Island Gardens: Havens of Beauty Around the British Isles

Description

The British Isles consists of more than 6,000 islands scattered around the main islands of Britain and Ireland. More than 100 of these British off-shore islands are inhabited - and where there are people, there are gardens. Lighthouse gardens, gulf-stream-soaked, tropical gardens, windswept remote gardens with giant and ancient yew trees, and gardens surrounding castles and monasteries of historical significance. Britain has more island gardens than anywhere else in the world, particularly on the inhabited islands of the Scottish Hebrides, the Isle of Wight, Anglesey and the Scilly Isles. In this book we will encounter a huge variety of habitats and gardening conditions, from coastal machair to woodlands, mountains, dunes and meadows. Island gardens exhibit a wide range of aspects, from shady dells, to sunny banks, deep-soiled productive gardens to rocky, alpine slopes. What they all share is the special light, magical atmosphere and indefinable magic that a proximity to water can bring. In Island Gardens, Jackie Bennett reveals the challenges their gardeners face, the designs required in such extremes, and the skills their gardeners have mastered to survive and thrive. All photographed on the ground and in the air by garden and drone photographer Richard Hanson.

Jackie Bennett is a former editor of The Garden Design Journal, the English Garden Magazine and Gardening with the National Trust. She began her career in television, producing gardening and natural history programmes before become a full time writer. In 1990, she won an award for nature writing in the BBC Wildlife Magazine Awards and her books include The Wildlife Garden Month by Month (David & Charles 1990 reissued in 2011), The Cottage Garden and Wild About the Garden (1997 a Channel 4 tie-in book for the TV series presented by Carol Klein). She won the Garden Writer's Guild Gardening Column of the Year 2009 for a series about her own Norfolk garden. Jackie has studied garden design and landscape history. She runs writing workshops for the Society of Garden Designers and for the Cambridge and Oxford Botanic Gardens.

This well-written book is a visual delight, appealing to sophisticated travelers or adventurous gardeners who may consider visiting these unique locales * Library Journal * "If you dream of escaping from it all, this is the book to transport you." * Daily Mail * "Part travel inspiration for the outlying islands of the British Isles and part informative guide...enlivened by a generous dose of storytelling. This jewel of a book combines really engaging, well-researched content with the glossy beauty of a coffee-table production." * Gardens Illustrated * "Island Gardens...is as good as its word. The poetry, if not the sequence of the Shipping Forecast seems to accompany our circuit of the UK...guided by Bennett's thoughtful, sensitive commentary and alluring photographs by Richard Hanson. A real treat." * Ham & High * "There is something romantically enticing about islands, so Island Gardens is a particular treat." * Country Living * "informative, well-written and beautifully illustrated" * Blackberrygarden.co.uk * "Stunning photos make this a perfect gift." * Woman and Home * "There are more than 6000 islands scattered around the the main islands of Britain and Ireland, and Island Gardens is a beautiful book celebrating the diverse plant life to be found." * People's Friend * "a brilliant concept, well executed, exploring both the special joys and challenges of island gardens..." * Evening Standard *