It's rather difficult to imagine, but this new book encompasses everything defined as "garden" or "garden-related" from time immemorial to the present day. In Garden: Exploring the Horticultural World (Phaidon, 2023), British author and broadcaster Matthew Biggs offers a comprehensive look at gardening spanning more than four thousand years … with 300+ entries that include tapestries, garden plans, book covers and paintings, photographs, sculptures, garden products and much more.
Just a few examples: Gardener Barbie with flower bed and trellis, as Biggs explains, is just the latest in a series of female gardening role models, of which there were few before the early 19th century. A planting scheme for the gardens at Hestercombe by Gertrude Jekyll is a good example of gardens in the Arts and Crafts movement. A Tiffany glass mural measuring 15 feet high and 49 feet wide, in Philadelphia, is one of the studio's largest, based on a painting, The Dream Garden, by illustrator Maxfield Parrish.
Each visual image in the book is accompanied by a short essay that highlights its horticultural significance and its artistic inspiration. In the book's introduction, Biggs says there is a "United Nation of Gardeners…. one where many hundreds of thousands of people — perhaps even millions — are digging, hoeing, planting, tending, harvesting or creating a garden." He adds that it's a nation "that welcomes all, regardless of age, race, colour, class or creed."
As you explore the book, I'm sure you'll agree with Biggs that it will "fully reawaken the sheer pleasure of being surrounded by plants and reconnecting with the natural world."
This book is a top selection for a holiday present … for anyone with even a mild interest in gardening or landscape design.
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