New Garden Design: Inspiring Privatee Paradises

by Zahid Sardar

From vegetable and succulent gardens to sculpture and rose gardens to mountain and waterfront gardens, New Garden Design covers a range of interpretations incorporating walls, fountains, pavilions, canals, pools, terraces and groves in unexpected ways. The resulting new garden is a pleasure garden vested with spiritual, symbolic and ecological intent. A modernist interpretation of Roman stone furniture and freestanding walls punctuate the space behind a 1970s ranch house. A home designed by Bernard Maybeck is accented with a freehand composition of urns, cement pipes and rusty objects, as well as over a thousand species of plants. A grove of olive trees underplanted with rosemary and lavender fields gives personality to two acres surrounding a house designed by modernist Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta.

Genres: Gardening, Horticulture

247 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2008

About the author

ZAHID SARDAR is a San Francisco–based editor, writer, and curator specializing in architecture, interiors, and design. His work has appeared in Dwell, Interiors, Western Interiors & Design, Interior Design, House & Garden, Elle Décor, House Beautiful, and Landscape Architecture. He has taught design history at the California College of the Arts and has written several other books, including West Coast Modern and New Garden Design.

Reviews

[Lloyd Downey · Rating 5 out of 5]

New Garden Design, by Zahid Sardar
I really liked this book...especially the lovely photos by Marion Brenner. I’ve come to realise, from reading a lot of gardening books that it’s not easy to take lovely photographs of gardens. And it takes a lot of very early mornings....or hanging around for the last few seconds before the sun sets....to get just the right light. And, it’s pretty clear that Marion Brenner has had more than her share of the early mornings and waiting for just the right time to take photos.......So maybe it’s not surprising that most (Or maybe all) of the gardens I this book seem to be localised to California ....probably within striking distance of the Photographer.
Yes the gardens are lovely. But that’s the other thing that struck me with most of these. They are based on “old money”. You can’t build most of these gardens....let alone maintain them unless you are backed by a lot of money. .......ok there are a few exceptions but not many. I mean, who has the resources to seem out ancient, gnarly, olive trees ......dig them out whole, transport and replant them in a new setting. That takes some capital.
I must also give full marks to the garden designers in this book and there are many of them: Clearly, artists in their own right, who work with plants and stones and water. And they have shown themselves to also be visionaries because they have to envisage the garden, not just as it is planted but how it will look in a few years time and also how it might look in 50 or 100 years time. And, they have to persuade and carry along the owners with their vision. It can’t be an easy task and, I expect that many compromises were made along the way.
And what is it about gay men partnerships and gardens. So many of these gardens seem to have been developed by two guys. And they are so good at it. Maybe it’s just an artistic bent. But I just love the gardens that so many have developed.
In fact, I found myself wondering if the gardens took so long to develop and involved so much investment of self......did the owners ever really get to sit back and enjoy them. Clearly some did but I detected that those beautiful lawns sweeping up to the wild red grasses did not maintain themselves....and there was a perpetual labour involved in weeding, pruning, clipping, replanting etc. And occasionally we hear mention of “Geronimo”, the gardener ...or the gardening team. Yes. I reckon most of these treasures would require a team of gardeners to maintain them.
Anyway, my bottom line is that I loved the book....mainly for the photos. Yes the text was fine and the selection of gardens was fine but Marion Brenner has made them simply stunning. Five stars from me.

[Amanda Bright · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really impressed and nothing practical for my own garden

[Pam · Rating 2 out of 5]

A true coffee-table book, "New Garden Design; Inspiring Private Paradises" has great photographs, BUT little useful information for the majority of gardeners. First, Zahid Sardar focuses almost exclusively on gardens in California which utilize plants most gardeners can not grow. The book has little information on specific plantings even for those who can use that unique group of plants. All the gardens shown rely on large installations of permanent garden structures which are out of financial reach of most gardeners. While a pretty book, gardeners will find better ideas elsewhere.

[Blackbook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eye candy.

[Shalea Oretzky · Rating 3 out of 5]

great pictures and precedents, but more indepth info was lacking