I'm a beginner gardener, and a fairly new homeowner. I needed a book so I could look up plants that are in my current landscape, find out what care they need, how to prune, etc. This book is very good *if you already know what you're looking for*. Sometimes it offers detailed care instructions, sometimes it doesn't. There could be more pictures. So, it's useful to me if I know the scientific name of a plant. But it's not so useful if I just know what the plant looks like, and I want to find it in the book.