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Books > Gardening > Gardens (descriptions, history etc)
In Remarkable gardens, the beauty of South African gardens is revealed by Craig Fraser and Nini Bairnsfather Cloete. Featuring sumptuous photographs and engaging text, this book combines history and horticulture to take its reader on a fascinating journey through 20 of the most magical private gardens in the country. A multifaceted kaleidescope of gardens is featured, from those that are carefully and formally landscaped to those left to their own free-spirited and natural devices; The gardens are located in a diverse group of regions and climates. These range from the majesty of the Cape Floral Kingdom to the Little Karoo, the Drakensberg mountains and KwaZulu-Natal; Conversations with the gardens’ owners illuminate their histories, with the trials, tribulations and triumphs of their personal journeys shedding light on the creation of each garden; Landscape elements featured in the book include water gardens, sculpture gardens, parterres, herb and vegetable gardens and farm gardens. While most of these gardens usually remain hidden from view, in Remarkable Gardens of South Africa their stunning scenery, rich history and intriguing diversity are explored with romantic, inspiring results.
Most gardens have shady spots, but some gardens have a real shade ‘problem’. Whether it is caused by large or overhanging trees, tall buildings, or just being on the ‘wrong side of the street’, fi nding the best plants for a shady area can be challenging, particularly if the rest of your garden basks in sunshine all year round. Shade plants are not necessarily tropical, although many tropical plants thrive in shade. Some delicate leafy plants will scorch and burn in hot sun, some plants like shady conditions but not damp soil, while others grow happily in damp, boggy ground that receives minimum sunlight. Gardening in the Shade examines the different types of shade and the effect it has on plant growth. It presents solutions to common problems such as feeding, watering and mulching shade plants, and how to deal with exacerbating factors such as wind, frost and soil type. Popular shade plants, like clivias, bromeliads, fuchsias and ferns are given special features, and a directory of species lists plants under headings like ground covers, tropical-looking perennials, and succulents.
The enduring appeal of English gardens is beautifully realised by Clive Nichols, one of Europe's leading garden photographers. From the green hills of the north to the bleached landscapes of the south, twenty-eight gardens transport the reader into a timeless, golden age. Each page is filled with herbaceous borders overflowing with vibrant flower combinations, kitchen gardens that burgeon with rows of apple blossom, vegetables and sweet peas, water that cascades forever into pools and fountains and emerald-green topiary which frames a vista to a sunlit upland. Many of the finest landscape architects in England whose work is featured include Emma Keswick at Rockcliffe Hall, Julianne Fernandez at Tyger Barn, Angel Collins at Bruern Abbey, Piet Oudolf at Hauser and Wirth and many more, with text that explains and clarifies their design sensibilities. This book offers total immersion and sheer delight for any garden design and photography enthusiast.
Monk's House in Sussex is the former home of Leonard and Virginia Woolf. It was bought by them in 1919 as a country retreat, somewhere they came to read, write and work in the garden. From the overgrown land behind the house they created a brilliant patchwork of garden rooms, linked by brick paths, secluded behind flint walls and yew hedges. The story of this magical garden is the subject of this book and the author has selected quotations from the writings of the Woolfs which reveal how important a role the garden played in their lives, as a source of both pleasure and inspiration. Virginia wrote most of her major novels at Monk's House, at first in a converted tool shed, and later in her purpose-built wooden writing lodge tucked into a corner of the orchard. Caroline Zoob lived with her husband, Jonathan, at Monk's House for over a decade as tenants of the National Trust, and has an intimate knowledge of the garden they tended and planted. The photographer, Caroline Arber, was a frequent visitor to the house during their tenancy and her spectacular photographs, published here for the first time, often reveal the garden as it is never seen by the public: at dawn, in the depths of winter, at dusk. The photographs and text, enriched with rare archive images and embroidered garden plans, take the reader on a journey through the various garden 'rooms', (including the Italian Garden, the Fishpond Garden, the Millstone Terrace and the Walled Garden). Each garden room is presented in the context of the lives of the Woolfs, with fascinating glimpses into their daily routines at Rodmell. This beautiful book is an absorbing account of the creation of a garden which will appeal equally to gardeners and those with an interest in Virginia and Leonard Woolf.
In this stunning reimagination of an entire season, acclaimed and award-winning author and photographer Cedric Pollet presents 20 of the most beautiful winter gardens accross France and the UK. Winner of the Garden Media Guild - Garden Book of the Year award, Pollet showcases these breathtaking winter gardens which are at their best when most gardens are at their barest. Rich with blazes of colour and light, these gardens use creative structural planning and subtle textures to greate masterful visual and sensory ensembles. From berries and barks to vibrant shrubs and evergreens, these gardens will delight and inspire in equal measure, all captured in extroardinary photographs by Pollet, one of today's masters of garden photography and accompanied by insightful text which picks out the reasons these gardens are so special. The second half of the book is an illustrated directory of over 300 plants which encourage you to achieve these effects in their own gardens. From the author of bestselling Bark: An Intimate Look at the World's Trees, this beautiful guide is a unique and unmissable book on some of the most creative and inspiring gardens around today.
Shakespeare's Gardens is a highly illustrated, informative book about the gardens that William Shakespeare knew as a boy and tended as a man, published to coincide with the 400th anniversary of his death in April 2016. This anniversary will be the focus of literary celebration of the life and work throughout the English speaking world and beyond. The book will focus on the gardens that Shakespeare knew, including the five gardens in Stratford upon Avon in which he gardened and explored. From his birthplace in Henley Street, to his childhood playground at Mary Arden's Farm, to his courting days at Anne Hathaway's Cottage and his final home at New Place - where he created a garden to reflect his fame and wealth. Cared for by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, these gardens are continually evolving to reflect our ongoing knowledge of his life. The book will also explore the plants that Shakespeare knew and wrote about: their use in his work and the meanings that his audiences would have picked up on - including mulberries, roses, daffodils, pansies, herbs and a host of other flowers. More than four centuries after the playwright lived, whenever we think of thyme, violets or roses, we are reminded of a line from his work. Shakespeare's Gardens brings together specially commissioned photography of the gardens with beautiful archive images of flowers, old herbals, and 16th century illustrations. It tells the story of Shakespeare's journey - from glove maker's son to national bard - and how he came to know so much about plants, flowers and gardens of the Elizabethan era.
'Making a garden together, in which to live and work, through thick and thin, fair and foul, is what we like to do best. Everything else is a sideshow. Since spring 2019 Julian and I have been making a garden at Ashington Manor Farm, a garden that we think of as our last principal private escapade, but you never know . . .' Isabel and Julian Bannerman have made scores of lauded gardens for a host of famous clients, and three special, much-loved gardens of their own surrounding the houses which they have restored and lived in since they married, starting at The Ivy, Chippenham, in 1982; then Hanham Court, Bristol, in 1993; and Trematon Castle, Cornwall, in 2012. Now as they embark on a new adventure, creating a garden at their Elizabethan farmhouse in Somerset, Isabel reflects on the garden they are making and the others they have made as a couple, about the 'thousand tiny decisions about which we fight like hooting chimpanzees' and, especially, the fundamentals of what Julian, Mr B, thinks about the key things that go into making a garden for living in - a jumble of eating, drinking and sitting places, fruit cages, vegetable and cutting gardens, pelargoniums in giant pots, rose arches, tools and sheds, fences, formality and topiary, pools and meadows, and not least the importance of one's peripheral vision of how the garden joins on to the landscape.
Explore the magical green world of Lambeth Palace Garden, a hidden jewel of London for more than 1,000 years. In this book, Head Gardener Nick Stewart Smith takes the reader on a series of rambles through the changing seasons, introducing some extraordinary trees and plants along the way. Revealing some of the untold stories of the ten-acre secret garden, this is a unique insight into a special place. Nick explains how nature is at the heart of everything here, the gardening approach allowing the green world inside the high stone walls to be a haven for many kinds of wildlife, all flourishing right in the midst of one of the world's busiest cities.
'Paradise haunts gardens', writes Derek Jarman, 'and it haunts mine.' Jarman's public image is that of a film-maker of genius, whose work, dwelling on themes of sexuality and violence, became a byword for controversy. But the private man was the creator of his own garden-paradise in an environment that many might think was more of a hell than a heaven - in the flat, bleak, often desolate expanse of shingle that faces the Dungeness nuclear power station. Jarman, a passionate gardener from childhood, combined his painter's eye, his horticultural expertise and his ecological convictions to produce a landscape which combined the flints, shells and driftwood of Dungeness; sculptures made from stones, old tools and found objects; the area's indigenous plants; and shrubs and flowers introduced by Jarman himself. This book is Derek Jarman's own record of how this garden evolved, from its earliest beginnings in 1986 to the last year of his life. More than 150 photographs taken since 1991 by his friend and photographer Howard Sooley capture the garden at all its different stages and at every season of the year. Photographs from all angles reveal the garden's complex geometrical plan, its magical stone circles and its beautiful and bizarre sculptures. We also catch glimpses of Jarman's life in Dungeness: walking, weeding, watering, or just enjoying life. Derek Jarman's Garden is the last book Jarman ever wrote. Like the garden itself, it remains as a fitting memorial to a brilliant and greatly loved artist who, against all odds, made a breathtakingly beautiful garden in the most inhospitable of places. It will appeal to all those who are themselves practising gardeners, as well as the legions of admirers of this extraordinary man.
Ian Hamilton Finlay's garden in the Pentland Hills near Edinburgh is widely regarded as one of the most significant gardens in Britain. In addition to being a spectacular example of garden design, it also features almost 300 artworks by Finlay and others which form an integral part of the garden scheme. This new companion to Little Sparta tells the story of Ian Hamilton Finlay's extraordinary creation, exploring the underlying themes, and introducing and explaining the significance of the main elements and artworks in each part of the garden. Featuring new photography, as well as archive material, it also shows how the garden has matured and developed over the last 50 years.
As I step out of the conservatory facing North, supported by my pusher, the first that catches my eye is the dying Sycamore which escapes death every year by producing a healthy crop of leaves, but it looks so decrepit that surely it can't pull that trick yet again. -1 April, 2020 In his eighty-eighth year, John Boorman uses his time in lockdown to reflect on the splendour of the surrounding nature of County Wicklow. Coccooning with his daughter and son among the hills of Annamoe, Boorman chronicles his daily walks and observations of the trees on his estate, writing with heightened appreciation of the beauties of his eyrie using only one eye and one finger. Poetry flows from his pen as he sits chairbound among his trees and flora: sycamores, limes, beech, oak, redwood, shrubs and flowers, birdsong and shifting skies are luminously recorded as the world falls silent. With illustrations by Susan Morley, this slim but meditative volume is a remarkable narrative by the creator of The Emerald Forest, Excalibur and Deliverance - a swansong like no other.
Oxford Botanic Garden is the oldest surviving botanic garden in Britain and has occupied its site in central Oxford since 1621. Conceived as a place to grow medicinal plants, born in the turmoil of civil war and nurtured during the restoration of the monarchy, the garden has, unsurprisingly, a curious past. By tracing the work and priorities of each of the garden's keepers, this book explores its importance as one of the world's oldest scientific plant collections. It tells the story of the planting of the garden by its first keeper, Jacob Bobart, and his son, together with how they changed the garden to suit their own needs. The story develops during the eighteenth century as the garden grew exotic plants under glass and acquired a fine succulent collection but then experienced a downturn under the stewardship of the eccentric Professor Humphrey Sibthorp (famous for giving just one lecture in thirty-seven years). Finally, the narrative throws light on the partnership of gardener William Baxter and academic Charles Daubeny in the early nineteenth century, which gave the garden its glasshouses and ponds and contributed to its survival to the present day. This generously illustrated book is the first history of the garden and arboretum for more than a century and provides an essential introduction to one of Oxford's much-loved haunts.
After publishing Scent Magic, an acclaimed memoir of plants, gardens and scent, Isabel Bannerman couldn't leave the subject alone. 'I came across the star-nosed mole, an adorable and preposterous creature with a highly specialized sensory-motor organ, while writing about the riches of the soil kingdom ... and, somewhat mole-like ... as I was trying to write about the impossibility of writing effectively about smell, I began to nose around for great writers' solutions to this problem. How and how much have writers considered the lilies of the field and how they smell. I began grazing on literature and gathering in my stores of quotes.' In reviews of Scent Magic, Isabel was lauded for 'putting into words what so much escapes language. With a wonderful range of reference and allusion, it's nothing less than poetry... (Evening Standard)'. And in this anthology, with her beautifully written linking passages bringing carefully chosen quotations together with her dramatic, powerful and mysterious plant images, she evokes the scented garden through poetry and prose spanning millennia, from Ovid to Proust, Milton to George Eliot, and Emily Dickinson to Alice Oswald.
Set in the heart of the Sussex downs, Charleston Farmhouse is the most important remaining example of Bloomsbury decorative style. But the garden, described by Virginia Woolf in 1916 as 'charming...now run rather wild' became and remained central to life in the farmhouse. The walled garden, created by Vanessa Bell and Roger Fry from the vegetable garden after the first world war, the pond, the orchard and the fields beyond, all contributed in a major sense to the creative energies of the place. And this creativity is reflected in the numerous works of art (in particular the sculpture by Vanessa and Clive Bell's son Quentin) placed around the garden to enhance, and sometimes to comment on or to provide a counterpoint to the simple but expressive planting schemes. Now, for the first time, the year-round beauty and glory of this most English but most artistic of gardens has been captured by one of Britain's leading garden photographers. The result is a book that will enchant, entertain, and remind the many thousands who visit every year, and will tempt, explain and record the splendors and the exuberance of it all for others.
Thirty years after Beth Chatto first created her now famous gardens, The Green Tapestry was published, in which Beth took her readers on a conducted tour of her gardens while explaining her planting choices and experiences in making a garden with perennial plants. Now, a further thirty years on, although Beth is no longer with us, the gardens continue to demonstrate her ethos of sustainable planting, which, with climate change an ever more pressing issue, could not be more relevant today. In Beth Chatto's Green Tapestry Revisited, David Ward and Asa Gregers-Warg, who worked alongside Beth for many years and still work at the gardens today, have updated her guide to her gardens, adding new text where areas of the garden have been substantially remodelled and replanted since the first edition, in particular the Gravel Garden, the Woodland Garden and the Reservoir Garden, with an updated directory of Beth's favourite perennial plants. Beth's gardens at Elmstead Market were, in many ways, ahead of their time. Beth's knowledge as a plantswoman, derived in part from her husband Andrew's research into plants in their natural habitats, also came from her own extensive practical experience. She set out to garden using only those plants that thrived in the available conditions - damp or dry, sun or shade. It was her talent for observation, her enthusiasm for learning, and her never-ending interest in the foliage, form and texture of her preferred perennials, as much as in their flower colour, that made her a unique voice in British gardening. Illustrated with specially commissioned photography by Steven Wooster, who was Beth's preferred photographer of her gardens, this new edition is a timely tribute to Beth's work. Julia Boulton, Beth's granddaughter and the CEO of Beth Chatto's Plants and Gardens, hopes that it will inspire a new generation of gardeners to plant in tune with nature and create their own exquisite 'green tapestry' of perennial plants suited to their own conditions. -- que
This is the fourth of six parts of a facsimile reprint of a compendium of cookery, gardening, animal husbandry and general household medicine which was published in two volumes in about 1760, having first been offered to the public in 41 weekly parts in 1756. The author claimed "upwards of Thirty Years Experience" as housekeeper or cook, possibly in the service of a Lady Hewit, whose manuscript receipt book - cookery and medicinal - is copied into the published work. The work is arranged as a calendar discussing marketing, cooking, preserving, brewing, medicines for men and animals, and tending the orchard, the herb and vegetable garden and the pleasure garden, month by month. Among its features are descriptions of foods bought - spices, sugar, anchovies, olives, soy sauce - as well as foods grown or cooked. Other hints about marketing - buying fish, for instance - are more detailed than in many other manuals of the period, and there are lists of specific varieties of fruits as they are ready for the table.
A tour of some of the UK's most beguiling gardens in the counties of Kent, Sussex and Surrey, the counties that exemplify 'the garden of England'. In these three counties a wealth of history and horticulture has combined with geography in the shape of rolling landscapes, wooded valleys and meandering waterways, to provide an attractive and fascinating collection. They are in villages and towns, as well as in deep countryside, and all are privately owned. Some have been in the possession of the same family for many generations, while others have recently been transformed by new owners. Some open for the National Garden Scheme, while others are open privately and in some cases for just the occasional day for charity. The stunning gardens explored in this visually rich guide include: Arundel Castle, Denmans, Gravetye Manor, Munstead Wood and Sussex Prairie Garden. The book also includes a gazetteer of other important gardens in the area with location advice, to enable readers to plan a more elaborate tour of this fertile garden area. Filled with stunning, specially commissioned photographs by Clive Boursnell, Secret Gardens of the South East is a unique guide that opens the gates to the most intriguing gardens in this part of England.
Biophilic Connections and Environmental Encounters in the Urban Age takes a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing on the authors' wide range of experience, to provide a greater understanding of the different dimensions of environmental engagement. It considers the ways that we interact with our environments, presenting a comprehensive account of how people negotiate and use the urban landscape. Set within current debates concerning urban futures, societal issues, sustainable cities, health and well-being, the book explores our innate need for contact with the natural world through biophilic design thinking to expand our knowledge base and promote a wider understanding of the importance of these interactions on our collective well-being. It responds to questions such as, what are the urban qualities that support our well-being? As an urbanised society what are the environmental determinants that promote healthy and satisfying lifestyles? Beginning with an overview of concepts relating to biophilia and environmental engagement, it moves through current theory and practice, different pathways and their characteristics, before presenting real world examples and applications through illustrated case studies in the UK, USA and across Europe. With a particular focus on the experience of individuals, the book is essential reading for students, researchers, and practitioners of architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, design and health sciences, interested in the future of our cities and the importance of green spaces.
The definitive guide to hundreds of Britain's most outstanding gardens, in the care of the National Trust The National Trust has the finest collection of gardens in the United Kingdom. In this book, Stephen Lacey paints a vivid picture of the individual gardens, and places each one in its context within British horticultural history. All the major periods and styles of garden design are represented, from the formality of early gardens such as Hanbury Hall and Ham House, magnificent 18th-century landscapes like Stowe and Croome Park and the heady Victorian creations of Biddulph Grange and Waddesdon Manor to the famous plantsmen's gardens of the last century, such as Nymans, Hidcote Manor and Sissinghurst Castle. The text and pictures have been fully updated, with new entries including Allan Bank, High Close Arboretum and Wentworth Castle. Several gardens have undergone major redevelopment since the previous edition, while others have colourfully expanded the acreage open to visitors. Extensive tree planting, including reinstating a lost eighteenth-century avenue at Dyrham Park and recreating the pear tree arch at Rudyard Kipling's home, Bateman's, are just a few of the new and exciting additions to this classic guide to Britain's most outstanding gardens.
Business Principles for Landscape Contracting, fully revised and updated in its third edition, is an introduction to the application of business principles of financial management involved in setting up your own landscape contracting business and beginning your professional career. Appealing to students and professionals alike, it will build your knowledge of financial management tools and enable you to relate their applications to real-life business scenarios. Focusing on the importance of proactive financial management, the book serves as a primer for students in landscape architecture, contracting, and management courses and entrepreneurs within the landscape industry preparing to use business principles in practice. Topics covered include: Financial management and accountability Budget development Profitable pricing and estimating Project management Creating a lean culture Personnel management and employee productivity Professional development Economic sustainability.
Outdoor Interiors showcases the most beautiful garden designs in the world. Author Juliet Roberts highlights five styles - 'traditional', 'contemporary', 'playful', 'everyday' and 'minimal' - and gives plenty of tips for achieving the same style in your garden across different categories (dining, sitting, lounge, cooking and swimming). The result is a stylish coffee table book full of inspiration.
Which garden can you only enter if you are accompanied by children? Where can you find walrus bones, vampire stories and inspiration for red telephone boxes? And since when do you see skateboards and mobile phones in roman mosaics? London's gardens and parks form the green lung of the multimillion-housing capital, but also its heart and soul. Londoners commemorate their beloveds on park benches, they volunteer to keep up community gardens and nature reserves, and they get upset when snails attack their favourite plant. The city's 400-plus green spaces are not only testament to the English love of gardening; they are also steeped in history. Kings hunted here, airships were built in London parks, and many famous Londoners are buried in graveyards-turned-gardens. Our guide leads the way into the unknown: dark corners of major parks, enchanted green paradises, and tiny gardens tucked away in rubbish skips or on the rooftops. |
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