How to Create Your Garden: Ideas and Advice for Transforming Your Outdoor Space

by Adam Frost

Creating a garden doesn't need to be complicated. This is the promise from Adam Frost, BBC Gardeners' World presenter and winner of multiple Chelsea Flower Show gold medals.

Regardless of your experience or budget, with Adam's help and know-how, you can design your dream garden, whether it's a small urban garden, a classic cottage garden, a suburban front garden, a low-maintenance space or a city roof terrace. His practical, no-nonsense approach strips away complex garden design concepts and focuses on your needs and preferred garden style to help you plan and build a garden that works for you.

Starting right at the beginning, Adam takes you step-by-step through the whole process, inspiring you with simple garden design ideas to tackle a full garden makeover or a simple revamp of just one part of your garden, perhaps a tired herbaceous border, a neglected vegetable patch, the patio, or a water feature.

Learn how to design a garden that reflects your practical needs, lifestyle, budget, personality, soil, and climate.

Build it yourself following the clear, uncomplicated, easy-to-understand instructions that show you everything from laying turf to terraces, planting trees or building a raised bed or water feature.

Enjoy gardening month by month with Adam's simple checklist of what to do when to keep your garden in shape at every point throughout the year.

How to Create Your Garden is about designing an outside space that is real, achievable, and right for you.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Design, Reference, Adult

256 pages, Paperback

Published February 4, 2020

About the author

A regular host on BBC TV's Gardeners' World, Adam Frost has seven Chelsea Gold Medals to testify to his skill as a gardener.

After a childhood in North London and almost a decade working with legendary British gardener Geoff Hamilton, Adam set up his own international garden design consultancy in 1996, followed by the Adam Frost Gardening School in 2017. In 2013, he helped set up the Homebase Garden Academy, which prepares 80 of the retailer's young employees every year for the Royal Horticultural Society's Level 1 award, and in 2014 he became an RHS Ambassador, helping raise the profile of gardening among secondary-school students and community groups.

Reviews

[Jaime · Rating 4 out of 5]

With concepts similar to those found in other garden design books, this book pulls slightly away from the pack owing to its “tidy” approach. It discusses assessing the space, designing for people and purpose, and thinking about the style/mood/feel of the garden. It approaches a garden in layers; I was first introduced to this concept by Thomas Rainer, and it immediately made sense to me. A new approach, reinforced in Janet Macunovich’s “Designing Your Gardens and Landscapes,” is building a plant list before laying out a design. Choose plants that fit the site and criteria for the garden. The golden nugget, or lightbulb moment, provided here by Adam Frost, came during the design process, BEFORE specific plants were chosen from the list. After the garden layout is finalized, think about planting in terms of shapes and spaces for each layer. This notion of temporarily forgetting the specific plants helped me gain clarity for my own design process — not focusing on existing or highly desired plants, and instead focusing on layers, balance, purpose, flow, and shapes within the space. THEN specific plants get assigned and plotted, using the plant lists, color, and contrast as guides to fit the shapes and spaces previously designed.

[Ligaya · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sure this is a lovely book for some, but I could not get into it, despite it being on my bedside table for many weeks (and overdue from the library). In particular, the "Bring It All Together" design chapter fell flat. I had difficulty translating the author's sketches and thought the lack of photos of a finished landscape had a lot to do with it. I was unfamiliar with many of the plants, despite gardening for decades. Perhaps this is a UK focused book? There are tons of lovely photos here, often of gardens stuffed full—also not my aesthetic. The chapters on building structures in and for your garden were good. But, ultimately, on the whole this book was not helpful for me.

[Claire Hardwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

This Book is more geared towards Garden Design Professionals vs the homeowner gardener. I found it very usual and loved the visual layouts in the book. But I can definitely understand the various reviews here of the book that they were unable to get most out of the book or the material doesn't apply to them. From the front cover of the book, it's not clear who the targeted reader is and can see how misleading that would be if a DIY homeowner that only wants to be told what to do without or how to care for plants, and who is not trained to understand the design intent of things in a garden.

[Estela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is going be my go-to resource for all things gardening. Great how-to sections. Lovely visuals and good advice for how to start. We've just moved into a "new built" home, so our backyard is literally a clean slate. I want to have a memorial garden for the family members we've lost, a play area for the grandkids, and entertainment spaces for the adults. This book gives me lots of ideas on how to go about creating all this, and best of all- a month by month "to do" list at the back for keeping your garden in great shape.

[Nicola · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

A brilliant book introducing different ideas of garden design. Not all areas are relevant to me right now but it has given me some great ideas for future versions of my garden! Considering the usage of the garden seems obvious but not something I'd thought through before.
I especially love the planting section and can't wait to start building up my flower beds with this as a guide. Adam's enthusiasm for garden design really comes through, just like it does on the tele. All in all a great and inspiring read!

[romney · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book focusses much more on the design process than specific themes or planting styles. Very different from the sort of "coffee table" or plant-focussed garden books I usually read. It's useful for a new garden, if you're thinking of overhauling what you have or have a particular problem to solve. There are detailed instructions and plans throughout and an excellent section about how to build your own hard landscaping - various types of paths, walls, steps etc. Above all, the separation of design from choosing individual plants takes a big barrier out of starting a garden and there is a lot of practical knowledge here that could take you many years and gardens to learn otherwise.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't read every single page, as some of it didn't apply for what I'm hoping for in my own backyard garden. But This was a fun introduction into the gardening world, and I can't wait to read more.
This book is great if you're wanting to create a stunning space for gardening, entertaining, and enjoying. There are so many great tips on creating a beautiful and functional space.

[Jae · Rating 3 out of 5]

DK publishes this book, and one of the most valuable tools I find in all of their books is the clarity of the examples. I recommend this as a "How to" book. When there are real farm jobs that are just outside your wheelhouse, this book helps fill in those gaps in your skillset. Very accessible for beginners but a bit dry.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is exactly what I needed to begin designing my English garden. I keep checking this out from the library, returning it when someone else requests it, and picking it back up weeks later. It's on my long list of *to buy* books.

[Amy Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely book.

[Nathan Hodgson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book for a trainee/first time gardener like myself, will keep it handy as I potter about in my backyard oasis each Sunday

[Jilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of really good information concerning all aspects of the garden., although the diagrams are hard to understand as too sketchy.

[Jenny K · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is for people who have lots of money to spend on their yard. It’s not very approachable for the home gardener. It’s also more for showy gardens and outdoor living spaces, not vegetable gardens.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the way this breaks down garden design and shows the thought process behind different planting arrangements. A few more pictures would have made it even better.