The Boxed Garden: Designs for Small Spaces

by Paul Bangay, Simon Griffiths (Photographer)

In "The Boxed Garden," Paul Bangay shares with us the challenges of small gardens. He shows us ways of seeing their possibilities and ways of overcoming their limitations; how a change of level adds excitement, a fountain properly placed creates a vista, a paving pattern lengthens the perspective, and a planting as simple as a double hedge lends depth and richness to a setting. As well, he has a wealth of practical information to impart about developing ground plans and planting schemes; constructing walls, level changes, steps, paved areas and pools; and choosing materials, plants, ornamentation, lighting and outdoor furniture. Behind Paul Bangay's distinctive works lies an argument for simplicity of design; strong garden architecture; massed plantings largely restricted to evergreens; the use of native and other plants suited to the climate; and the adaptation of garden styles sympathetic to Australian conditions and patterns of living. To demonstrate his ideas, he describes in detail the making of several small gardens, one of them his own. Exhilarating full-color photographs by Simon Griffiths capture the essence of his inspiring designs.

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Tadeusz Pudlik]

Essays discussing some half dozen small formal gardens designed by the Australian landscape architect, Paul Bangay. The book is the opposite of encyclopedic: it shows only a handful of gardens, in photography that's more suggestive of their feel than fully descriptive, contains no full ground plans, and only very light discussion of planting choices. If you can get only one book on garden design, it should probably not be this book.

But if instead of getting one book you can get ten, definitely include this one! It's phenomenal. Bangay's aggressive use of hardscaping, mass planting in confined spaces, and willingness to discard high-maintenance features like floral borders is thoroughly refreshing. He takes a central thesis that sounds a little vague and nonobvious ("The smaller a garden is, the more disciplined the planting needs to be") and produces specific, compelling, and sometimes extreme examples that clarify and support it. (One of the gardens discussed has only two species of vegetation, boxwood and lilly pilly!)

While this is definitely celebrity gardening, the approach it showcases is both so unusual and so successful that it is very much worth checking out.

[Michael Heath-Caldwell]

One of Paul Bangay's very good books on landscape design. Mainly Melbourne oriented.