Living in the East, I've always coveted gardens in the West: different landscapes, different styles, and of course all those wonderful plants that we can't grow a lot of places in the East. So the answer for designers like me is Under Western Skies: Visionary Gardens from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast. (Timber Press, 2021), by Jennifer Jewell with photos by Caitlin Atkinson.
Jewell profiles 36 gardens from the Southwest to the Pacific Northwest with a simple formula. The description of each garden is divided into three parts: the place, an outline of the general landscape; the person, which describes the professional background of the designer; and the plants, which paints a detailed picture of the garden space.
Some places and people will be familiar: landscape architects Christy Ten Eyck, Mia Lehrer, Bernard Trainor; gardens, including the Desert and Idaho Botanical Gardens, Heronswood, Land's End Lookout at Golden Gate Park.
While the gardens and photos in this book are spectacular, I was particularly struck by the biographies of the designers. It's not often you find out how designers came to their profession. Some were enchanted by plants as children; others studied biology, soil science, cultural history and others came from many other disciplines. But all of them ended up as terrific designers, and this book is a testament to their artistic sensibilities and their love of this land.
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