Channel 4′s The City Gardener, Matt James, is back with a new series and a new book, full of practical advice and design inspiration to turn your weed-filled wasteland into the hippest urban playground on the block!* Where to start — in this first section Matt gets straight down to business, providing practical answers to the question all first-time gardeners ask, ‘where on earth do I start?!’, including: how to carry out a site survey, deciding what style of garden you want and how to reflect your lifestyle in the design, where to buy plants and how to spot a good one.; Making the skeleton — this is where we begin to get creative and learn how to plan out a garden, starting with the bare bones of the basic structure and moving onto how to hard landscape your design, turning theory into practice* The Range of Plants — an introduction to the different plant types and how each can be used to combat an urban-specific problem like noise pollution, or create a particular effect, such as lending architectural form or providing seasonal interest; Putting It All Together — this is where Matt shows how to bring together everything you’ve learnt about planning, hard landscaping and plants to create sensational planting layouts; specific topics covered include using height and space, colour, texture and scent, and planting styles such as prairie, formal and exotic, to create the garden you want* Plant Directory — a problem-solving look at the best plants for particular places and conditions e. g. plants for damp spots, shady corners, specific soil types and garden aspect
Modernism and the Mediterranean: The Maeght Foundation
Situated in a Mediterranean landscape, the Maeght Foundation is a unique Modernist museum, product of an extraordinary collaboration between the architect, Jose Luis Sert, and the artists whose work was to be displayed there. The architecture, garden design and art offer a rare opportunity to see work in settings conceived in active collaboration with the artists themselves. By focusing on the relationship between this art foundation and its Arcadian setting, including Joan Miro’s labyrinth, George Braque’s pool, Tal-Coat’s mosaic wall and Giacometti’s terrace, Jan Birksted demonstrates how the building articulates many of the ideas that preoccupied this group of artists during the culminating years of their lives. The study pays special attention to the ways in which architecture can shape the experience of time, and addresses the Modernist desire for wilderness and its problematic roots in the classical Mediterranean ideal. In showing how the design of the Maeght Foundation is a Modernist representation of Mediterranean culture, Jan Birksted has developed an interpretation of architecture that accomodates not only the architect’s handling of material or function, but also shows how it can be the embodiment of a particular vision of space and time.
1001 Gardens You Must See Before You Die
Garden lovers and discriminating travelers will relish this armchair tour of the most beautiful and interesting gardens around the world. Succinct descriptions with stunning color photos showcase the creations of the world’s outstanding landscape gardeners, architects, and garden designers. From Spain’s famous gardens of the Moorish Alhambra at Granada to San Diego’s Healing Garden, created for patients at the San Diego Children’s Hospital, this lavishly illustrated guide will delight both lovers of natural beauty and hands-on gardeners. Among the many gardens pictured and described in this beautiful volume are–
In addition to photos and a textual description, each entry cites special features such as fountains and architecture, the garden’s size in acres, and the names of the garden’s designers. The garden descriptions are organized geographically by country. More than 800 breathtaking color photos and illustrations.
