Category Archives: Gardens

New Books: ‘Reflections of Paradise: The Gardens of Fernando Caruncho’

The much-anticipated comprehensive survey of one of the world’s most acclaimed landscape garden designers, famous for his extraordinarily sophisticated use of light and geometry in nature.

Spanish landscape designer Fernando Caruncho has spent over four decades impressing the world with his breathtaking garden designs, which create a perfect union of architectural design within nature. His sources of inspiration are as diverse as Islamic design, Zen Buddhism, and European Classicism, and the control of light, geometrical scale, and use of local materials are key principles of his design approach.

In this book, Caruncho personally curates a selection of twenty-six of his international garden projects ranging from private residences to large agricultural estates and public spaces, including a vineyard in Italy, a private garden in Biarritz, France, and an expansive estate in New Jersey. Caruncho gives readers a glimpse at his creative thought process through inspirational images, ephemera, and selections from his sketches.

About The Author

Fernando Caruncho has been designing gardens for over four decades, but his background is in philosophy. His fascination with pre-Socratic Greek philosophy awakened a deep curiosity about the relationship between man and the natural world, which translated itself into a preoccupation with garden design. In 1979 Caruncho established his own landscape design studio. His first work, accomplished at the age of 21, was a house in Madrid featured in Vogue Decoration. Since then, Caruncho Studio has designed countless high-profile gardens across the globe, ranging from private homes and expansive agricultural estates to public spaces. His work is frequently featured in high-profile publications such as Architectural DigestVogue, the New York TimesElle Decor, and W magazine. Gordon Taylor is a renowned landscape architect and writer. He has written numerous articles and books on herbs, gardens, and garden history.

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Cities & Nature Video: The “Alotment Gardens” Of Copenhagen, Denmark

The concept of kolonihave, a blissful combination of an allotment and a summer house, has shaped Danish cities since the late 17th century. Today, avid growers convene in these colonies to find a peaceful place to commune with nature as well as a community of diverse characters.

Health & Nature Books: “The Well-Gardened Mind” By Sue Stuart-Smith (2020)

 ‘The Well-Gardened Mind’ provides a new perspective on the power of gardening to change people’s lives. Here, Sue Stuart-Smith investigates the many ways in which mind and garden can interact and explores how the process of tending a plot can be a way of sustaining an innermost self.

A distinguished psychiatrist and avid gardener offers an inspiring and consoling work about the healing effects of gardening and its ability to decrease stress and foster mental well-being in our everyday lives.

The garden is often seen as a refuge, a place to forget worldly cares, removed from the “real” life that lies outside. But when we get our hands in the earth we connect with the cycle of life in nature through which destruction and decay are followed by regrowth and renewal. Gardening is one of the quintessential nurturing activities and yet we understand so little about it.

Stuart-Smith’s own love of gardening developed as she studied to become a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. From her grandfather’s return from World War I to Freud’s obsession with flowers to case histories with her own patients to progressive gardening programs in such places as Rikers Island prison in New York City, Stuart-Smith weaves thoughtful yet powerful examples to argue that gardening is much more important to our cognition than we think. Recent research is showing how green nature has direct antidepressant effects on humans. Essential and pragmatic, The Well-Gardened Mind is a book for gardeners and the perfect read for people seeking healthier mental lives.

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New Landscape Videos: “Eight Great Gardens Of The World” (Nowness)

Do you love plants and all things to do with gardens? In our #GreatGardens series, we revisit our top eight episodes which feature the planet’s wildest sub-tropical landscapes and quintessential rural retreats.

World’s Best Gardens: “Bowood House – Private Walled Garden”, England

From The Tatler (June 10, 2020):

The Marquess and Marchioness of Lansdowne’s private walled garden is the jewel in this botanical crown. Attached to the back of the main house, the garden is surrounded by a 16-foot-high wall and is made up of four distinct one-acre squares. It includes a 250-metre formal border, a picking garden, working greenhouses, chickens and a kitchen garden full of fruits and vegetables. 

Wisteria Bodnantense framing the doorway out of the walled garden towards the lake - Bodwood House England - Tatler - June 10 2020

The Hot border designed by Rosie Abel Smith with a mixture of wonderful purples, oranges and reds seen through an arch of Laburnum Vossii - Bodwood House Private Walled Garden - Tatler - June 10 2020There is a feeling of mounting enchantment as you wind along the drive to Bowood House, the Wiltshire home of the Marquess and Marchioness of Lansdowne. It could be meandering through the dense pine forest, thick with wild garlic underfoot, that begins to stir the senses; or the sight of the sculptural tulip trees; and the heady scent of the roses is certainly tantalising.

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Top Gardens: Astonishing “Wisteria Pergolas” Of Petworth House, England

From Country Life Magazine (May 31, 2020):

The Private Gardens at Petworth House West Sussex Photos by Val Corbett Country LifeThe wisteria at Petworth’s private garden is simply astonishing. Non Morris takes a look at how it’s done, with pictures by Val Corbett.

The beautiful pergolas in the Cloister Garden are trained with Wisteria floribunda Alba, a white Japanese wisteria selected for the tantalising length of its racemes — up to 24in — and the way the flowers open gradually along the stem, which prolongs its flowering period. The wisteria is pruned once only, in September.

Petworth House and Park England
Website

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Gardens & Nature Videos: “Proserpina Returns Home” By Jonathan Gelez

Filmed and Produced by: Jonathan Gelez (The World Is Art)

Music:  “Spenta Mainyu” by Jesse Gallagher

Here is a simple and relaxing film about the beginning of the spring season as it happened in my garden. Since going outside wasn’t an option due to the confinement measures in place, I tried to capture the beauty of nature at home.

Website

 

Art & Landscape: Gardens & Grounds Of The Natural History Museum, London”

The Museum’s gardens were originally set aside for future expansion of the building, but when money ran out they became an outside space for the public. They haven’t just been for show – over the years they’ve been a burial ground for whales, they’ve hosted a secret war bunker, and they’ve been converted to a farm complete with eight Sussex pigs.

The Natural History Museum in London is home to over 80 million specimens, including meteorites, dinosaur bones and a giant squid.

Website

Art Of The Garden: The Brilliant “Sunflowers” Of British Painter Charles Mahoney (1903-1968)

Charles Mahoney (1903-1968) The Garden 1950 LISS LLEWELLYN art website
Charles Mahoney (1903-1968), The Garden 1950

Charles Mahoney,(18 November 1903 – 11 May 1968): Painter, muralist, draughtsman and teacher, born Cyril Mahoney in London – his fellow-student Barnett Freedman re-christened him Charlie at the Royal College of Art, which he attended 1922-6 after a period at Beckenham School of Art under Percy Jowett. Early on, Mahoney established a reputation as a conscientious teacher.

He was at the Royal College 1928-53, from 1948-53 as a painting tutor, and was noted there for his concern for academic discipline.

Charles Mahoney Composite Plant 1954
Charles Mahoney, Composite Plant 1954

His portrait is included in Rodrigo Moynihan’s celebrated Teaching Staff of the Painting School at the Royal College of Art, 1949-50. From 1954 to 1963 he taught at the Byam Shaw School of Drawing and Painting and from 1961 to 1968 at the Royal Academy Schools. He painted murals at Morley College 1928-30 with his colleagues Eric Ravillious and Edward Bawden.

Unfortunately these murals were destroyed during World War II. The work led to further murals: at Brockley School, Kent, with Evelyn Dunbar; and at Campion Hall Lady Chapel, Oxford. His oil paintings are frequently of a religious nature. He was a skilled botanist, and many of his drawings depict his garden at Wrotham, Kent.

He exhibited at NEAC and the RA, being made an RA elect in 1968. He is represented in the Tate Gallery and other public collections. The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, held a memorial exhibition in 1975. Exhibitions were held in 2000 at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, Royal Museum and Art Gallery, Canterbury, and the Fine Art Society plc in association with Liss Fine Art.

Read more about Charles Mahoney