Product Description

Trees are an underappreciated and underused aspect of the garden. Their 'bendy' form means they can be manipulated and pruned into fantastic shapes, which can transform a garden from ordinary to entirely unique. The authors, Ivan Hicks and Richard Rosenfeld, show how trees and shrubs can be turned into practical and fun towers for children to play in, bent over as pliable saplings to create bridges, arches, tunnels and temples, planted in semi-circles or pairs to create arbours and arches or even transformed into conceptual sculptures. Accessible and practical, this text is accompanied by the author's original concept sketches and a wealth of beautiful photos showing the sculptures in situ. These inspirational ideas are supported by lists of trees and horticultural information suitable to the related project. The book is divided into seven main chapters: chapter one covers how trees grow and the basic points of arboriculture; chapter two lists the best trees to use for the many projects included; chapters three through to six cover the many forms one can create and includes tricks suitable for the urban gardener or those with small balconies or terraces; the final section comprises a comprehensive plant directory. With many simple tricks and quick ideas, as well as more challenging projects, "Tree Sculpture" will inspire readers to view trees and shrubs as potential design aspects of their garden.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #268256 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

About the Author
Ivan Hicks is an arboriculturist and garden designer who is best-known for his work on Gardener's World and the award-winning projects the Enchanted Forest and Garden in Mind. Sir Roy Strong called the latter garden, "One of the most important gardens to be created in England". Diarmuid Gavin calls Ivan "my hero". He honed his skills designing classical and novel gardens for Edward James, the patron of Salvador Dali. He lives in Dorset, UK. Richard Rosenfeld is an ex-Garden Writer of the Year and author of 12 gardening books. He writes for The Sunday Times, The Times, The Independent and The Guardian. He lives in East Sussex, UK.

Customer Reviews

Kama Sutra meets Benny Hill. Topiary it aint!
This is the best gardening book I've ever read. It's incredibly rare when even pros like me are shown a radically new kind of gardening. I had no idea you can train trees in such extraordinary, inventive ways. The photographs are mind-boggling. My students' favourite shows a four-legged tree. It's actually four trees planted at the corners of a square. The trunks join together in the middle, about 9ft above ground, producing one mid-air ramrod trunk which shoots up to the sky. Have a look. There are pictures of trees being trained to make a Viking boat, a giant "cheese grater", wigwams and space rockets. The authors (a clued-up, witty, outspoken pair) know their stuff - Ivan Hicks has been doing tree tricks for years - and the writing is great fun.

The majority of gardening books (and I ought to know because I have to review enough) are so lame and so dull, PC and boring. This is a great opinionated read. It's packed with references to the Kama Sutra, Samuel Beckett, artists (Dali and Magritte), what the authors call "those revolting upright topiary teddy bears perched on their bums like parrots", Mike Tyson, and even Benny Hill. They've got plenty to say, and tongue in cheek let rip.

There's a remarkably good best-tree chapter, a how-the-professionals-do-it planting guide, and the kind of hilarious tips nobody ever gives on how to embarrass a nurseryman into giving you a new replacement tree when the original one turns out to be dead. Gardeners are a lively, opinionated, argumentative bunch. You'd never guess it from 99 percent of those catatonic, repetitive, RHS-type gardening books. This one is great fun. And boy I learned. A lot.

THIS WILL WAKE YOU UP
I agree. This is an amazing book. It actually speaks to you like you're an INTELLIGENT human being.

I loved the ideas and the writing, and I'm already growing a poplar like Edvard Munch's Scream with "shock waves of primal fear exploding out of the mouth". It's great fun - to try AND look at - a young tree with a single stem and the top growth trained to make a face. The ideas on tree dressing are so obvious once you think about it - but like the authors say, this kind of gardening has been idiotically ignored. Why? I'm also trying their packed-together avenues of bumpy box balls "like an orgy of bottoms", the yew sculptures, and a living shed made out of bent over saplings. I never knew you could have so much fun training trees into all kinds of shapes. Have just checked the RHS magazine and their reviewer said the book's a "triumph". It is. He's right. Who needs all those overpriced blundering encyclopaedias? They read like they've been written a committee of tax inspectors.

Tricks with Trees
This book changed the way I think about my garden; it has given me permission to be imaginative and creative. Thank you Ivan.