Authentic Garden: Five Principles for Cultivating A Sense of Place

Sawyers, Claire E.

ISBN 10: 0881928313 / ISBN 13: 9780881928310

Published by Timber Press, Portland, OR, 2007

About this Item

285 pp. Tightly bound. Corners not bumped. Text is free of markings. No ownership markings. Very good to near fine dust jacket. This copy is smyth sewn. Smyth sewing is a method of bookbinding where groups of folded pages (referred to as signatures) are stitched together using binder thread. Each folded signature is sewn together individually with multiple stitches and then joined with other signatures to create the complete book block. This is the traditional and best method of bookbinding.

Seller Inventory # 030349

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Authentic Garden: Five Principles for Cultivating A Sense of Place
• Publisher: Timber Press, Portland, OR
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0881928313
• ISBN 13: 9780881928310
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good to Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good to Near Fine Jacket

About this title

Synopsis

What makes a garden authentic? For American gardeners, this question can be vexing. Because America is a comparatively young nation, it hasn't had much time to develop an indigenous garden style. Gardeners have tended to turn to other national traditions—such as Italy's, Japan's, or England's—for inspiration. The unhappy result of this piecemeal stylistic borrowing has been the creation of gardens that bear no relationship to local landscapes and history, and that have no connection with our daily lives.

Clair Sawyers shows this tendency can be reversed: how we can create gardens that are both deeply rooted in their surroundings and deeply satisfying to their creators and owners. Drawing on her knowledge of a vast array of American and foreign gardens, she identifies five principles that help instill a sense of authenticity: capture the sense of place, derive beauty from function, use humble or indigenous materials, marry the inside to the outside, and involve the visitor.

Practical and inspiring, The Authentic Garden will enable the reader to make a garden that is true to a specific time, place, and culture; to capture and reflect an authentic spirit so that the garden, in turn, will nurture the spirit of those who cherish and dwell in it.

About the Author

Claire Sawyers is director of the Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College.