Kategoria BISAC: Gardening >> Garden Design

The Enlightenment raised fundamental quetions about what it meant to be human in a truly global world. At the heart of debates about nature, culture and history, the garden offered itself as a practical demonstration, a living experiment, and a site of debate and discourse.

The design, planting, experience and representation of contemporary gardens in Europe, China and North America reveal intense contributions to debates on aesthetics, both personal and national politics, and on the shaping of nature.

As much as the nineteenth and early twentieth century gardens and their designs were a product and representation of industrialisation and urbanisation, they were also motors of change. Gardens became an industry in and of themselves. They were both the last resting places of the dead and cultivated plots for surv ival. Gardens were therapeutic environments regarded as civilising, socialising and assimialting institutions, and they were designed and perceived as social landscapes and community playgrounds.

Rich with symbolism, gardens were treated as the subject and the setting for...

Every gardener dreams of having a delightful garden. I know this is true: every year hundreds of thousands of people, just like you, visit gardens for pleasure up and down the country. Yet in reality the garden at home is often seen as an encumbrance that takes up too much of your time and energy. Keeping on top of it becomes something you are unable or willing to put the necessary time into because you have other commitments - work, travelling, caring for the family or enjoying retirement.

Perhaps you know all too well how that feels?

What is really happening is that your...

The story of how Beth Chatto created her gravel garden on 'possibly the driest, and the most windswept, piece of soil in England' has a message of hope for gardeners everywhere. At the outset she promised herself: 'This garden was not to be irrigated in times of drought. Once established the plants must fend for themselves or die.'

The results, eloquently described by the author and beautifully portrayed in Steven Wooster's specially commissioned photographs taken through the seasons, testify to the triumphant outcome of the adventure.

Showing how her principles can be...

Gardening and creativity expert Fran Sorin s Digging Deep does for gardeners what Natalie Goldberg s Writing Down the Bones and Julia Cameron s The Artist s Way has done for millions of writers and artists: it shows how to approach your passion with an eye towards freeing your spirit and living a creative and joyful life. If you re yearning to get out of the rut you re in and cultivate more meaning and connection in your life, you ll find the encouragement and tools to make it happen in Digging Deep.

Overflowing with tips, exercises, and resources, Fran...

One of the most significant occurrences in the history of design was the creation of the English Landscape Garden. Accounts of its genesis the surprising structural change from the formal to a seeming informal are numerous. But none has ever been quite convincing and none satisfactorily placed the contributions of Stephen Switzer.

Unlike his contemporaries, Switzer - an 18th century author of books on gardening and agricultural improvement - grasped a quite new principle: that the fashionable pursuit of great gardens should be "rural and extensive," rather than merely the...

Turn a shady yard into a sumptuous garden

Shade is one of the most common garden situations homeowner's have, but with the right plant knowledge, you can triumph over challenging areas and learn to embrace shade as an opportunity instead of an obstacle. Glorious Shade celebrates the benefits of shade and shows you how to make the most of it. This information-rich, hardworking guide is packed with everything you need to successfully garden in the shadiest corners of a yard. You'll learn how to determine what type of shade you have and how to choose the right plants for...

The work of architect Geoffrey Bawa achieved a unique fusion of vernacular style and modern construction incorporating the lush tropical landscape of his native Sri Lanka. Although his architectural work and its influence have been well documented, less attention has been paid to his work on gardens.

His most famous garden is the one he created for himself at his estate, Lunuganga, and it is rivaled by Brief, the lesser-known garden of his brother, Bevis. Evolving over several decades, these two gardens and their outbuildings and sculptures represent high points of tropical design,...

While we often approach gardens as things to be seen thus engaging the rational, intellectual part of the human brain Sound and Scent in the Garden explores the more elusive experiences of sound and smell. These senses are important dimensions of garden design and performance and often have a powerful effect on the human body, yet they may also be ephemeral and difficult to study.

The contributors to the volume explore the sensory experience of gardens specifically as places where people encounter landscape in a staged manner, as a result of intentional design. How do the...