Carol Bucknell and Sally Tagg
Penguin Group
RRP $65.00
Reviewed by Dawn Forbes
This is the second book in which garden designer and writer
Carol Bucknell and garden photographer and artist Sally Tagg have
collaborated. Both are well experienced
in their respective fields as this large format, soft-covered book confirms.
In her introduction, the author says she was asked by more
than one designer to define the word ‘contemporary’ and that, for her, it
best describes the gardens she has
chosen as ‘connected to the present’.
But that is not to suggest that these are all new gardens because as
every plant watcher knows, it can take many years for a garden to mature and
become anything like the envisaged plan.
There is every type of garden here, from courtyard and urban
balcony to suburban, from coastal to vast country gardens and from demanding to
peaceful.
The large ones are spectacular in size and design because they
have the luxury of space and the smaller ones display the skill of space management.
The interaction between landscape architect/designer and the owner is interesting
to read as both sides work towards the compromise of expectation and delivery
while always accommodating the connection between the house and the
garden.
My favourite is a
restored wetland in Matakana developed entirely by the owners who wanted to
create a “sculptural habitat with large artworks made from natural materials on
the site” – and they have. Two examples
of their clever use of these materials
are large trunks of fallen pines turned into prone works of art and sawn timber
slabs of varying heights curving around the base of several trees.
You can smell the freshness and sense the peace.
Readers will find the list of key plants used at the end of
each chapter helpful, and that would have been the place too to list the
wonderful sculptures and garden art used extensively in so many of the
gardens. But they are not listed
anywhere in the book. The owners of one
featured garden are “passionate art collectors who wanted to display many
pieces outside” and we see the garden created around them to “ensure the
artworks are seen as part of the landscape” but we are not told what the pieces
are or by whom. A couple get a mention in
the text but are not identified in the garden.
The omission is disappointing, and surprising too because
Sally Tagg (the photographer) is also a respected artist of botanically themed
artworks, one of which was included in the recent NZ Sculpture OnShore
exhibition on Auckland’s North Shore….but we don’t know if she has any of her
work included here.
Footnote:
Dawn Forbes is an Auckland reader and regular reviewer of gardening books on Beattie's Book Blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment