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Gardens in Detail
Explore 100 gardens from around the world with this illustrated guide to the design elements of each—from historical style to planting and landscape design. This comprehensive reference offers gardens from many periods of history—Islamic, Renaissance, English Landscape, Arts & Crafts, and more—and geographically diverse environments—from a nighttime sculpture garden on the Oregon coast, to a sustainable water garden in the mountains of Vermont, and the Mughal garden at the Indian president’s palace in New Delhi. They are inspirational works made by both talented amateurs and major international garden designers—including Britain’s Christopher Bradley Hole, Italy’s Luciano Giubbilei and Paolo Pejrone, and Americans Isabelle Green, Raymond Jungles, and Martha Schwartz. In this affordable volume boasting 500 illustrations, readers are led through the details of each garden and provided with the tools needed to understand and replicate each exemplary design—whether the site is rural or urban, a backyard or a beach, in any climate, and on any budget. Each beautiful project photo is followed by a list of key concepts, numbered close-ups that highlight aspects of the design, and expert write-ups to explain how each element serves the garden as a whole. Whether looking for a whole landscaping scheme, or simply an individual idea for a water feature or a wall, readers will find a wealth of ideas to choose from. Both experienced and armchair gardeners will find that Gardens in Detail will enhance their appreciation of how good design decisions are made at every scale.
- GenresGardeningArchitecture
400 pages, Hardcover
First published September 9, 2014
About the author
Emma Reuss
4 booksEmma Reuss is a garden writer and garden designer with a diploma from the Royal Horticultural Society.
She trained in garden design at Capel Manor College, Middlesex.
She has written for Country Life, The Guardian, Saga Magazine, and the Garden Design Journal, and she has contributed to the BBC and Royal Horticultural Society gardening websites.
She trained in garden design at Capel Manor College, Middlesex.
She has written for Country Life, The Guardian, Saga Magazine, and the Garden Design Journal, and she has contributed to the BBC and Royal Horticultural Society gardening websites.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 28, 2018
The best thing about "Gardens in Detail" is that it makes short work of showing what's great about a garden. You'll find a tremendous diversity of gardens here, but through a short (2 page!) introduction, you will have the key principles of what makes a great garden and be able to see those principles in action. These are:
1. genius loci: highlighting and developing the spirit of a place
2. unity: using a consistent set of relations or themes that unite components
3. simplicity: use a fixed amount of complexity to keep small spaces interesting and large places manageable
4. balance: different garden elements should have similar visual weight
5. proportion: the effect of the scale of elements should be intended
6. rhythm and repetition: reintroducing common elements gives a united sense of variety and pace
7. focal points: composing key viewpoints make the views more interesting and encourages people to move through the garden to view them
The treatment of these principles to the range of gardens that follows is very evenhanded, committed to exposing the positive design elements of a wide range of gardens (and, rarely, not-realy-garden outdoor rooms). The tone of this book seems committed to highlighting praiseworthy design elements and gives very little focus on the author's own editorial perspective. It's not a survey of contemporary gardens for better or worse, but rather a selection the author seems uniformally pleased with.
With this concept in mind, let's look at the execution. The best thing about the execution is the consistency of dealing with a large scale of content. The worst thing about the execution is the consistency of dealing with a large scale of content.
Where I think this book gets into trouble is its scale: one hundred gardens is a lot, probably too many. It's the kind of idea that's very attractive in a kind of crude way: "I'm going to get my money's worth". I think this could have been a better book if it was half as large.
100 gardens present a different challenge than reviewing, say, 100 paintings. One has to highlight a variety of aspects to see how the design works in a scene; there has to be more to say to show it properly.
The book comes up with a reasonably effective format for showing the key highlights of a garden in a compressed way: every garden has 4 pages. The first two contain a large photo of a key vantage point, and then along the side a title, designers, where the garden is, and a small essay of about 4 or 5 paragraphs. The next page contains a smaller version of that image with 4 or 5 elements highlighted, a box of bullet points describing some of the design qualities that make it successful. For the highlighted elements, each of those has a picture and a paragraph. If there are only four elements highlighted, a fifth picture and paragraph features a related idea, whether a different garden with similar elements or a famous garden designer.
Each of ten gardens featured starts with a two page chapter spread featuring some overall one-word theme, such as "Art", "Lifestyle", "Environment", etc. Given that unyielding template, we're looking at 420 pages.
This book is so effective at sharing design principles that we can use those design principles to critique this book: it is very unified and very simple in structure. The spread photo at the start of every garden establishes a sense of the place before delving into detail. The coverage throughout is perfectly balanced. However, the coverage of each garden feels ill-proportioned, very small compared to the scale of the book. The chapter spreads are even worse: they really fail to be significant enough to mark a change. As a result, no real rhythm is set up, and the book feels rather monotonous.
One of the downsides of the wonderful reserved quality of the prose is that it doesn't help with the sense of monotony. It could have stood a bit more personality. There's one point where the movie Titanic is referenced, and it felt like such a relief that there were signs of life.
Overall, there are a lot of the great compromise between design and nature that is gardening highlighted through an accessible design vocabulary, and it's a shame that the marketing concept of "100 gardens" left it's mark on the proportion of the book. It makes me appreciate "The Book of Basketball" all the more, which uses an entertaining cultural/architectural framing to structure what could have been a tedious listing.
1. genius loci: highlighting and developing the spirit of a place
2. unity: using a consistent set of relations or themes that unite components
3. simplicity: use a fixed amount of complexity to keep small spaces interesting and large places manageable
4. balance: different garden elements should have similar visual weight
5. proportion: the effect of the scale of elements should be intended
6. rhythm and repetition: reintroducing common elements gives a united sense of variety and pace
7. focal points: composing key viewpoints make the views more interesting and encourages people to move through the garden to view them
The treatment of these principles to the range of gardens that follows is very evenhanded, committed to exposing the positive design elements of a wide range of gardens (and, rarely, not-realy-garden outdoor rooms). The tone of this book seems committed to highlighting praiseworthy design elements and gives very little focus on the author's own editorial perspective. It's not a survey of contemporary gardens for better or worse, but rather a selection the author seems uniformally pleased with.
With this concept in mind, let's look at the execution. The best thing about the execution is the consistency of dealing with a large scale of content. The worst thing about the execution is the consistency of dealing with a large scale of content.
Where I think this book gets into trouble is its scale: one hundred gardens is a lot, probably too many. It's the kind of idea that's very attractive in a kind of crude way: "I'm going to get my money's worth". I think this could have been a better book if it was half as large.
100 gardens present a different challenge than reviewing, say, 100 paintings. One has to highlight a variety of aspects to see how the design works in a scene; there has to be more to say to show it properly.
The book comes up with a reasonably effective format for showing the key highlights of a garden in a compressed way: every garden has 4 pages. The first two contain a large photo of a key vantage point, and then along the side a title, designers, where the garden is, and a small essay of about 4 or 5 paragraphs. The next page contains a smaller version of that image with 4 or 5 elements highlighted, a box of bullet points describing some of the design qualities that make it successful. For the highlighted elements, each of those has a picture and a paragraph. If there are only four elements highlighted, a fifth picture and paragraph features a related idea, whether a different garden with similar elements or a famous garden designer.
Each of ten gardens featured starts with a two page chapter spread featuring some overall one-word theme, such as "Art", "Lifestyle", "Environment", etc. Given that unyielding template, we're looking at 420 pages.
This book is so effective at sharing design principles that we can use those design principles to critique this book: it is very unified and very simple in structure. The spread photo at the start of every garden establishes a sense of the place before delving into detail. The coverage throughout is perfectly balanced. However, the coverage of each garden feels ill-proportioned, very small compared to the scale of the book. The chapter spreads are even worse: they really fail to be significant enough to mark a change. As a result, no real rhythm is set up, and the book feels rather monotonous.
One of the downsides of the wonderful reserved quality of the prose is that it doesn't help with the sense of monotony. It could have stood a bit more personality. There's one point where the movie Titanic is referenced, and it felt like such a relief that there were signs of life.
Overall, there are a lot of the great compromise between design and nature that is gardening highlighted through an accessible design vocabulary, and it's a shame that the marketing concept of "100 gardens" left it's mark on the proportion of the book. It makes me appreciate "The Book of Basketball" all the more, which uses an entertaining cultural/architectural framing to structure what could have been a tedious listing.
December 27, 2021
The subtitle, “100 Contemporary Designs,” is accurate. Most of these gardens have a strong contemporary aesthetic. Reuss keep her promise: she does indeed point out specific details about 100 gardens worldwide.
Her writing voice didn’t work for me, and we have very different taste. Occasionally she would point out a thing, like concrete chairs out of proportion to humans which were apparently put there there as Art, and say something nice about how clever it is. I think that’s sort of a jerk move from the designer and am less amused, but yes, I recognize it’s part of the contemporary aesthetic.
The featured gardens are a mixed bag. Some of them are legit the worst: hideous and uncomfortable. But there were also some really neat ones. There was one in Italy, where some rolling hills were set with a sort of asymmetrical labyrinth of boxwood, scattered with stone lookout tower gazebo things. I would LOVE to go explore there.
Her writing voice didn’t work for me, and we have very different taste. Occasionally she would point out a thing, like concrete chairs out of proportion to humans which were apparently put there there as Art, and say something nice about how clever it is. I think that’s sort of a jerk move from the designer and am less amused, but yes, I recognize it’s part of the contemporary aesthetic.
The featured gardens are a mixed bag. Some of them are legit the worst: hideous and uncomfortable. But there were also some really neat ones. There was one in Italy, where some rolling hills were set with a sort of asymmetrical labyrinth of boxwood, scattered with stone lookout tower gazebo things. I would LOVE to go explore there.
April 8, 2018
This is a great book for gardeners of all types interested in adding hardscape to their gardens. Hardscape is an essential element that is often missing in many gardens. While the book is not specifically about hardscape and instead is a compendium of individual gardens analyzed for the elements that make them superb, that is the unifying element among them all. Many of the gardens are elaborate, costly to create and maintain, but using individual small features presented would be manageable by all gardeners. As the subtitle, "100 Contemporary Designs", suggests, many of the gardens have very strong geometric design elements. It should be noted that for most gardeners utilizing symmetry with plants often adds complexity and cost when 4 of the plants in the line thrive and the 5th right in the middle dies. Replacement of the exact variety and size is nearly impossible.
December 21, 2023
Beautiful examples of garden styles
May 18, 2015
The qualities that create a memorable garden are universal and transcend time and space.
While one often feels on an intuitive level that a garden is pleasing, it is not always easy to articulate why. A well designed garden provides both tangible and intangible pleasures that reveal its genus loci – the spirit of the place.
Thus is the premise of Gardens in Detail: 100 Contemporary Designs, by London-based garden writer and designer Emma Reuss. Using a portfolio of 100 gardens from throughout the world as a guide, Reuss sets out to share, in orderly fashion, how good garden design is based upon seven key principles; composition, genius loci, unity, simplicity, balance, proportion, rhythm and repetition, and focal points. When combined successfully an aesthetically pleasing, harmonious and balanced composition emerges that both inspires and serves as a practical guide for the home gardener.
Gardens in Detail: 100 Contemporary Designs includes a diverse and eclectic collection of properties chosen by Reuss to “demonstrate with ease the thinking behind the garden.” A wide range of styles and situations are represented and organized in ten thematic chapters – Art, Landscape, World, Plants, Composition Lifestyle, Color, Urban, Environment and Atmosphere. From urban rooftop to forest retreat, the gardens showcase the work of both well known designers (an appendix lists contact information for 54) and “gifted amateurs” reinforcing the democratic nature of good design.
Each garden is presented in a four page spread as a case study complete with introduction, an exploration of design intent and an analysis of key design elements (called ingredients by Reuss) that detail how each supports the project as a whole. Sidebars provide additional insight into key ideas and themes represented within the garden.
Gardens in Detail: 100 Contemporary Designs is beautifully illustrated with more than 500 color photographs. While the text is thoughtful and clear the book would benefit from a table of contents listing the names and locations of the gardens featured within each chapter and information regarding which (if any) are open to the public. The inclusion of garden plans would also be a helpful feature to provide context and scale.
As a resource for garden designers, Gardens in Detail: 100 Contemporary Designs is a comprehensive reference guide that is both practical and inspiring. By including information about basic design considerations as diverse as options for children to designing knot gardens, Reuss delivers an “every person’s guide” to contemporary garden design.
While one often feels on an intuitive level that a garden is pleasing, it is not always easy to articulate why. A well designed garden provides both tangible and intangible pleasures that reveal its genus loci – the spirit of the place.
Thus is the premise of Gardens in Detail: 100 Contemporary Designs, by London-based garden writer and designer Emma Reuss. Using a portfolio of 100 gardens from throughout the world as a guide, Reuss sets out to share, in orderly fashion, how good garden design is based upon seven key principles; composition, genius loci, unity, simplicity, balance, proportion, rhythm and repetition, and focal points. When combined successfully an aesthetically pleasing, harmonious and balanced composition emerges that both inspires and serves as a practical guide for the home gardener.
Gardens in Detail: 100 Contemporary Designs includes a diverse and eclectic collection of properties chosen by Reuss to “demonstrate with ease the thinking behind the garden.” A wide range of styles and situations are represented and organized in ten thematic chapters – Art, Landscape, World, Plants, Composition Lifestyle, Color, Urban, Environment and Atmosphere. From urban rooftop to forest retreat, the gardens showcase the work of both well known designers (an appendix lists contact information for 54) and “gifted amateurs” reinforcing the democratic nature of good design.
Each garden is presented in a four page spread as a case study complete with introduction, an exploration of design intent and an analysis of key design elements (called ingredients by Reuss) that detail how each supports the project as a whole. Sidebars provide additional insight into key ideas and themes represented within the garden.
Gardens in Detail: 100 Contemporary Designs is beautifully illustrated with more than 500 color photographs. While the text is thoughtful and clear the book would benefit from a table of contents listing the names and locations of the gardens featured within each chapter and information regarding which (if any) are open to the public. The inclusion of garden plans would also be a helpful feature to provide context and scale.
As a resource for garden designers, Gardens in Detail: 100 Contemporary Designs is a comprehensive reference guide that is both practical and inspiring. By including information about basic design considerations as diverse as options for children to designing knot gardens, Reuss delivers an “every person’s guide” to contemporary garden design.
February 21, 2015
Beautiful layout, photos, design, and gardens! It's not a book that is designed specifically to help you design your own garden (although you of course can get ideas, inspiration, and design ideas), but instead is a book that highlights amazing gardens from around the world and what aspects make them great.
July 23, 2016
An informative review of many gardens and garden styles around the world. The downfall to me was the lack of plant identification. How can I replicate a part of the design I like if I don't know what the plants are? Perhaps she was trying to cover too much.
Want to Read
December 14, 2014Inspiration to read: NYTBR blurb Dec 7 2014 and http://www.gardenista.com/posts/requi...
Read
May 19, 2015I only got to skim this book. Lots of great ideas to steal! Especially love "Italian Romantic" and the recessed fire-pit that I am going to attempt.
June 13, 2016
Beautiful book - more for the architect than the simple gardener, but the pictures of gardens around the world are amazing.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews