Guest Author - Katelyn Thomas

Garden design can be challenging for an experienced gardener, but for beginners it can be terrifying. Luckily, there is an excellent new resource available for those who want to create a garden bed. Fabulous Flowerbeds by Gisela Keil and Jurgen Becker, is a book that lives up to its subtitle: inspiration, planting and care. The beautiful photos and useful tips throughout the book really do provide inspiration for both the beginning and the experienced gardener.

Section one of this book discusses how different sites require different types of plants and section two discusses formal and informal beds, with a special section on wild flower gardens. Both of these sections would be useful for beginning gardeners.

However, if you are more experienced, you may want to move right to the third section of the book, How to Use Flowerbeds. This section has some interesting ideas. I never thought of using an entire garden bed as a frame before reading this section. If you are skimming through the book, be sure you catch the sidebar on trees that can be used to make a woven hedge.

If your interest is designing new flowerbeds, you will not want to miss sections four and five of Fabulous Flowerbeds. I found that the chapter on color theory was especially useful.

Finally, the sixth section of the book contains a useful, practical guide for the inexperienced gardener. Chapters on preparing the ground, step by step design, winter protection, and a plant selection guide are all useful to the beginning gardener.

Fabulous Flowerbeds has a permanent home on my bookshelves because of its many useful photos and design tips. If you are planning a new garden bed, you may want to take a closer look at this resource. I give Fantastic Flowerbeds four and ½ out of five sunflowers.