In addition to having an obsession with plants, I also have an obsession with gardening books. A new book on perennial garden design, that I highly recommend is The Perennial Gardener’s Design Primer by Stephanie Cohan and Nancy J. Ondra. This is one of the best books on garden design I have seen.

Stephanie Cohan and Nancy J. Ondra descibe themselves as obsessed gardeners who have a love for sharing their knowledge with others and in my opinion they share that knowledge extremely well.

The book has twelve chapters divided into three sections, Section 1-Perennial Design Demystified , Section2-Putting Perennials to Work and Section3-From Theory to Practice. While the book is a joint effort between the authors, throughout the book there are small highlighted sections I really liked where the authors offer their personal advice or opinions on the subject being discussed.

In Perennial Design Demystified the authors do a wonderful job of explaining the basics of garden design. They take you through the process of deciding what you want from your garden, to exploring perennial partners and plant combinations with an eye toward color and contrast, all the way to putting your ideas down on paper.

Putting Perennials to Work focuses on theme gardens with pictures, planting lists and plans. There are garden designs for sunny and shady, wet and dry sites and for small and large gardens. There are twenty garden plans in this section, all with enough detailed information to allow you to recreate the designs at your home.

From Theory to Practice is one of the things that makes this book so different from other books on garden design. In this section the authors show you with words and pictures two seasons in the design and installation of two new gardens and one garden redesign. The authors share many things such as what worked, what didn’t work and what they wish they had done different, something that really makes those of us who are not professional garden designers realize that even pros have things go wrong.

The appendix features a planning chart that lists all the plants used in the garden designs in section two. The plants are referenced by zone, light requirements, soil type, height, and bloom color and bloom season to make it easy to select the plants you would like to use in your own garden design.

The Perennial Gardener’s Design Primer is available for under $20 and will make a wonderful addition to your garden book collection. Click this link or the picture of the book to order your copy.