The Naturally Beautiful Garden: Contemporary Designs to Please the Eye and Support Nature

Description

More popular than ever, gardening is going green with the rise in interest in environmentally friendly gardening. Gardening is trending, and today's gardeners are embracing ecologically sound principles - conserving water; avoiding invasives; reducing chemicals; supporting wildlife; and reviving time-tested, organic practices. Featuring sites across a variety of climates and conditions, this book includes private and public gardens created with style and elegance where the goal is to work with, rather than against, nature - opting for plants suited to the site, using organic methods, supporting birds and pollinators, etc. Interspersed throughout are stand-alone essays focused on key topics: meadows and prairie gardens; the importance of trees; structure and hardscaping; ornamental grasses; overcoming site challenges (xeriscaping, rain gardens, excess shade, less than ideal soils). With over thirty-five gardens from across the globe - America, Britain, Europe, Morocco, New Zealand, Thailand, Japan, the Caribbean - alongside photographs by leading garden photographers, including Clive Nichols, Marianne Majerus, Richard Bloom, Andrea Jones, and Alessio Mei, the book showcases the beauty and visual impact produced by eco-friendly garden principles.

Kathryn Bradley-Hole is the author of Rizzoli's acclaimed English Gardens. A fellow of the Linnean Society, she was for eighteen years the garden editor of the esteemed weekly magazine Country Life as well as the author of a regular column, Nature Notes. Her personal gardening interests focus on achieving visual harmony with the broader landscape and creating environments that assist wildlife.

In this stunningly presented book, Kathryn Bradley-Hole writes with authority, wit, and an impressive eye for detail. - George Plumptre, chief executive, National Gardens Scheme A beautifully designed, timely, and important portrayal of far-flung, inspiring gardens by a writer who sits among the horticultural supergods. - David Wheeler, editor of Hortus ...what a gift to be taken on an armchair tour of the great English gardens, courtesy of the magnificent "English Gardens: From the Archives of Country Life Magazine"-The Wall Street Journal An instant classic, Kathryn Bradley-Hole's English Gardens: From the Archives of Country Life contains a lifetime of travel itineraries. Great Dixter in East Sussex is vibrant with experiments in color and texture; tulips dance through a box parterre at Broughton Grange, an Oxfordshire garden recently designed by Tom Stuart-Smith - who has also been invited to refresh parts of the garden at Chatsworth for the Duke of Devonshire. -The New York Times Book Review "My happy travel bubble will always be one that links me to English gardens... Hard at work, I have been visiting vicariously with the help of a lavish new book. Kathryn Bradley-Hole is excellently placed to write one..." - Robin Lane Fox, Financial Times With its history and portraits of more than 70 beautiful gardens, this book is an instant classic. The author is the former garden editor of the revered British magazine, Country Life, and uses its exceptional photographs. Many of these gardens, new and old, are open to the public. -The Boston Globe