Rating: 
Summary: Depends on what you are looking for
Review: Overall I found this to be a good book that just kept coming up a bit short. This is one of those books where the information is there, but the format is lacking. Poor printing of lackluster photographs doesn't help this guide. If you are looking for different varieties of plants, they are here, but you can get the same information reading garden catalogs in January. I liked the index of plants, however, splitting the common names into a separate index did not make sense to me. Reading the book I had to have on finger in the scientific nomenclature and one marking the common name list as well. I was running out of fingers! What I did like was the suggested combinations of plants although I thought the somewhat sophisticated color combinations were not explained well enough to allow for experimentation outside the plants stated for many readers.
Rating: 
Summary: The Well-Designed Mixed Garden: Building Beds and Borders wi
Review: The author's first book was unique, and provided much needed information unavailable from any other source. It is a much thumbed resource. By contrast, this book is an also-ran in the field of planting design. The photographs are uninspiring, the text too general and vaque, and some of the information in the tables on plant requirements is just plain wrong and contradicts advice from the RHS in Wisley. As a consequence, the authors image is damaged and that is a great shame!
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: The author's first book was unique, and provided much needed information unavailable from any other source. It is a much thumbed resource. By contrast, this book is an also-ran in the field of planting design. The photographs are uninspiring, the text too general and vaque, and some of the information in the tables on plant requirements is just plain wrong and contradicts advice from the RHS in Wisley. As a consequence, the authors image is damaged and that is a great shame!
Rating: 
Summary: A Design Must!
Review: The Well-Designed Mixed Garden is a design must for every gardener! Unlike other design books that are like workbook manuals, this book is full of inspirational photographs, beautifully hand painted diagrams and plans, and a full text that illuminates the design dilemma of having a full complement of plant material that combines the very best in aesthetics. The plant charts and cross reference material provides the do-it-yourself gardener with the tools and knowledge to complete a unique, interesting and well-designed garden.
Rating:
Summary: Garden Design for everyone, novice to expert
Review: When I started gardening Tracy DiSabato-Aust's first book, the Well Tended Perennial Garden was one of the first I purchased. Today with mud-stained, well-creased pages, it is still one of my favorite and primary reference books. Her second book, written with the same practical and enthusiastic advice, is useful to all gardeners, from beginner to advanced. DiSabato-Aust clearly believes anyone, with any yard, can have a beautiful garden. This book is less reference than the first one, but valuable in its own right. As a scientist, I didn't exactly agree with her descriptions of color, but putting aside my background, I found the information on color design to explain why some parts of my garden just didn't look quite right. The first part is "theory", but amply illustrated and diagrammed. The second part, her example gardens, might not translate immediately into your (or my) yard, but they are useful teaching tools. Finally, the last third of the book is are great encyclopedic appendices about different kinds of plants, where to put them and how they fit into the overall design of the garden.
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