regional landscaping. Readers will find inspiring ideas for making the home landscape more attractive and functional. The 48 featured designs are created by landscape professionals from the region and use more than 200 plants that thrive in the area. Detailed instructions for projects such as paths, patios, ponds, and arbors are also included. Over 420 full-color photos and paintings are complemented by easy, step-by-step instuctions that make Northwest Home Landscaping a must-have for any Northwestern homeowner.

Not a bad book, but sort of "canned":
This book is all right if you are looking for ideas of plant layouts or how to devise a landscape setup for a very specific area of your property. Scenarios are shown in sketch format in, for example, front yards, big backyards, yards with slopes, places where you want to screen things (air conditioner units, trash cans). After each scenario sketch, real photographs of the suggested plants are shown, along with a brief descirption of the plant (height, width, Latin and English names, sun or shade, etc.) A small section at the end is devoted to the mechanics of accomplishing hardscape features such as retaining walls, patios, and arbors. The book seems like it would be a good resource if you were writing a term paper, but it seems too shallow for a serious relandscape job. Many of the suggested plants are repeated in multiple scenarios, so there is not a very large variety of plants. It is also very skimpy on flowers, focusing mostly on shrubs with a few trees and groundcovers. I don't think I'd buy this book if there'd been a chance to see it before buying, but now that I have it, we'll keep it.