In three previous books and numerous articles for leading horticultural magazines, Haywood has shown himself to be not only a talented landscape designer but also a gifted teacher. The front garden is one of the areas he explored in Your House, Your Garden
and is the foundation of this examination of how house, garden, sidewalk and street can be integrated into an aesthetically pleasing and functional design. Haywood asserts that "front gardens welcome, enliven, enrich and engage us." He goes on to analyze key elements including style; driveways and parking; walkways; the front door; the front lawn; extending the garden to the sidewalk or street; walls, fences and gates; and sitting areas. Finally, he offers helpful, if relatively brief, listings of street-tough plants for six U.S. regions. The lush color photographs and illustrated landscape plans alone make this a valuable addition to any serious gardener's library. But there's an even more compelling reason everyone who enjoys gardening books should own this one: it's based entirely on Haywood's analysis of existing photographs. Explanations of his approach help readers learn to "look at these images, manipulate them, change them in your mind so that the gardens in these photographs become an inspiration for your own garden making." (Feb.)
