The closest to what you are looking for might be Judith McKeon's "Gardening With Roses: Designing With Easy-Care Climbers, Ramblers & Shrubs" does have specific patterns of landscape designs that you could probably expand or contract to fit the size you're working with. She has lots of photographs too, so I've mainly enjoyed the book that way. But how often have you seen somewhere in some other book a beautiful scene you might like to copy, at least in part, but the author doesn't tell every single plant in the photo? This book solves that problem in her focus on detailing the designs. It does some nifty little things like creating lists for specific design ideas, like which roses would work well together in a "white" plant border somewhere. Because the author's background is in growing many different roses, she tends to select plants that are suitable for no-spray gardens. And she tends to select plants that do well around the Philadelphia area where she has run a public garden, so her plant selection ought to fit pretty well in your neighborhood. That book is available in "like new" condition at Amazon for $2.05 plus shipping (which is approximately what I paid for my used copy too). The half of the book that contains general advice on growing roses is very useful too. (Example: You're into a design that calls for training a rose to grow up a tree, but you've never done that. You could flip to the five pages in this book that describe where to plant the rose in relation to the tree, how to train it, and how to prune it, along with some pictures.) Overall the Jeff Cox "Landscape with Roses" book is wonderful, wonderful, but the plant selections are a little more reliable for West Coast conditions than in the East, especially if you are into no-spray in the East. Still, I'd put that book into a "must have" category if you're trying to create a planned landscape design. I'd purchase this book again, even if the only one left was in barely acceptable used condition. In quickly flipping through the book I don't see any landscape design patterns, but it does go very far in helping you to absorb some basic ideas in creating your own design. It's a well-written book that you can read it in its entirety without losing interest or feeling that you already know all those ideas. If you're at all interested in a book that doesn't have garden designs or patterns and isn't directly a "how to" book, a book I'm really grateful to have is "House And Garden Book Of Country Gardens" by Charles Quest-Ritson. You might be able to find it in the library but otherwise will likely have to buy a used copy from a list that is currently fairly limited in condition/price (at Amazon). The reason I particularly like this book is that the way it groups its photos goes according to the style of a garden's design. It helped me to identify the styles I for sure like best and those I like the least. It's not strong on identifying each and every plant, but does identify some. The author, a rose lover, chose long-established beautiful gardens to show off each style at their stunning best, and the gardens in the book all (or almost all) feature roses. The book shows the value of using photographs in learning how to compose a garden's picture for the eye, an individual eye. The discussion tends to come as an overview from an extremely knowledgeable gardener who's interested in how and why the gardens' creators made the choices they made for their particular gardens. I haven't yet read every word of this one, but what I've read is very interesting, and the pictures are fabulous. Best wishes, Mary Here is a link that might be useful: BOOK: House And Garden Book Of Country Gardens

> The title is Jesus, the Son of Man, by Kahlil Gibran and the print I have is from 1976. Not only is 1976 not old, but Kahlil Gibran was incredibly popular and there are more of his books even older gathering dust on aging college students shelves than you can imagne. So sell it for a buck. Many factors influence the worth of a book, condition being very important. For example, country of printing, and signed. -I have a first edition, first printing When We Were Six, from 1928 (American printing), that cost a few hundred bucks. The same book, first edition, English printing, signed by author and illustrator was going for 10,000 last time I looked. I remember when I visited my college library for the first time - shelves and shelves were filled with what I thought were ancient books (talking 1800s). While some of these probably were valuable, chances are most weren't. I have my sights now on pre revolutionary war titles; not for the worth, but because I think they'd be interesting. Many are out of my ball park. And I'd really love even just a sheet of an illuminated manuscript. In my dreams. If you are thinking about collecting books, choose books that match your interests. I collect children's illustrated pre 1950. Being specific helps you focus, and helps you learn more about the field so you know when someone is selling a 1920 edition of Alice in Wonderland for $500, you know to turn up your nose.

dedtired - I agree with you on "meh" books and am working my way through one right now. It's by one of my favorite authors, so hate to give it up. I am hoping for a moment of blinding truth that will make it worthwhile. The saving grace is that it is well written, with good characters. As always, he does "get" his characters, and the device he is using in the storytelling is clever and well done. So there is value in the book.

Hmm, I have to disagree about if it's easier to "check" back on something when using an ereader, at least on a kindle. Tap once to bring up the search bar, type in a name or word/words, tap again and it brings up all the relevant passages in the order in which they appeared in the book. Tap to go to your chosen passage in the book, then tap the back arrow to go right back to where you left off. It's so easy--and thorough--that I almost feel like it's cheating. Is it different than riffling through pages and does it take a bit to make it feel natural? Certainly. I just read an article (PW? Library Journal? can't remember...) which talked about how the ebook bubble of astonishing sales seems to have burst. One theory is that people are finally developing screen overload--and want a break from their devices. Both my children, college students who are rarely parted from their phones, prefer paper books over phones or tablets. My kindle is a basic touch, so no back-lit screen, no glare, I can use it outside, but can't read in the dark without an external light. Its cover opens up like a book, the cover opens all the way back so I can prop it freestanding and eat while reading (this is far more important to me than it should be...) or in bed. So, it's less of a "device" experience, and not at all like reading on a (much smaller) phone screen. Also, with ereaders, the font size is easily adjustable, which aging or low vision eyes appreciate. Sorry that was so long--there's no zeal that like of the convert. :)