Product Description

'If I have learned only one thing from my travels around the world it is that no garden is an island. Context is everything.' Monty Don visits each continent in this landmark series on gardens of the world. We are introduced to the unique floating gardens of the Amazon and the colourful alpine flower meadows of Norway, modest domestic gardens in Havana and Bali, Monet's world-famous Giverny and the Dutch tour-de-force Het Loo, the formal magnificence of Renaissance Italian water gardens, the tropical planting traditions of Thailand, and the intriguing fusion of indigenous and colonial garden cultures in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Each garden is placed in context, horticultural preconceptions are abandoned and Monty is constantly surprised by the unexpected locations where gardens thrive. A vivid account of travel, adventure, beauty and the pursuit of knowledge.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3903 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Tim Richardson, GARDENS ILLUSTRATED
'His style is light, smooth and accessible, yet also sensitive, detailed and generally historically reliable... this is a good read with plenty of novelty.'

Review
'His style is light, smooth and accessible, yet also sensitive, detailed and generally historically reliable... this is a good read with plenty of novelty.' (Tim Richardson GARDENS ILLUSTRATED )

'intelligently written and he puts each garden in context in a way that is both accessible, yet thought provoking.' (GARDENS MONTHLY )

'It's an absorbing journey made far more appealing than your average garden guide thanks largely to the author's readiness to question and explore.' (GARDEN NEWS )

'Who better to guide us on this journey than the nation's most thoughtful horticulturalist...?' (Stephanie Donaldson COUNTRY LIVING )

'Don is a curious and engaging guide, as thrilled by the ad hoc floating vegetable plots of the Amazon as by formal Zen gardens...' (THE INDEPENDENT )

'a personal and fascinating insight into gardens around the world.' (GARDEN ANSWERS )

'This colourful account by the travelling garden connoisseur covers the most emotive and awe-inspiring gardens worldwide.' (GRAND DESIGNS )

'Each garden is described in intimate, vivid detail, with diary-style immediacy... the gardens come alive through Don's very personal responses to them.' (ORGANIC GARDENING )

GARDEN NEWS
'It's an absorbing journey made far more appealing than your average garden guide thanks largely to the author's readiness to question and explore.'

Customer Reviews

Can we have an extended edition please?
I have just borrowed this from the library. I found it an interesting and easy-to-read book and the short 'chapters' on each garden are great for busy gardeners on a tea break, as it stops you reading too much at once! However, I found the lack of photos disappointing, especially as Don would sometimes explain at length how a particular planting scheme or garden area was so effective...but the only photo would be of something else! And like many other 'celebrity' books, an irritatingly large number of views were obscured by Monty in the foreground! I haven't seen the accompanying tv series, so it might perhaps be a more satisfying read if you have seen the gardens on screen. It's well worth reading, and I might possibly buy it in the future, but what I would really like to see is an expanded version with lots more photos...yes, it would be more expensive, but well worth the price. The current edition leaves me feeling a little short-changed (and what a hideous cover!)

A great ambassador for the gardening world
We had Percy Thrower, for those that can recall him, then along came Alan, almost a Percy Thrower. And now we have Monty ... a veritable Percy Thrower in the making. He gives a grat book here that makes no claims of sending the reader to gardening euphoria. What it does do is take a look at some great gardens and gives us what we want to know, anything more is a bonus, which this surely is. Worship him while you have him, lest Alan comes back.

Doesn't live up to the standards of the TV programme it is based on
I'm an admirer of Monty Don and I enjoyed the TV series this book is based on. But the book is far too sketchy to be satisfying; there's simply not enough material here, not enough photographs, too few insights.
If this is an Around the World trip, it's one of those lightning coach tours full of camera snapping tourists ("If it's Tuesday it must be Paris").
Worth a read, but not worth the asking price. As someone has commented before, just borrow it from the library; the publishers have let Monty down with this one.