The Perennial Gardener's Design Primer, by Stephanie Cohen and Nancy Ondra, is a great resource for gardeners looking for design ideas, whether for creating a new garden space or renovating an existing space. The strength of this book lies in two areas: the sample designs with plant lists, and the detailed descriptions of two new gardens put in by the authors themselves.

The sample designs are well done, and I really love the long description of what the design is attempting to accomplish. Additionally, each design in accompanied by a description of the plants used and alternatives are given for almost every plant. I also liked the sections in which Cohen and Ondra describe new gardens that they each put in. They tell the readers what worked, and why, and more importantly, what didn't work, why it didn't work, and what they did to improve the original plan. ( )