Customer Reviews

Gardens for Small Country Houses

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This is a very good reference for all aspects of gardening, on a smaller scale than Biltmore! With only 3 acres, I can't use many of the large-scale garden features I see in most books. This is much more to my scale. I particularly loved the pergola and hedge sections. The planted-paving concept is referred to throughout, but the old Sussex church brick paving was another revelation--not in any other garden books I have seen, and I read a lot of them! This will be in my garden this year, planted with lawn chamomile.
As another reviewer said, the photos are in black and white. The pergola sections don't need color to show the remarkable variation in structure. In fact, black-and-white serve better for all structural features. But if you desperately want to see color while you are reading this remarkable text, try "Arts and Crafts Gardens," by Gertrude Jekyll and Lawrence Weaver. It's a newer 1981 edition of this book, with color watercolors, paintings, and drawings of the period to reflect the garden styles discussed in the text. There are a few photos of Munstead and other similar gardens, too. As far as I can tell without comparing the books side-by-side, all the text and the black and white photos and drawings from the original remain in the new edition, too, so you won't miss too much by going with the newer version. But I do like this original version better. I find myself going back to it over and over, and I learn something new each time. No wonder it's a classic!

photographs are in black and white and thus of inferior help in planning a garden