American Horticultural Society Practical Guides: Paths And Paving

Provides information on using hard surfaces in a garden, including paving, concrete paths, planting in gravel, and choosing material for decorative surfaces

Full of solid, practical advice and plenty of how-to pictures, Paths and Paving is an ideal title for those looking to create all kinds of walkways and edgings. Materials include casual railroad ties and stones of all kinds, as well as more formal bricks, tiles, and handcrafted stepping stones.

Designed to be a complete do-it-yourself guide, don't let the small format of this book fool you--it's absolutely jam-packed with ideas for all styles of gardens, and as always, publisher Dorling Kindersley manages to take fairly complicated projects and reduce them to a manageable size that even the home improvement novice can handle. Practical considerations are dealt with firmly--no skipping such detail work like leveling the area or squaring off corners.

The aim of this book is to get you professional-quality results, and if you follow directions carefully, you'll get the job done beautifully. Inspirational ideas are plentiful--the garden photographs are lush and detailed, and provide all kinds of unusual notions for creating a truly unique gardening space. Whether you're looking to add a simple gravel walkway, or formal patterned brick areas between raised beds, you'll find options for all your projects that will set your plants off beautifully with striking combinations of textures and materials. --Jill Lightner