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A couple of years ago British gardening TV personality Monty Don made a 3-part series well-nigh U.S. gardens to wordplay the question, “What is an American garden?” Turns out, it’s an untellable question to wordplay satisfactorily in a country that spans a continent, 13 hardiness zones, and climates ranging from temperate forests to subtropical plains to desert to mountain to foggy tailspin to…well, you get the idea. Plus he focused largely on manor gardens maintained by dozens or increasingly staff gardeners.
A much largest take on the American garden can be found in new typesetting American Roots: Lessons and Inspiration from the Designers Reimagining Our Home Gardens by Nick McCullough, Allison McCullough, and Teresa Woodard. Nick and Allison are a husband-and-wife team who operate a landscape diamond visitor and nursery in Columbus, Ohio. Nick curated the featured gardens and took most of the photographs in the book, Allison designed it, and Teresa wrote the text. Their partnership resulted in an spanking-new typesetting with eye-candy pics and engaging stories well-nigh the gardens and gardeners who created them.
There are 4 things I love well-nigh this book. One, it includes 20 gardens from wideness the continental U.S., not just gardens withal the coasts — my perennial complaint well-nigh many gardening books. Two, it features the personal gardens of designers or other garden creatives. Seeing what designers create for their own homes, where they finger freer to experiment and test plants and moreover make a personal space that reflects their own taste, offers up lessons in good diamond and livability. Three: top-notch photos (and lots of them) and writing. Four, the featured gardens are, every one, interesting, beautiful, and worthy of inclusion. There’s diversity in regional style and plant choices, and a strong sense of place is evident.
The typesetting is organized into wholesale regions: Midwest, East Coast, South, and West. I love that “flyover country” (I hate that pejorative, but garden publications so often overlook the vast midsection of the U.S.) comes first! It’s moreover Nick and Allison’s home region, and their own stunning garden starts things off. If you fathom elegant floral harmonies plus unvigilant containers featuring foliage plants, all organized within trendy straight lines and English-style hedges — a style they dub Midwest Modern — you’ll love their garden. Follow Nick on Instagram for frequent glimpses of it.
I was delighted to see that Austin’s own Tait Moring, whose Texas-native, ruggedly trendy garden I’ve had the pleasure of photographing many times, is featured in the book’s South chapter. The whilom photo is from his garden.
Each featured garden is given a lengthy spread — 12 to 14 pages — of photos and text, which really gives you a finger for it. Since a garden is a reflection of the gardener, each person is given space to share their preliminaries and influences, how their garden originated and how they use it.
The final two pages in each garden’s spread is tabbed “Learn from [Gardener’s Name]” and includes their favorite plants and diamond tips specific to their interests, for example “Inviting Spaces for Entertaining,” “Thrifty Garden Secrets,” and “Rock Hounding Tricks.” It’s a nice touch, giving the reader a lesson to take yonder from each garden.
If you love garden diamond and seeing what trendy designers are doing in their own gardens wideness the U.S., I highly recommend this book.
ALSO: I’m excited to signify that authors Nick and Allison McCullough will be in Austin on January 26th for a Garden Spark talk well-nigh the book! Join my email list today (the link is unelevated in Digging Deeper) to be notified first when tickets go on sale in early January. Nick is an engaging and entertaining speaker, and you won’t want to miss his presentation and the endangerment to meet him and Allison.
Photos courtesy of Timber Press.
Disclosure: Timber Press sent me a reprinting of American Roots, and I reviewed it at my own discretion and without any compensation. This post, as with everything at Digging, is my personal opinion.
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Come learn well-nigh garden diamond from the experts at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, and authors a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance. Simply click this link and ask to be added. You can find this year’s speaker lineup here.
All material © 2022 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
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