If you’ve ever stared at your garden and thought, Where do I even start?, Helen Yoest’s guide is here to help you unleash your inner green-thumb genius. Rather than handing you a one-size-fits-all formula, Yoest encourages you to tap into your own creativity and design a garden that feels uniquely yours.

The book is neatly broken into four priorities—basics, styles, elements, and environment—making it super easy to follow. You’ll pick up tips on creating balance, rhythm, and curb appeal, while also learning how to sketch out plans, play with containers, and incorporate cool features like walkways and water.

What I loved most is the focus on sustainability—creating a garden that isn’t just beautiful but also a haven for plants and animals. Whether you’re a newbie or looking for fresh ideas, this book feels more like a guide to discovering your vision rather than following someone else’s.

Grab this if you’re ready to stop scrolling Pinterest and start digging into your own garden dreamscape! 🌱

This is a beautiful book with lots of inspiring photographs. It is a good beginner's guide to planning your yard and garden, with with a wide variety of design principles and ideas to consider or keep in mind. Often I wished for more detailed examples or listed ideas for plants that could fit with different regions and even native gardens, but perhaps this would be beyond its intended scope. I'd love to see additional guides written than take the reader from here through completed examples of creating each of the garden styles mentioned early in the book. Overall, a very enjoyable, inspiring book for yard and garden design.

"Set a goal - enjoy the journey."

This is a terrific reference for those just getting started in gardening, and for experienced gardeners looking for some new ideas. The photos are gorgeous and plentiful. Here you will learn how to plan your dream garden be it formal or informal, and how to work your vision into the space you have available. Yoest offers tips on herb gardens, container gardens, and even moss and rock gardens.

Pick this book up for its practical advice, or for just perusing and dreaming.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher! This book had a lot of good tips and tricks of how to plan or design your outdoor space. I especially appreciated the discussion of rule of thirds and flower beds width around the house. I enjoyed the photographs as well especially the flowers ones of course since this is a gardening book afterall.

Even though I have been a gardener for over 50 years, I still found a great deal of interesting ideas and projects in this book. Very easy to read, beautifully photographed, educational, yet fun. I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher, in return for a fair review, and have been so impressed with it that I have ordered a hard copy for myself and for a fellow gardening neighbor.

Beginners Guide to Garden Planning and Design is a fantastic resource guide. The plans and suggestions are well laid out and presented and the pictures are stunning. This book would make an excellent addition to any gardeners library.

This book gives such great pictures and information. I do wish there was more info but it was a great starter book for anyone who is interested in starting to design their garden! I recommend this book to those who don't know where to start and would like some inspiration. Not many beginner guides have pictures so the fact that almost every page had a picture (if not all) it is a great starter book!

This book is filled with beautiful photos and inspiration. It gives a good overview of elements to consider when planning a garden from visual to colour theory. Beyond these basics each chapter then goes on to give ideas of other physical elements you can add from garden art to arbours, fountains and paths together with some hints on placement.

I was disappointed that there weren’t specifics about what to do, what types of plants look great together or provide some hands on plans. Instead this book encourages you to use your own imagination and creativity.

Thank you to NetGalley and Fox Chapel Publishing for and arc copy in exchange for an honest review.

I'm a new gardener, and my tendency is to want to do everything all at once. This book does a great job of focusing on small projects, though I found there to be a lack of overall concept throughout.

This was a beautifully designed and photographed guidebook to designing your garden. It covers every topic I think you’d ever think of in garden design except different regions/climates which is why I’m giving it 4 stars instead of 5. I live in Florida so some topics geared to heat and tropical temperatures would have been appreciated but otherwise this is a beautiful introductory book for garden planning.

Thanks to the author and publisher for the e-arc I received via NetGalley in exchange for my own opinion.

I was VERY excited to get my hands on a copy of this book because I am working on designing my own garden for 2025. This book was split into small sections and covers everything from planning and designing a garden to the different types of gardens, from formal to container. The photos are beautiful and there is a lot of inspiration along with instruction for those who want to use the book as a guide to creating a green space of their own. *Advance copy provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Beginner's Guide to Garden Planning and Design by Helen Yoest is a beautifully laid out resource that offers a wealth of information and inspiration for anyone looking to enhance their outdoor space. Whether you're new to gardening or simply looking for fresh ideas, this book provides 50 simple yet impactful ways to add style and personality to your garden.

The stunning photographs throughout the book are a highlight, adding to the overall reading experience by sparking creativity and offering visual examples of the ideas discussed. The clear, well-organized content makes it easy to refer back to different sections, ensuring this is a resource you'll reach for repeatedly.

Overall, this is a beautiful guide filled with practical advice and inspiration, perfect for gardeners at any level. The combination of informative content and stunning imagery not only makes it a functional resource but also an enjoyable read, adding value to your gardening journey.

Thank you to NetGalley and Fox Chapel Publishing for gifting me the e-book ARC of Beginner's Guide to Garden Planning and Design in exchange for my honest review.

This is a great resource for anyone wanting to design their own yard. I am a Master Gardener and think this would be great book to suggest to people looking for ideas and not knowing where to start.

This is a highly valuable resource with incredibly useful tips.
The prose is mainly engaging, and the structure and topics were the real heroes of this book.
I was not a massive fan of the design and the photos and I do not think that it was a resolution problem. It is more about the style looking a bit nostalgic and old school in quite a large chunk of the book, but this is not to say that the photos were not beautiful.
If this were slightly differently presented (including the information), this would have been a 5 star read for me.
I highly recommend this book and appreciate it. The expertise of the author and the way she aims to instill confidence are top notch.

Beginner's Guide to Garden Planning and Design by Helen Yoest
This title is a great resource for any gardener. It has bright and well recognizable photos, lots of how-to information on many different types of gardening and so much information that you can go back to time and time again, depending on what you’re looking for for your garden.
There are many chapters on subjects and themes that are unique such as the view from inside your house, hypertufa pots, container gardens and accenting your garden with art.
I think this will be a book I come back to time and time again.

#CreativeHomeowner #NetGalley

Are you looking to bring flowers and plants into your garden but don't know where to start? Well, this book would be a great place to start.

I've read all types of garden books and even taken Master Gardners classes and I still learned a few new things in this book I loved how the author covered sounds. Not many garden books cover garden sounds and believe me the more native plants you bring in the more birds, bees, and other wildlife sounds you have in your garden, it beats traffic noise any day. A simple bird splashing in the bird bath is one of the most simple sounds that brings gardens to life.

This book covers a bit of everything even vegetable garden and has wonderful pictures that will get your creative juices going.

This is my first gardening season at our newly purchased house and I cannot tell you how grateful I am to have my hands on this book! The amount of opinionated instruction and “Pinterest inspo” on the internet is amazing until you need to act.. and I just froze. This book is another essential for my home library!!

Beautiful photos; many, many great ideas. Loved the writing that accompanied each section. (Very readable.) Each of the 50 chapters/topics/ideas was limited to a couple pages; but if the topic interests you, then dig deeper. As a Beginner's Guide, this book is perfect.

As a member of the North American Rock Garden Society (www.nargs.org), chapter 15 on Rock Gardening was superb! haha Thank you for the shout out! I liked the quote from Elizabeth Lawrence, "All gardeners become rock gardeners if they garden long enough." We really aren't snobs ... maybe plant snobs though.

Very inspirational!

I especially think that getting some advice from a professional is probably what I need most.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Fox Chapel Publishing - Creative Homeowner for approving my request to read the advance review copy in exchange for an honest review. Publication date is Sept 18, 2024. 208 beautiful picture filled, idea filled pages.

Excellent resource! Takes you from planning to execution and everything in between. It covers wildlife gardens, sounds, mailboxes and so much more! Lots of pictures.

This is one of the most spectacular how-to books I have ever seen, with lush color photos, text that is both info-rich and poetic, and 50 amazing ideas for garden design. I'm buying this for my personal library and taking up gardening for the first time in my life. Two green thumbs up!