Gaining Ground is a garden design guide focused on transforming small, challenging, or neglected outdoor areas into beautiful, functional landscapes. Maureen Gilmer presents practical ideas—through before/after photography, illustrative plans, and design tips—for compact gardens, terraces, courtyards, and urban spaces. She suggests ways to integrate color, water features, hardscaping, vertical planting, and creative layouts to maximize visual impact without requiring a large plot. The goal is to show how even modest or “postage-stamp” gardens can become lush, inviting extensions of the home.