This book is a celebration of renowned female landscape designers from around the world — the best from the beginning of the 20th century until today. In Women Garden Designers: 1900 to the Present
American designers will recognize designers like Gertrude Jekyll, Beth Chatto, Beatrix Farrand, Isabel Greene. But others, like Japan's Haruko Seki, Petra Blaisse of the Netherlands, and Poland's Monika Gora are not so familiar.
Taylor contends that women design differently than men because they view nature in a different way. As Taylor says, "…women … because of their need to nurture infants over many years, may have a different understanding and knowledge." And, she writes that Beatrix Farrand and Australian Edna Walling were "ardent conservationists long before ecology was even part of our vocabulary."
There's a brief biography of each designer, along with each one's design philosophy and major projects. Beautiful photographs accompany each entry, and you'll be intrigued by many of them: the 'anti-garden' of Britain's Jinny Blom, an Inca-inspired staircase by Chile's Teresa Moller, the tropical plantings of Brazil's Isabel Duprat.
It's an inspiring book packed with ideas, and one that will stay on your bookshelf for many years.
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