If ever there was a book that made you want to pack your bags and head over to Hudson River Valley – this must be it.
Even for non-gardeners this is a delight of a book. Author, Jane Garmey, writes about 26 private gardens that appear to almost merge seamlessly into the surrounding countryside – its meadows, hills and valleys. Not to be outdone garden photographer John M Hall has captured and echoed Jane’s delightful prose with his clever and sometimes dreamy and ethereal pictures.
Several of the gardens which Jane writes about were not started by keen or even expert gardeners: a number of them began of necessity; and from that initial first plant in the ground grew a love and a passion for gardening. As she points out the gardeners of the Hudson Valley have to contend with freezing winter temperatures and great heat and draught in the summer and the gardens have to be made from often difficult terrain. Don’t expect to see pictures of chocolate-box-pretty English country gardens, and don’t expect to see instructions of how and what to plant; these are gardens that flow into landscapes and also the stories of their creators.
It is a big, heavy coffee table book, beautifully produced and an absolute joy to peruse.
Private Gardens of the Hudson Valley. Jane Garmey with photographs by John M Hall. The Monaacelli Press. £55. ISBN 978-1-58093-348-3.