---
title: Landscaping & Garden Design
description: Garden design shapes outdoor space. You will learn site analysis, planting design, hardscape and drainage, seasonal interest and how to plan and build a landscape over time.
category: trades-crafts
subcategory: woodworking
difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced
url: /subject/landscaping-and-garden-design
---

# Landscaping & Garden Design

Garden design shapes outdoor space. You will learn site analysis, planting design, hardscape and drainage, seasonal interest and how to plan and build a landscape over time.

## Available Resources

3 Books • 1 Websites • 1 Papers

## Books

### 1. Planting: A New Perspective

**Author:** Piet Oudolf, Noel Kingsbury

Oudolf's own planting plans with Kingsbury's analysis of how they work: combining plants by structure and texture, matrix and block planting, plant longevity and spread, seedhead persistence, and designing for interest across all seasons rather than bloom alone.

**Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1604693703?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** planting-design, perennials, naturalistic-planting, matrix-planting, garden-design

### 2. Planting in a Post-Wild World: Designing Plant Communities for Resilient Landscapes

**Author:** Thomas Rainer, Claudia West

Explains how to design plantings as layered plant communities modeled on grassland, woodland and shrubland archetypes: structural, seasonal-theme, ground-cover and filler layers, dense planting instead of mulch, and establishing and managing the planting over time.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/1604695536?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** planting-design, plant-communities, native-plants, ecological-landscaping, garden-design

### 3. Residential Landscape Architecture: Design Process for the Private Residence (7th ed.)

**Author:** Norman K. Booth, James E. Hiss

University textbook on designing a home landscape end to end: site inventory and analysis, client program, functional diagrams, form composition, spatial design, grading and drainage, walls, paving, steps and structures, planting design and master plan drawing. The only rigorous single volume that ties site analysis, hardscape, grading/drainage and planting into one design process.

**Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid

**Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0134602803?tag=edmonddante07-20

**Tags:** landscape-architecture, residential-design, site-analysis, grading-and-drainage, hardscape, planting-design

## Papers

### 1. Rain Gardens: A Guide for Homeowners and Landscapers

**Author:** Wisconsin Standards Oversight Council

19-page state manual (2018) for designing a rain garden to absorb roof runoff: siting relative to buildings, infiltration testing, sizing by drainage area and soil type, excavating and leveling the bed, then planting and maintenance with a native plant list. Covers the drainage part of the topic with concrete sizing math and construction steps, which the general design guides only mention in passing.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/sites/default/files/topic/Stormwater/RainGardenManualPrint.pdf

**Tags:** rain-gardens, stormwater-management, drainage, native-plants, landscape-construction

## Websites

### 1. Extension Gardener Handbook, Chapter 19: Landscape Design

Master Gardener training chapter covering design principles (scale, balance, unity, rhythm), spatial planes and garden rooms, site and environmental analysis, a six-step residential design process from base plan to installation, and water-conserving features such as rain gardens.

**Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free

**Link:** https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/extension-gardener-handbook/19-landscape-design

**Tags:** landscape-design, design-principles, site-analysis, residential-design, water-conservation

---

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