Similar to some of the other reviews for this book, I was pleasantly surprised by this garden design book by Diarmuid Gavin. I am currently attempting to self design a garden for my newly built home and wanted a book that was step by step, based on design principles (the kind of things the experts would have been taught in college, but maybe don't want the ordinary folk to find out) and not too over the top in terms of being 'different' or 'creative'. I was afraid there would be a lot of 'lollypop' gardens and not enough of the 'normal' stuff. And so, I was pleasantly surprised and would go so far as to say impressed with everything about this book. As the title suggests, it is set out in ten managable steps (each a design stage) giving you just enough descriptive text, drawings and photos to show the various options you might chose to obtain the 'style' you are looking for. There was sufficient detail for me about plants as I wanted to get the layout right first, before chosing what to put in the beds and borders (and there are plenty of books dedicated to plant choice). I think this would be an excellent reference book for someone like me who has an interest in gardening and is not afraid to do it themselves, but wants to get the basics of design right from the start. When my garden is designed and beautiful in a few years!, I expect I will use this as a reference book as it's great to flick through, in addition to being a good text book.