Book Report: Backyards: A Sunset Design Guide

For the past few months, I've been lucky enough to live in a house with amazing landscaping — lawns, flowering shrubs, ferns, graceful trees, fencing, a multi-level deck.  But the most amazing element is an enormous screened gazebo (seen here) next to a waterfall and a pond. There is a bridge going from the deck to the gazebo, with a rocky "river" flowing under it. When I sit in that gazebo and listen to the water cascading onto the rocks below, I am in bliss. The city and its excitements are all around me, but in the gazebo I'm in my own little paradise If I known how the sound of falling water affected me, I'd have arranged to live near it a long time ago. And since you're not allowed to build your home next to Bridalveil Falls in Yosemite National Park, I guess putting something together in the backyard is the answer. Toward that end, you might want to check out Backyards: A Sunset Design Guide. This is an enormous book: 9 by 11 inches, and 224 glossy, full color pages, along with a Sunset Landscape Designer DVD. And here's some happy news for us Mac users: It [...]