Good Guides to Landscape design

[rgs]

I own 10 acres of land along a northeastern hillside in Pennsylvania. My
land was an old farm field. About 1/3 is currently wood and I'll be
planting more trees resulting in the property being about 1/2 wooded. I am
looking for ideas on what to do with the area immediately around the house
and the sightlines from the house out across a marshy stream valley (I have
the stream runs through the front of the property - about 400' or so). I
cannot afford to have a professional take care of the landscaping, so I'm
looking for a good book on landscape design applicable to a property like I
have.

Glenn

[PMDavis]

I'm not sure that I fully understand your assumption that you cannot
"afford" a professional for design.

In my experience as a landscape architect, I know of instances where I've
saved owners up to $80,000 on omitting development that was unnecessary or
unwise. In most cases I feel that my fee was fully justified by the costs
saved by the owner during construction. Typically I save more than the
amount of the fee. In landscape development there are many ways to pump
money into a pit on worthless or incorrect improvements, faulty construction
communications, dishonest contractor practices, permitting agency hurdles,
etc.

A couple of hours invested (even at $100 an hour) can save you thousands.
After all, how much of your time will be spent finding a book, studying it,
and then intepreting it for your specific conditions?

However, in answer to your questions, a list of the required books for the
Landscape Architects Review Exam can be found on the web at www.asla.org.
Look under the LARE review section. Bibliography is found about page 80-81.
I suggest that you read and study all of the books listed before beginning
your project. Alternatively, you can select just a few of them to get
started.

rgs wrote in message ...