This book is ideal for the coffee table but, as an informative book, it doesn't make the cut. The photographs are beautiful but the writing style lacks the punch necessary for how-to books and the reading is made more difficult by the injection of examples of different "kitchen gardens" in the midst of the chapters. Also, the gardens discussed are not such as could be duplicated by the average gardener, who does not have several acres of land to turn into a landscaped masterpiece.