The New Garden Paradise: Great Private Gardens of the World

by Dominique Browning

A celebration in words and breathtaking images of thirty-five landscapes created for private clients by today's preeminent designers. This is a time of renewed originality in garden design. The last twenty years have seen a lucky confluence of money and talent lavished on gardening, and the results are surprising, enchanting, sometimes even controversial. The range of possibilities suggested by these thirty-five gardens is extraordinary: from Jacques Wirtz's undulating beech hedges that recede mysteriously into the mist to Penelope Hobhouse's latest interpretation of the traditional English garden, to Martha Schwartz's Texas creation of red, yellow, and pink painted garden rooms. These hidden masterworks of modern gardening are unlocked for us by the authority, experience, and resources of House & Garden magazine. Every page is an invitation to explore landscapes that have never before been seen by the public--and may never be seen again. International in scope and lavish in its production, this book is the last word on the state of design in the garden world. 340 color photographs

464 pages, Hardcover

First published October 11, 2005

About the author

Dominique Browning writes a monthly column called Personal Nature for the
 Environmental Defense Fund website. She is a regular contributor to the New
 York Times Book Review and also writes for O, Body + Soul, Wired, and
 Travel & Leisure, among other publications. Before House & Garden she 
worked at The Edison Project, Mirabella, Newsweek, Texas Monthly, and Esquire. She is the
 author of Around the House and In the Garden, and Paths of Desire:
 The Passions of a Suburban Gardener. She is the mother of two sons;
 her new house and garden are on the coast of Rhode Island.


Reviews

[T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This lovely gift is a perfect antidote for a time when you cannot run around the world looking at beautiful gardens. And the gardens featured are private, so there is never a time to be able to peek into these beauties. The book is arranged thematically and even though some were real favorites and others did not suit my style at all, it was interesting to read about them and enjoy the beautiful pictures. The author comments that all gardens are perfect the day before and the day after you visit them and the photos capture their perfection. My only complaint is that the book is very large and very heavy; as a cocktail book it needs to be enjoyed from a sturdy table.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is richly illustrated with wonderful pictures of gardens (say about half of its contents) and text that accessibly tells what's interesting about the garden or how to look at a particular scene. I personally know next to nothing about gardening or landscape architecture, though I've always enjoyed gardens, and found that this introduced me to the considerations of gardening at a large scale while assuming nothing, yet not stopping to explain matters either.

The organization of the book is very reasonable. Each section is about a particular gardener, usually in the context of a single garden. Though the chapters try to differentiate between different groups of gardening approaches, the chapters create a particular kind of pacing around loose groupings of ideas rather than link any clearly denoted schools, though the chapter ordering creates a great sense of contrast.

Ultimately, this book is an overview that there are a lot of great gardens going on today. Though it doesn't present any particular thesis about what the new ideas of movements in gardening are, one might appreciate the diversity of this cross-approach overview. I do find that I look at the composition of outdoor space with a different eye. Overall, one can enjoy gardens not only from the perspective of the gardener, and I hope other books might help me continue develop new ways to see composition in outdoor spaces.

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

there is a place in this book that if i ever win the lottery i'm going to scoop up all my nearest and dearest and escape to. we'll sit surrounded by beauty and love each other and decide what to do with all my money.

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

The cover says it all.....
"A celebration in words and breathtaking images of 35 landscapes created for private clients by today's preeminent designers".

A nice peek at how the other half lives.

[L]

Technically I didn't reading a lot of this book. It is mainly photography of beautiful, privately owned gardens. Dreamy and inspirational stuff.