Enjoying "the gardens at brantwood" by David Ingram
Have you found interesting books about gardens ?... as opposed to about gardening.
Have you found interesting books about gardens ?... as opposed to about gardening.
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Annoyingly listening to and commenting on radio 3... -
I was going to write "dozens", but it turns out they are nearly all about gardening rather than gardens per se. I've kept my late father's collection The English Garden, from 1997-8, a magazine series well worth re-visiting from time to time for its gorgeous photographs, but only one book of gardens, which was really publicity for garden designer David Stevens, titled "Small Gardens and Backyards". I have many pamphlets of historic landscapes to visit, mostly if not all as part of stately homes, castles and so on.Originally posted by JasonPalmer View Post
Really to get as near as possible to the full "feel" of gardens without travelling one needs TV programmes such as Monty Don's visits abroad. These are all too rare these days; by far the best, in my view, was a 1994 series for Channel 4 titled "Nature Perfected", in which, in reverential tones one would never expect to find today, the narrator (mainly Bill Travers) took the viewer on a journey through the entire history of gardening and landscape design worldwide. I am luck enough to have the entire series on VHS tapes. The one episode devoted to gardens of the Italian Mediaeval and Renaissance eras is available on the links below; some idea of the scope of the whole package is offered at the outset, which was repeated for every episode:
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Ooo sounds like you were right to record the programs to tape when you had the chance.Annoyingly listening to and commenting on radio 3...Comment
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I've added the link now Jason - there are 2 of the series on that.Originally posted by JasonPalmer View PostComment
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Monty Don's Adriatic gardens was screened last year and recently repeated, you might like to look for that. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00135tx
Another is American Gardens https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00...episodes/guide
Garden/ing books are something I have collected over the years, all secondhand from charity shops and fundraising bookstalls, but I had a clearout recently so don't have many suggestions to pass on at the moment, not least sa the ones left are mostly either design ideas or gardening rather than books about gardens.
One I have kept is a large tome called The English Garden by Ursula Buchan. I was given Tim Smit's book about Eden and he has written about the Lost Gardens of Heligan as well. Doing a search by garden name or garden designer name might yield results.
Not books, but the monthly magazine "Gardens Illustrated" is worth looking out for. I had a subscription for several years from my mother and even 15 years later I get pleasure from picking one up and reading it. I was able to get several much more recent
secondhand copies last year from a local charity shop for 25p each - bonus as they say!Comment
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May not be the sort of thing you had in mind but I came upon a lovely book recently as a present for my wife - paintings by Pierre-Joseph Redouté (1759–1840) , “the Raphael of flowers”. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The stimulus for acquiring it was a song mysteriously called "Paint me, Redouté" on June Tabor's album, Rosa Mundi, a favourite of ours.Comment
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One of the most interesting books about a garden I've seen/read/got is Susana Walton's on the garden created for her home on Ischia:
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Several books on Sissinghurst Castle Garden.
Feeling inspired to buy the NT guide book, but will I have time to read it?......Comment
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[Add] Haha. I see oddoneout got there before me in #5!
Tim Smit's books on The Lost Gardens of Heligan and - if you count it as a "garden" - the Eden Project describe two out of the ordinary places. I visited them both by train and bus when I was staying in Falmouth. They're hugely different but both very impressive. Not your standard 'garden with house attached'.It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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I used to live near Sissinghurst and often cycled there.Originally posted by Quarky View PostAnnoyingly listening to and commenting on radio 3...Comment
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Yes, I often travelled to the area in the '70s to visit the sandstone outcrops west of Tunbridge Wells. The signpost to Sissinghurst stuck in my mind.Originally posted by JasonPalmer View Post
Well, the National Trust guide is in the post, and I might get there one day!Comment
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Would that be Harrison's Rocks?Originally posted by Quarky View Post
I used to go there as a teenager with a friend from South Bucks (probably no M25 then!) to climb. I remember he used to wash the sand out of his rope in the bath when he got back home - much to the amusement of his mother NOT!Comment
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Yes! Harrison's Rocks, Bowles Rocks, Stone Farm Rocks (near the source of River Medway), etc.
I remember visiting there in 1989 (?), shortly after that tremendous storm, and the woodland had completely blown flat.
These days too heavy and stiff, but the main thing is loss of nerve to keep climbing when you can't see the outcome!Comment
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