Garden planning, for a single new bed, a garden "room" or an entire landscape, is a daunting task.  If you have the money, you can hire someone to help.  If not, you should visit lots of gardens and indulge in some serious reading on the subject.

One of the most inspiring books I've come across lately is Rosemary Verey's Garden Plans, by the late English gardening maven Rosemary Verey.  Originally published in 1993 and now available in paperback, the book contains descriptions of and planting diagrams for twenty-three different gardens.  Luminous photographs by Andrew Lawson bring each garden to life. 

Some of Mrs. Verey's designs were created for well-known people, including Elton John and Princess Michael of Kent, but many others were done for ordinary--if well-off--individuals.  Though the majority of the gardens depicted in the book are at least a little bigger than my suburban spread, I got new ideas from each plan.

If you love flowers, you will love Rosemary Verey's designs.  Even the book's two ornamental vegetable gardens have plenty of blooms.  Mrs. Verey also does not restrict herself to great estates; the book includes small-space plans including those for a small city garden, a set of narrow borders and a semi-circular flowerbed.

The well-traveled designer also considered the special situations that are a fact of life for many of us.  Her "Drought-Tolerant Knot Garden," designed for the Garden Club of Jacksonville, Florida, is a wonderful combination of restraint and simplicity that emphasizes drought-tolerant plants as well as ease of care.  Her "Minimum Upkeep Garden" uses flowering shrubs and trees to provide a maximum number of blooms with a minimum amount of upkeep.

The book contains extensive plant lists that make it easy to duplicate Mrs. Verey's choices.

Like all good garden books, Rosemary Verey's Garden Plans makes you want to run out into the garden and dig in.  You could do worse than to dig a few of Rosemary Verey's ideas into your own soil.