No comments about The Well-Decorated Garden: 50 Ornaments & Accents to Make Your Outdoor Room.

No comments about Making the Most of Your Own Backyard (Gardening & Landscaping).

1 comments about The Family Handyman: Decks, Patios, and Porches (Family Handyman).

1. I particularly like the section on paver patios. It has good ideas for deck and patio projects, and serves as a good place to start planning your deck or patio project. I don't think this book is all you need to build your project, though. You may need more documentation.

No comments about Sustainable Landscaping For Dummies (For Dummies (Home & Garden)).

1 comments about Exterior Planner (Better Homes & Gardens).

1. Better Homes and Gardens has continued their excellent series on home improvement and home projects. This volume guides you through the myriad of alternatives which face homeowners wanting to give a genuine uplift/facelift to the exterior of their homes.

No comments about Wilderness Shelters and How to Build Them.

No comments about How to Design & Build Fences & Gates.

5 comments about Yard and Garden Structures: 74 Easy-To-Build Designs for Gazebos, Sheds, Pool Houses, Playsets, Bridges and More.

1. I thought this was going to be a great book on designing a play area for the kids, but I was truly disappointed. There are great ideas in this book, but anyone looking for a "build it yourself" guide needs to keep looking as there are no directions to be found; only listings on how to order the "blueprints" of the various items you wanted directions on how to build in the first place.
   As I said, this book has some great ideas, just no directions included.



2. This book merely showed drawings of things you could buy plans to build. Among the things you can't build with this book is a huge castle. Who on earth would buy a book to build backyard castle? I bought this book expecting several plans for building tool/garden sheds. What I got was some ideas on what a shed could look like. I get more insight every time I look out my kitchen window at my neighbors' sheds. I am not even going to try to resell this book, because I wouldn't do that to anyone.



3. This book merely showed drawings of things you could buy plans to build. Among the things you can't build with this book is a huge castle. Who on earth would buy a book to build backyard castle? I bought this book expecting several plans for building tool/garden sheds. What I got was some ideas on what a shed could look like. I get more insight every time I look out my kitchen window at my neighbors' sheds. I am not even going to try to resell this book, because I wouldn't do that to anyone.



4. I'm in the middle trying to build the Three Bin Composter in this book. It says the "complete instructions" are in the book for free-- one of the few plans in here that you don't have to order. There is a LOT of missing information, and I think that some of the dimensions listed in the materials section are incorrect. This is pretty simple, so I'll just guess my way through it, but I would NOT use this company if you are looking for plans for something more complictated.



5. This book is deceiving. It should include on the cover somewhere that you have to send away for the design plans. I did that very thing when building my current home. That worked out well for my husband and I. So there is merit in "buying design plans" but the book should be more up front about what's inside. With that said, there are a variety of unexpected, fun designs.

1 comments about Paths and Walkways: Simple Projects, Contemporary Designs (Garden Design Book).

1. I was curious about what kind of garden publications Chronicle Books would be putting out so I bought three in the series; Water Gardens, Paths and Walkways, and Small Patios.

   I think if I had seen these in the bookstore I would've probably put them back. I was expecting something a little heavier on the visuals from Chronicle Books.

   But the examples are interesting. Nice range of elements, and tending to favor the quirky in design. The author describes the garden element in question (depends on which book you have) and uses one overall photograph and two detail shots. The detail shots seem there mostly for atmosphere and to break up the page. She also includes a one-page, how-to discussion, and a list of tools and materials.

   I'm not looking forward to all the reading.

No comments about Walks Walls and Patio Floors (Sunset Gardening & Outdoor Building Books).