Customer Reviews

Medieval Garden (Gift Books)

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This book is the best single source that I have found on medieval gardening. The emphasis is on Britain and the low countries from the thirteenth through the fifteenth centuries. Gardens at all social levels are covered, from peasant to townhouse, cloister to royalty. Illustrations are not lavish but sufficient and are all well identified. Many architectural drawings are included. The chapter on recreated or reproduced medieval gardens is interesting, particluarly as the author shares her insights from working on some of them. I found the chapter on incorporating medieval recreations into modern home gardens to be less useful unless one has not been exposed to such information before.

This book covers the medieval gardens from their origins in Roman times up to the beginning of the Renaissance. It is mostly oriented towards English gardens. It covers everything from the large pleasure gardens and parks of the aristocracy to the backyard plots of the peasants and the hospital gardens of monasteries. There is enough information to give a good overview, sufficient for most people's needs I think, and it is neatly illustrated throughout. References are given for each section, and the reader is directed to more sources of information if they desire in-depth research.

Sylvia Landsberg is a noted garden designer and researcher on gardens through the ages. Her speciality is medieval gardens and this is a masterpiece. If you have any interest in historical gardens, get this book.

Not an exhaustive study, to be sure, but a beautiful browse on a weekend morning. Landsberg covers the uses and design elements of medieval gardens and includes a great bibliography so you can continue researching on your own. Unfortunately, the copy I read had some printing problems (a dirty press, perhaps?) -- smears of black ink over several pages which detracted from the lovely paintings and photos, but presumably this is not present in every copy of the book.

Sylvia Landsberg's contemporary analysis of several medieval gardens provides case studies which enlighten scholars and amateur gardener's alike. For instance, here is how Landsberg analyzes the Bayleaf Garden (in my words):

Bayleaf existed as a Yeoman's homestead, according to its design and purpose. The physical space of Bayleaf was outlined by wall-like boundaries called shaws. These shaws demarcated the property into distinct farm, orchard, and domicile zones. The property was a self-sufficient agrarian unit, but its limited resources and land required annual crop rotation. It was occupied year-round, which meant that its architecture had to account for seasonal climates as well as the medicinal herbs and water supply necessary to support extended stays. Bayleaf house and gardens set topographical and resource limits on its occupants. The size of the main central room and its sleeping quarter served to artificially restrict the size of the family which resided therein.

If you are designing a garden, or researching the role outdoor spaces played in medieval England, then this book will provide superb material for you. Otherwise, this book is not a picture book that you might expect from the cover.

We have long wanted to do something with a long, narrow (30' x 14') section of the backyard that is terribly under-utilized. I picked up this book at a used book store and after reading the book, decided to build an herber or scent garden in that space.

Since we are in northwest Texas with its alkaline soils, the lovely western English plants suggested won't work. Instead we are planting in the spirit with damask roses and Mediterrean herbs.

In the interest of saving water, we paved the floor of the herber rather than continuing to fight to keep the grass alive over there.

I agree with the previous reviews that the book is a wonderful overview of various Medieval gardens and the last section really does work.

This book is a wonderful look at historical gardens. It also has plans to make your garden more medieval in some practical ways. I like that she doesn't make you feel bad if you aren't using real medieval plants, but are just going for a feel. There are plans in the book for a garden excedera built out of concrete blocks. I made the bench and I am not used to working with these things at all, my bench turned out looking great! I am topcoating it with mortar and not stucco as she suggests, but I used the plans. Overall, this book is inspirational and easy to follow.