Lorraine Harrison - Böcker

How to Read Gardens is the essential guide for garden lovers and visitors alike.Visiting gardens has never been more popular but not many of us understand what we are looking at when strolling through a beautiful garden - are we looking at an original landscaped site or a recreation? Is the planting matter authentic or made up of modern hybrids? Are the steps and terracing in the Italianate style or are they Arts and Crafts? The truth is that most gardens of any age are like a palimpsest: successive generations have changed and influenced the soft and hard fabric of the place over time. Inevitably many of the gardens we wander through today are an amalgam of changing fashions and circumstance. How to Read Gardens gives you all the knowledge you need to tease out the clues that will tell you the complete story of a garden's past. From the grandest estate to the smallest suburban plot, this book will enliven and inform every visit.

Whether you are a resident of the county or a short-stay visitor, a committed gardener or a reluctant one just looking for a pleasant afternoon out with a good cup of tea and piece of cake, "20 Sussex Gardens" will guide you to some of the best and most varied gardens that are regularly open to the public. Those looking for ideas for their own humble plot will find as much to delight and inform as others who seek the grand and impressive. The featured gardens cover a wide geographical, historical and stylistic spread and, where appropriate, are carefully set within their architectural context. Many of these gardens are associated with the county's leading historical, artistic and literary figures and reference to their lives will further illuminate a visit to the many lovely gardens of Sussex.

You've seen the county's glorious gardens, now find out about the garden designers, plant hunters and botanical brains behind them. What makes their green thumb prick, why do they feel so passionate about all things horticultural? There are as many types of gardener as there are styles of garden, and Lorraine Harrison has done well to fit so many into such a small plot, from the well known-Rudyard Kipling, the Lloyds of Great Dixter and the Lodgers of Wakehurst and Leonardslee - to the obscure, such Oliver Cockerell and Helen Nussey with their French hot beds. We look at the gardeners behind public parks and spaces and those whose small private paradises are so entraling, catch some of Angus White's boundless enthusiasm for his architectural plants and even peer over the county fence to look at Derek Jarman's wonderful painterly garden in Dungeness. And there's a directory of those who didn't make first prize in the show.

The starting point for this collection of six walks in and around the village of Ditchling is the wonderful and varied collection of the Ditchling Museum of Art & Craft. After browsing the exhibits, the interested walker can tour the village streets to see the former homes of Eric Gill, Edward Johnston, Frank Brangwyn and many others, while a visit to St Margaret's Church and graveyard will reveal a host of beautiful hand-crafted objects. Follow in Gill's footsteps to Ditchling Common, site of the Guild of SS Joseph & Dominic, then amble across the Common to the graveyard at St George's Retreat. A pleasant stroll out of the village takes the visitor to Streat and the former workshop of Rowland Emett. There is a gentle walk to Oldland Mill: a favourite subject for many artists, including Charles Knight. The more energetic can stride out high up on the Downs to Ditchling Beacon which features in the Christmas classic The Snowman by Raymond Briggs. Short informative biographies of key Ditchling residents provide fascinating background reading while useful information is included to help every visitor get the most out of their time in this most lovely and inspiring of Sussex villages.