Not Your Typical Coffee-Table Book
What makes American gardens ‘American’? That is the question author Tim Richardson seeks to answer in his book Great American Gardens. Richardson, a garden historian, has written a book that is more history book and less coffee table book. If you’re looking for a colorful, glossy book to display in your living room, this is probably not your best choice. But, if you are searching for a book that explores the details of the making of some of America’s most famous gardens, then your search is over.
According to Richardson, America’s notion of gardening is closely tied to our embrace of the wilderness ideal. He states, ‘In America, …the beckoning natural landscape will often be harnessed to set the tone of the garden as a whole.’ Indeed, many of the gardens profiled in the book have an expansive feel but are also intimately tied to their setting.
Great Gardens of America profiles 25 gardens, some public, some private and one that does not have any living plants in it. I especially enjoyed reading the profile of Kykuit, the Rockefeller’s garden in Tarrytown, NY overlooking the Hudson river and how it evolved over time as three generations of Rockefeller men put their own stamp on the garden.
One aspect of the book I found a bit strange were the photos. Many of the photos do exactly what they are supposed to do – bring the author’s words to life and confirm the picture you have created in your mind. But many others were close-ups of plants, photos I would expect to see in a plant catalog or a book extolling the virtues of individual plants. As I was reading the book, I found myself over and over again yearning for more photos that showed the composition and design of the garden.
Great Gardens of America is a worthwhile addition to the bookshelf of any gardener who is as interested in the history of gardens as they are in the plants that populate them.
Note: This book was provided to me by the publisher, Frances Lincoln Limited, for the express purpose of reviewing it.
