Once you start looking for landscaping "don'ts," you'll find them everywhere: a huge oak tree planted close to a house; a holly bush planted beneath a window and covering the view; a solitary island flower bed, floating by itself, disconnected from all the other elements of the landscape. All were decisions made by well-meaning people that just turned out poorly.

I didn't want to end up making such mistakes, so before I started reworking my own yard, I set out to learn a little about landscape design.

 Here are three approaches I road-tested and some thoughts about how to make them more useful to you. None of these instructors knew in advance that I would write about the experience.

One-day crash course -Each year around the end of January horticulturist and radio host Neil Sperry holds two sessions of a day-long Home Landscape School. His teaching partner and co-host is Texas AgriLife Extension landscape horticultural specialist Dr. Steven George. About 250 people attend each session, both of which take place at the regional extension building. The next session, in early 2009, will mark the 16th year of the program.

Dr. George speaks in the morning on topics including landscape bed layout and prep, plant placement, general design principles and, his foremost interest, EarthKind gardening and landscaping principles. He is a charismatic, engaging speaker who fits a lot of useful information into just a few hours. The pace is brisk but understandable. He makes effective use of an overhead projector, sketching freehand the best places to put things like trees, shrubs and planting beds.

For example, at one point Dr. George shows a sketch of a front landscape on the overhead and draws a big circle over the yard space to illustrate best places for turf, bedding plants and trees. Imagine a circle (as big or small as you want it) in the middle of the yard. That's for the turf. The areas that remain outside the circle are where you would place flower beds, shrubs and/or trees. This design technique is simple and, of course, there are other ways to effectively plan a landscape. But that circle stuck in my mind, and in many cases it jumps out at me when I notice good-looking properties.

In the afternoon, Mr. Sperry continues the class with more discussion of landscape design and planning, especially color in the garden and turf management. "Any journey you go on needs a map," Mr. Sperry says. "For a landscape, that map is the plan." Mr. Sperry presents images of colorful landscapes, answers audience questions and, yes, he fills the room with his familiar baritone radio voice.

During class registration, participants receive design handouts, booklets on Texas plants, graph paper and two tickets to the All Texas Garden Show With Neil Sperry that takes place about a month after the classes in Arlington. Students sign up during class for a 30-minute consultation with a landscape professional that takes place at the show. The project goal is to use the class information to sketch a landscape plan and then review the plan at the show.

The class is a great, time-effective way to learn solid landscape-design basics and get a plan going. I still refer to the class materials, especially regarding plant choices. I used Dr. George's circle technique to form the rough outline of my new flower beds, and so far that's worked well for me.

The trick to getting the most of out of this class (and the others) is to focus effort on one manageable area. Pick the front or back yard or focus on an even smaller area to maximize the time you spend with the landscape professional.