What distinguishes one landscape from another? What makes a garden a pleasure to see in every season of the year? It's the design, a plan of form and structure executed with artistry and skill. Gardens develop over time. They are a public expression that tells the world much about us-or little. They show how much we care. Most of all, a garden is one little corner where you can make the world as you would wish it to be. You owe it to yourself to develop your landscape in the most thoughtful way possible.

A plan can be infinitely simple. Consider a house, a lawn, two evergreens flanking the front door and a shade tree on the south or west corner. If the house is suitably plain and the upkeep vigorously maintained, then a plan like this can be perfectly effective. Don't over-do it! Landscapes seldom suffer from being too minimal. Design your landscape to fit your time allowance, your personal enthusiasm and your tolerance of physical labor.

Every landscape begins in a different place and a different time. Yours may begin on bare ground with a strict budget. It may begin with the view from the windows, inside looking out, or it may begin with a chainsaw on a neglected, overgrown backyard. Ask yourself, then, what do you want from your garden? Is it fresh fruit and vegetables? Fresh flowers? Fresh air? What do you want the most? The more thought you give to your design in the beginning, the more effective it will be in the end.

If you've never landscaped before, or if you've never been happy with the job you did or if you want something really rewarding but don't know where to begin, go to the public library. Over the years, the Joplin Public Library, for example, has developed a really stellar collection of books on everything about gardening. They have the most general do-it-yourself manuals, or more specialized works on landscaping with mosses, or old roses, or herbs. This is the place to get those creative impulses firing. Nothing can inspire ideas like these big beautiful volumes, and in the future we'll look at some of the books that are most helpful and enriching.

The good news about home landscaping is that there are no rules to follow or formulas you must use to plan your design. The bad news is there are no rules to follow or formulas to use and that can lead you to feel incompetent and unprepared. While there are no formulas, there are techniques to guide you, and in future columns we'll discuss some of them too.