The Cocktail Hour Garden: Creating Evening Landscapes for Relaxation and Entertaining

by C.L. Fornari

This book will lift your spirits, in more ways than one. At the end of the day, what better place is there to kick back, chill out and make the world go away, than in your own backyard garden? Plant and cocktail lover C. L. Fornari shows how easy it is to create a garden atmosphere that sets the mood for private relaxation or festive occasions with friends. With a wise and witty text, mood-setting plant lists, botanical drink recipes and luscious photographs, The Cocktail Hour Garden reveals the simple secrets to creating an evening pleasure garden. This personalizing of the garden experience is what the new buzzwords “garden-tainment” and “garden-to-glass” are all about.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction

192 pages, Hardcover

Published March 1, 2016

Reviews

[Sheila Garry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lighthearted, fun, informative look at plants that can be used for scent, taste, and visual impact to enhance your libations at the end of your day.

[R.C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely little book that does what it sets out to do! The subtracted star reflects the somewhat magazine-like design of the book, as well as how every single plant is referred to as a guest--a routine which quickly feels unnecessary. Also, I would have liked to have toured a few gardens that have especially excellent evening/entertaining spaces. There are several very promising gardens which receive a single photo each, along with the name of their owners, but we never get to explore them in the slightest. Still, besides the slips on execution, this is a great primer for the gardener who wants to become the entertainer.

[Abbi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the combination of plant suggestions for different aspects of an evening garden that I never thought of, like using plants that are feathery and catch the light at sunset, or planting for pleasant aroma. She also included a section on the "moon garden" which there was in the outdoor garden at the US botanic garden and I hope to have some day.

There were also a smattering of cocktail recipes that looked fun to try. I might have to purchase this book at a later date because the ideas were quite worthwhile.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun.