Customer Reviews

Gardens Around the World: 365 Days

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First of all, the title is very misleading. The ambition of this book is NOT to show the most beautiful gardens around the world and it has nothing whatsoever to do with the days of the year. It's easy to see that it's all a trick to market the book. The photographer has amassed a lot of photos over 20 years and hey - why not publish them? But what can possibly make the collection look a little less haphazard, the're from all over the place? Let's call them "gardens around the world", although the majority is from the U.S and Europe is only represented by G.B, France and Spain... And the gardens are NOT shot at the date they are given in the book, there is not a garden for every date, there are howewer a PHOTO for every day. The date-concept doesn't add anything to the experience of reading this book.

The good thing is that at a bargain price you get hours of garden exploring in your armchair. And for a European it's interesting to see some great formal American gardens that actually put there European predecessors almost in the shade. That would have been a good book, the American contribution alone.

This is a lovely and unique book that features over 150 gardens throughout the world. Each double page spread corresponds with every day of the year (like a calendar), with a brief description of the garden on the left page and a photograph on the right page. Some gardens are featured on more than one page. Many of the gardens are world famous while others are more obscure. The size of the book is unique (7" high, 10" wide and 2 1/2" thick) and looks almost like a beautiful decorative box.

What an excellent publication! This compilation of exquisite garden photos is a must have for any home owner or gardening enthusiast. Gardens Around the World: 365 Days is worth every penny of its full retail price, Amazon's deeply discounted price makes it a steal. Don't pass this one by! Your guests will quickly grab hold of this well bound book to see which gardens are featured on thier birthday, anniversaries, etc.

Photographer/naturalist/writer Mick Hales has created a book that visualizes not only the beauty but the imperative importance of gardens. He traveled throughout North America, Asia and Europe and not only found gardens of extraordinary beauty, but found those lovingly patient vistas from which we, the viewer, can be brought into an understanding and appreciation of the message of each garden. The photography is stunning, like paintings recreated by an artist's eye, but here the subject is captured without recreation: Hales' lens captures what is really there.

Hales speaks to each photograph, each garden view, enhancing what we otherwise might miss from the one vantage given us. He has arranged the 365 gardens both alphabetically as to place and further defined the photographs by months of the year. Here are gardens from winter to fall: the flow is as magical as the qualities of nature.

In his short but sensitive introduction to his portfolio he states: "As our society moves faster and faster, with technological advances each year, it is hard for us to keep our connection to the land. Keeping a garden is on answer to this loss - having one's hands in and smelling the soil. Watching plants grow, flower, and die back reminds us of our own humanity and the lives we have been given." And that sums it all! This is a MUST for gardeners, for naturalists, for dreamers. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, July 05

This is a beautiful book. I sent it to my brother-in-law who is an incredibly talented landscape architect and he loves it which makes me very happy.

This book features lovely photographs of a wide variety of gardens from throughout the world -- one for every day of the year. The gardens vary quite a bit in their style, location and zone. The book is small -- 9.6 x 6.6 inches, but thick (2.1 inches) and heavy. Each two page spread is dated with a decription of the garden on the left page with the photograph on the right page. The book can serve as a perpetual calendar (as there are no years or days of the week, just months and days) with a different beautiful picture for each day or as an idea sourcebook for your own garden. Either way, the book is well worth the price given the large number of beautiful gardens that it features. I even discovered some public gardens of which I was unaware. So, the book can even serve as a guide to gardens (the public ones) that you might want to visit. This is a wonderful book for people who love gardens.