The Garden Bible-Designing the Perfect Outdoor Space 

This book is a definitive guide to designing, planting, and tending a residential garden with information on hiring the right professionals to designing a master plan for the site’s climate and topography, the owner’s interest in sustainability, help developing a budget, and caring for the garden afterward.

The book features all sorts of gardens throughout the country, as well as case studies of how dozens of gardens were transformed for their home owners’ needs, budgets and sites, along with less costly alternative ideas. And it lists public gardens worth seeing around the world.

Barbara Ballinger is a professional writer, author, speaker, blogger (www.barbaraballinger.com) who has written about real estate and design since 1972 when she worked at House & Gardens’ Special Publications magazines for eight years, followed by being a reporter at The St. Louis Post-Dispatch for eight years and a Senior Editor at the National Association of Realtors ®, for which she still writes a monthly feature on design and real estate. She started her own writing business 26 years ago and writes for a wide variety of publications, which have included House Beautiful, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, HGTV online,  Hanley Woods’ MultiFamily Executive magazine. She has also appeared on many radio and TV shows, including Oprah Winfrey’s, at real estate conventions and on NPR. She graduated from Barnard College with a B.A. in art history and holds a M.A. in art history and studio art from Hunter College.Writer Barbara Ballinger co-authored it with California landscape designer Michael Glassman.