How to Design a Garden: Create and Maintain Your Dream Garden by Pollyanna Wilkinson - Non Fiction - Hardcover

Details
Condition: Brand New
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9780241648810
Publisher: DK

Overview
How to Design a Garden is a practical, inspiring guide from award-winning garden designer Pollyanna Wilkinson, written to help everyday homeowners transform their outdoor space into the garden of their dreams. Rather than offering generic advice, Wilkinson walks readers through the professional design process she uses with her own clients, from assessing a plot's limitations to developing a workable plan, choosing materials, and selecting plants that thrive. Whether you have a sprawling backyard or a modest courtyard, this book demystifies landscape design and gives you confidence to create a garden that reflects how you want to live outdoors.

About the Book
Pollyanna Wilkinson has built her reputation designing beautiful, characterful gardens for clients across the UK and internationally, and in How to Design a Garden she distills that expertise into a clear, step-by-step framework anyone can follow. The book opens by encouraging readers to think honestly about how they actually want to use their outdoor space, whether for entertaining, growing food, relaxing, or giving children room to play, before any design decisions are made. From there, Wilkinson guides readers through measuring and surveying a plot, understanding sun, shade, and soil conditions, and translating a wish list into a workable layout. Practical chapters cover hard landscaping choices like paving, decking, and boundaries, as well as softer elements such as borders, structure planting, and seasonal color. Throughout, the text is paired with detailed illustrations, mood boards, and real garden photography that show design principles in action rather than simply describing them in the abstract. Wilkinson also addresses common pitfalls, like overplanting too early or neglecting long-term maintenance, so readers can avoid costly mistakes. The result is a book that functions both as an aspirational source of ideas and as a genuinely usable workbook, suited equally to a first-time gardener planning a small patio refresh and a homeowner tackling a full garden renovation. It is the kind of reference that rewards repeated use, as different chapters become relevant at different stages of a project.

Key Benefits

• Written by a working, award-winning professional garden designer
• Step-by-step process from initial planning through to planting and maintenance
• Covers both hard landscaping and planting design in one guide
• Richly illustrated with photography, plans, and mood boards
• Useful for gardens of any size, from courtyards to large plots
• A lasting reference you can return to at every stage of a project

About the Author
Pollyanna Wilkinson is an award-winning garden designer, author, and broadcaster known for creating elegant, characterful gardens across the UK and internationally. She is the founder and creative director of Studio Pollyanna Landscape Design, where she works with private clients on residential garden projects of all scales, from compact city courtyards to expansive country plots. Wilkinson has built a strong public following for sharing accessible, practical garden design advice, and How to Design a Garden marks her debut book, bringing her professional process to home gardeners everywhere for the first time.

Why You'll Love This Book
Packed with professional know-how and gorgeous inspiration, this book turns garden design overwhelm into an achievable plan. It's a thoughtful gift for the gardener in your life for a birthday, housewarming, or holiday season, and a go-to resource for anyone dreaming up their next backyard project this spring or summer.

Please Note: This is the UK edition with the ISBN as listed; the cover may vary slightly from the image shown.