Customer Reviews

The Inward Garden: Creating a Place of Beauty and Meaning

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2 star:		(1)
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Messervy has found a way to codify something that seemed vague to me: the "feel" of a landscape, or how a person reacts to a space. She breaks landscape forms down into 7 "archetypes," lists the features of each, then suggests ways to use this new understanding in designing your own yard or garden. I suddenly realized, for example, that the narrow, paved alleys coming off my tiny city backyard weren't necessarily the problem and disappointment I had always considered them, but were features I could play up and turn to advantage. (They had always tempted me to walk to the end -- now I just have to make that journey worthwhile.) I was just bursting with ideas after reading this book, able to look at my tiny space with new eyes. The archetypal business isn't just pleasantly mystical but is also practical, backed up with sophisticated but down-to-earth ideas. It's a different kind of garden design book that gets you to think of the overall "f! eel" (not look) you want first (the step missing from most gardening books), and then figure out how to actually construct it -- a satisfying blend of mythic/artistic with practical and well-organized. (And as a bonus, the photos are drop-dead gorgeous!)

This is garden design from the heart, not the head. Garden design books usually offer us a formula, templates, and lists of plants. "The Inward Garden" instead tries to stimulate a new way of thinking about our landscapes. Messervy tries to create gardens that resonate with fond memories of the places where we felt most secure and most free as children. You might think that you want an elaborate perennial border, but after reading this book realize that you'd really rather gaze at a little bit of prairie, or a woodland or listen to a tinkling stream. If you are going to spend all that time, money and effort, wouldn't it be wonderful to have a garden that makes you feel good, instead of one that merely consumes resources and becomes a millstone? This is not the book that will help you calculate how many bags of mulch you need, or how to build a retaining wall. What it will do is help you identify what you really want from your landscape, instead of what you think you're supposed to want, or what all your neighbors have.

Julie Moir Messervy has written what undoubtedly will become a classic of garden writing and design. Deeply literate and beautifully written, The Inward Garden gives the reader a process for designing one's "dream garden". Based on garden archtypes: the sea, the cave, the harbor, the promitory, the island, the mountain, and the sky, this book provides a structure for imagining the garden of one's desires and a practical process for designing this deeply felt garden. The author describes in detail each of these archytical gardens. Each archtype is illustrated with outstanding garden photographs. The Inner Garden gently asks the reader to think and feel deeply about the garden of his or her dreams and to have the couage to begin creating that garden.

Unlike most garden books that focus on individual design elements of gardening, this one focuses on how to identify the atmosphere and mood of the garden you want to create. The author tells readers to think back to those places that have given them the greatest joy and ease, either as children or as adults, and to use the memory of these places in creating a retreat or garden of the mind in one's own yard. You should read this book before all others

I have no problems with the premise of the book -- that is why I read it. I have always believed strongly in an intuitive approach to garden design. The problem that I have with reading this book is the excessive wordiness. Several online reviews of her life's work say more in a paragraph or two than the entire first half of the book -- and say it much better. Messervy is a master at saying the same thing with seventeen varieties of repetition. ENOUGH! -- LET'S MOVE ON, JULIE!

Particularly in the first half of the book, in addition to the relentless repetition, she rambles on in generic terms about nonspecific generalities; not really saying much at all. True, this book is dealing with the conceptual. But please; elaborate with some good examples or analogies rather than restating what you have already restated.

Instead of examples, she will toss out ambiguous, esoteric references that would mean nothing to anyone but a select few. For a representative example: On page 82, when talking about a natural effect achieved in a woodland garden, Ms. Messervy says, "A good example is found in Sir John's Wood at Kingshaye Court near Tiverton in Devon, England." That is it! No diagram, no picture and no further information! Perhaps I am supposed to be impressed with name dropping (Or is it just plain, droppings?) from her world travels. However, her "example" adds nothing substantive to the text.

There are a few photos of Messervy's design work in the book and they are superlative. I wish there were a lot more of them. I don't question that her work embodies the ideals she is promoting. It is just that she does not communicate these very well. There are fragments of insight scattered throughout the book. It is unfortunate that you have to wade through so much verbiage just to find them. I got the feeling that many of these needless words were displaying an underlying desire to remain "Daddy's Little Princess" in her incessant admonishments to "recall your childhood".

I am confident that I could learn a lot from Ms. Messervy if her writing was a bit less allegorical. I have a hard time swallowing statements like: "The body of your mother was your first and perhaps most indelible landscape." Umm ... Julie, babe ... You obviously don't know my mom!

I think her actual design work is good. Curiously, most reviews of this book are good. My opinion is at odds with most reviews and espoused content. I suspicion she has a really good publicist as opposed to a really good book. :-(

IronBelly

This is one of my all time favorite books, period. It is a gardening book which provides a process of discovery, as much about the gardener as the garden being designed. This is not a straightforward how-to, but a quietly deep investigation and guideline for the creative process in general. A way of connecting to one's self whether a garden is currently in the works or not. A pioneer gardener offers stunning photos of the results of her process, inviting and encouraging the reader to embark on their own investigation.

Julie Moir Messervy goes deep within the human soul to find inspiration for gardens. In this beautifully-produced volume she shares her knowledge of how to do this. She lays out a method that anyone can follow to design a garden that is uniquely their own. If you should choose not to follow this method, you will still find the book richly rewarding in raising your awareness of who you are, what you value most, and how this information can influence the design of your garden.

This is an amazing book with stunning photos. The author shows us the most beautiful gardens around the world and inspires us to recreate those places which has deep meanings to us.