Montgomery Press Pastoral Gardens

Pastoral Gardens is a unique and ground-breaking book that crosses the boundaries of art, photography and design to explore some of the world's most beautiful, nature-led gardens. The pastoral garden is an intriguing contradiction. The word conjures up a rural idyll, with Hardyesque visions of a wild, untainted landscape - an idea that goes against the manicured expectation of formal or 'designed' green spaces. But our warming climate is propelling a monumental change in how we garden. Around the globe, garden-makers are responding to this new reality by creating remarkable, plant-filled spaces that are inspired by the untamed landscapes around us, building back habitats and increasing the biodiversity that has been lost. Celebrating the astonishing beauty of wild landscapes, this book shows how we as humans can harness nature in our own gardens, exploring 20 gardens that embrace this bucolic ideal. Created by leading landscape designers, these gardens respond directly to the beauty of our natural habitats, with wildflower meadows and grazing cattle integrated into holistic spaces where the boundaries between a conventional garden and the wider landscape disappear. For the gardens that do not have the luxury of a rural outlook, it is the biodiversity within them that links their human occupants with nature. Pastoral Gardens will appeal to lovers of art, photography and the natural world as much as it will to gardeners, designers and plantspeople. The essence of each garden is captured in over 250 breathtaking photographs by Andrew Montgomery with illuminating texts by Clare Foster exploring the history, design and planting of each garden. Four additional essays by Jinny Blom, Nigel Dunnett, Kim Wilkie and Tom Stuart-Smith consider the changing nature of garden design as the climate changes around us. Book Contents 
Featuring essays by Jinny Blom, Nigel Dunnett, Kim Wilkie and Tom Stuart-Smith Informaility:
 Meeting Nature Halfway” Jinny Blom
 Bettiscombe Manor, Dorset, UK – Jasper Conran
 Little Dartmouth Farm, Devon, UK – Dan Pearson
 Ashington Manor, Somerset, UK – Isabel & Julian Bannerman
 The Chain, Monmouthshire, UK – Sarah Price
 Barn Garden, Kent, UK – Andrew Salter 

Sanctuary:
 “Transformational Urban Greening: A ‘People-first’ Approach” Nigel Dunnett
 Hortvs, Düsseldorf, Germany – Peter Janke
 Hucknall Garden, Nottinghamshire, UK – Arthur Parkinson
 Barbican Estate, London, UK – Nigel Dunnett
 King’s Cross Garden, London, UK – Emily Erlam
 Richmond Garden, London, UK – Tom Massey 

Landscape:
 “Reading the Land” Kim Wilkie
 Franklin Farm, Hampshire, UK – Kim Wilkie & Pip Morrison 
 Rohuna, Tangier, Morocco – Umberto Pasti
 Tiétar Garden, Ávila, Spain – Álvaro Sampedro
 Deep Rock Farm, Virginia, USA – Luciano Giubbilei
 Arijiju, Laikipia, Kenya – Jinny Blom 

Habitat:
 “Gardens as Ecosystems” Tom Stuart-Smith
 Robin Hill, Connecticut, USA – Dan Pearson
 Old Lands, Monmouthshire, UK – Sam Bosanquet
 Brook Manor, Devon, UK – Donna & Kevin Cox
 Knepp Walled Garden, Sussex, UK – Isabella Tree & Tom Stuart-Smith
 White Hollow, Connecticut, USA – John-Paul Philippe “Stupendously beautiful...This book shows you the most sophisticated and subtle understanding of the nature of place and the quiet conversation between the well-ordered and the frame” Sarah Raven “A glorious homage to some of our most ravishing gardens and the inventive ways their owners are addressing the effects of the climate crisis. It should be on every garden-lover's Christmas list” Vicky Carlisle, Country LIvIng Magazine “It's utterly magnificent” Hatta Byng, House & Garden Magazine