Product Description

The Mediterranean climate, with its mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers, gave rise to a fashionable gardening style. Not only do Mediterranean-style gardens offer gorgeous, fragrant, soothing sanctuaries that are wonderfully easy to maintain, but water-saving planting is environmentally sound and enormously appealing whatever one's region or climatic zone. This volume showcases some 25 gardens in France, Italy, Spain and California that employ drought-tolerant plants such as agaves and other succulents, wisteria, lavenders, geraniums and even some roses. There are some design features such as terraces, arbours, hedges, pergolas, topiary, statuary, decorative tile, and terracotta containers - all hallmarks of the sun-drenched garden aesthetic. Lucinda Lewis has taken some 200 colour photographs in a variety of private and public gardens, some grand and some intimate. Practical information is contained in the extended captions, and design ideas are offered to inspire the reader to create their own Mediterranean-style garden.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #628211 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-02
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 2.31 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 176 pages

From Booklist
Imagine journeying to the Mediterranean region, with the scent of crushed thyme underfoot, the silhouettes of Italian cypress trees towering against an azure sky, and structures like rose-draped arbors and stone pavilions providing respite from the afternoon sun. As a style of gardening, Mediterranean landscaping is more popular and widely emulated than ever. By way of illustrating the desirable features associated with the sun-drenched gardenscape, Smithen and Lewis focus on 25 exemplary settings in California, the South of France, Italy, and Spain. Along with widely photographed garden estates of great repute, images of less grand private homes should suggest design ideas for do-it-yourself types. This is a marvelous sourcebook of possibilities for hardscaping, ornamentation, and planting schemes that readers can share with their professional designers or that they themselves can use to create or enhance their gardens. With Smithen's narration and Lewis' sublime photographs, garden lovers can look forward to enjoying a conceptual journey where the light is piercing and fragrance hangs heavy on the air. Alice Joyce
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
With the increasing global warming and warmer, wetter winters, a study of mediterranean style gardening has more pertinence than ever before. Acclaimed US garden writer Jan Smith, accompanied by the talented photographer Lucinda Lewis, present a stunning discourse on mediterranean gardening. Interpreting "mediterranean" more as a type of climate, flora and garden style than geographically, they also encompass Californian gardens where the drought tolerant planting of Southern Europe is emulated in their similar weather pattern. From the Moorish splendours of Spain with its Islamic overtones to Renaissance villas in Italy and the formal French parterres, the author and photographer travel through these sun-drenched oasis', capturing the hazy, heat-covered vistas of arid yet still green countryside and coast which provide the backdrop to the hidden jewels of private gardens they discover. Punctuated with the silver leaves of olives, cistus and other drought-resistant shrubs and trees, the landscape is awash with scent, warmth and softness. Gardens are formalised with spires of cypress and toparied box, pergolas and arbours drip with bougainvillea and wisteria, epitomising what is commonly regarded as the mediterranean style. Steeped in history and ancient architectural features, the gardens offer shade from the blazing sun, water features adding a coolness to these verdant havens. A truly inspirational book for gardeners in the UK with planting ideas, landscaping suggestions and pictures to dream and aspire to. - Lucy Watson

About the Author
Jan Smithen, a California-based gardener, teaches gardening classes at the Los Angeles County Arboretum. She has led garden tours to England, Italy, and France. Lucinda Lewis is a professional photographer based in Los Angeles. Her two passions (and favorite photography subjects) are cars and gardens. She is the author and photographer of Abrams' successful Roadside America.