The Quest for the Perfect Garden Design

The temperature is falling and the sun doesn't bring the same warmth it did just one month ago. A brief look out the window tells of the need to clean out the flower beds and prepare for winter.

Before you let winter doldrums set in, why not add some color to your imagination and begin planning next year's garden. Spring really isn't all that far away and the winter months spent indoors is a perfect time to put together new ideas for the coming year.

You could spend hours scanning the internet for new garden design ideas, but why not curl up with a good book instead. There is something more inviting about getting comfortable on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate, a pen, paper and the feel of a good book in your hands.

There are few better places for gardening ideas than well thought out books. The vivid colors of flowers and garden plants published in a good book will pop off the page and spark your creative imagination.

One such book is the Readers Digest Garden Guide written by Robin Williams. The ideas and plans set forth in Garden Guide will no doubt help you in your quest for a beautiful new garden.

If the 500 illustrations, plans and guides in Garden Guide aren't enough, try the Big Book of Garden Design, written by Marianne Lipanovich and Tom Wilhite. Among the 192 pages of the Big Book of Garden Design is a treasure of thematic guides and plans just beckoning the gardener back to the soil.

The Welcoming Garden, by Gordon Hayward is another great gardening guide to help develop plans for the spring garden. This book is the fourth gardening and landscape book written by Mr. Haywardand it is evident that he has a gift not only of providing ideas for bright, comfortable environments, but his easily understood concepts and planning techniques will be a help to any gardener.

Outdoors: The Garden Design Book for the Twenty-First Century, a collaboration between authors Terence Conran and Diarmuid Gavin, takes you on a thematic journey through several modern landscape ideas. The plans and landscapes presented in Outdoors: The Garden Design Book for the Twenty-First Century bring a fresh new look and perspective to the home landscape.

If more fundamental information is what is needed, look no further than the extensive line of Gardening for Dummies books. Don't be fooled or put off by the title of these volumes as they are rich with valuable information, content and guides for gardeners of all levels.

The gardener looking to bring new color and life to their garden will be greatly rewarded with the time spent reading through these books over the winter months. When spring breaks, the ideas and plans will already be in place and before long the neighbors will be asking to borrow your gardening guides.