I recently read James Dodson's "Beautiful Madness: One Man's Journey Through Other People's Gardens" and enjoyed it. I have read "The Well-Tended Perennial Garden" by Tracy DiSabato-Aust but didn't like it well enough to buy it. I checked Pamela Harper's "Time Tested Plants: Thirty Years in a Four Season Garden" out from the library but did not read it cover to cover. Nice photos but the text was pretty dry. I also checked out "Color Echoes" I've been doing that all along as a gardener so it wasn't news to me. I can see how both of these would be great for some people though. Nice books. I'm reading Joe Eck and Wayne Winterrowd's "Our Life In Gardens" right now and really am enjoying their writing style. I'll be looking for more of their books.

Interesting question. I think for the most part pictures sell the book but I also think there must be some content to tie it all together. I would think the publisher would insist on a theme. That said, the most cherished gardening books in my collection are those by Henry Mitchell which have no pictures. I think the reason I like them so much is though he has a great command of the English language he writes as the common man, a gardener who is not perfect and that I can identify with. You might want to keep that in mind when you write your book - people want to read something they can identify with and relate to. Here is a link that might be useful: Bittersweet Gardens

There are probably thousands of books on gardening using organic methods. The photo of the young woman 'author' wouldn't give me confidence to purchase it. She doesn't look as though she has ever got her hands dirty. Choose one from the library.

I'm currently reading Passion for Books: A Book LoverÂs Treasury of Stories, Essays, Humor, Lore, and Lists on Collecting, Reading, Borrowing, Lending, Caring for, and Appreciating Books. I don't know if it's famous or not, but I laughed out loud when I read Umberto Eco's "How To Justify a Private Library". [For]people who possess a fairly sizable library (large enough in my case that someone entering our house canÂt help but notice it; actually, it takes up the whole place), a visitor enters and says "What a lot of books! Have you read them all?" At first I thought that the question characterized only people who had scant familiarity with books... But there is more to it than that. I believe that, confronted by a vast array of books, anyone will be seized by the anguish of learning and will inevitably lapse into asking the question that expresses his torment and his remorse... In the past I adopted a tone of contemptuous sarcasm. 'I haven't read any of them; otherwise, why would I keep them here?' but this is a dangerous answer because it invites the obvious follow-up: 'And where do you put them after you've read them?' The best answer is the one always used by Roberto Leydi: 'And more, dear sir, many more,' which freezes the adversary and plunges him into a state of awed admiration. But I find it merciless and angst generating. Now I have fallen back on the riposte: 'No, these are the ones I have to read by the end of the month. I keep the others in my office,' a reply that on the one hand suggests a sublime ergonomic strategy and on the other leads the visitor to hasten the moment of his departure.