Books
The New English Garden by Tim Richardson with photographs by Andrew Lawson (Frances Lincoln Publishers, 328 pages) $66
The English garden has long represented an ideal of naturalistic plantings imbued with subtle blends of colours and textures that combine to create a harmonious whole.
This approach received some new thinking when aspects of the New Perennials style, more popular in European countries, began to be incorporated.
The focus of this collection is aimed at 25 gardens that have been made or remade over the past 10 to 15 years.
This quiet evolution has its roots in the traditional English garden of years past but with new ideas on borders, plant selection, living walls, abstract turf landforming and more.
Each of the gardens - and these are all magnificent properties - is beautifully displayed through an extensive collection of photographs. Accompanying the pictures is Richardson's description of the property, its history and the work that has recently been done to it.
Most of these gardens are open to the public.
In the case of a 4.5-acre walled garden at Scampston Hall a complete makeover began in 1998 and was completed in 2004, turning a space given over to Christmas tree production into a popular visitor attraction.
Plaz Metaxu, a 32-acre garden of Coombe House, has become one of the most significant new gardens in Britain. With a blend of landscape installations, carefully groomed pathways, and artwork it features a tranquil but intellectually challenging series of enclosures, many incorporating references to Greek mythology.
All of the gardens featured in this collection are worthy of closer study and together offer a look to the direction this type of large-scale design is heading.
