Garden Design Principles

I just got a copy of the Gardenvisit.com eBook on the "Principles of Garden Design" for $15. Its really good - but I rather wish I had waited till October (if you sign up now you can download a free copy in October 2008!). The first photo after the cover has the title 'A good example of bad design'. It looks like an American garden and, as the author (Tom Turner) states it is very vile. Its a large garden for a luxury mansion and as Tom says, the design of the garden has no use and no beauty and its badly built and its badly planted. I like the eBook a lot, though I rather wish it was not quite so much about principles. But its a fair point that unless you have your principles right at the start you are never going to get very much right after that. Anyway, my favorite quote about principles is from Groucho Marx “Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.”