Briefly traces Georgetown's history, and shows and describes more than two dozen of its private gardens

hidden lives / secret gardens is a synthetic history about gardens and human sexuality. Written in an accessible style for the garden enthusiast, the serious landscape designer, and those interested in the lives of international celebrities, the book explores the very roots of Modernism as begun in Florence, Italy in the very first year of the twentieth century. For the past twenty-years, R. Terry Schnadelbach, FAAR, Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Florida, has researched the Modernist era in landscape architecture. He authored a book, Ferruccio Vitale, Landscape Architect of the Country Place Era, on the Florentine landscape architect, who brought to America both the formal garden as well as its first Modernist landscapes. In hidden lives / secret gardens, Schnadelbach exposes the engaging and intertwined lives of a group of expatriates, their secluded hillside villas and secret new gardens that ushered a new direction in garden design. Three successive new gardens at Villas Gamberaia, La Pietra and I Tatti were among the earliest Modernist landscapes and were an inspiration many landscape professionals in Britain and America. While hidden lives / secret gardens manuscript focuses on the revival of the Renaissance aesthetic in Florence and paints a picture of each garden's history, it explores the new and emerging field of sexual psychology through the hidden lives of the Villa's owners and designers, revealing their artistic life styles, their commercial and sexual mores.

Discover how to grow fresh figs organically in cold climates—from Minnesota to Moscow—with the help of this informative guide. Growing Figs in Cold Climates is a complete, full-color, illustrated guide to organic methods for growing delicious figs in cold climates, well outside the traditional hot, arid home of this ancient fruiting tree. Coverage includes: Five methods for growing figs in cold climates including overwintering Cultivar selection for cool and cold climates Pruning techniques for a variety of methods of growing figs in cold climates Pest problems and solutions Harvesting, including ways to speed ripening, identify ripe fruit, and manage an overabundance Small-scale commercial fig production in cold climates Fresh figs are juicy, full-bodied, and filled with a honey-sweet flavor, and because truly ripe figs are highly perishable, they are only available to those who grow their own. By choosing the right cultivars and techniques, figs can be grown across cool and cold growing zones of North America, Europe, and beyond, putting them within reach of almost every gardener. Easy and delicious—if you can grow a houseplant, you can grow a fig. Praise for Growing Figs in Cold Climates “Lee Reich is a master at growing food, especially fruits, and his extensive personal knowledge about figs comes through clearly in his writings. . . . Follow his advice for growing figs and you are guaranteed success.” —Robert Pavlis, author, Garden Myths, Building Natural Ponds, and Soil Science for Gardeners, owner, Aspen Grove Gardens “We have grown this delicious fruit on Maine’s chilly coast, but Lee shows us how to do it even better.” —Barbara Damrosch and Eliot Coleman, farmers, Four Season Farm, authors

The definitive and revealing biography of the author of The Secret Garden. Frances Hodgson Burnett’s favourite theme in her fiction was the reversal of fortune, and she herself knew extremes of poverty and wealth. Born in Manchester in 1849, she emigrated with her family to Tennessee because of the financial problems caused by the cotton famine. From a young age she published her stories to help the family make ends meet. Only after she married did she publish Little Lord Fauntleroy that shot her into literary stardom. On the surface, Frances’ life was extremely successful: hosting regular literary salons in her home and travelling frequently between properties in the UK and America. But behind the colourful personal and social life, she was a complex and contradictory character. She lost both parents by her twenty-first birthday, Henry James called her "the most heavenly of women" although avoided her; prominent people admired her and there were many friendships as well as an ill-advised marriage to a much younger man that ended in heartache. Her success was punctuated by periods of depression, in one instance brought on by the tragic loss of her eldest son to consumption. Ann Thwaite creates a sympathetic but balanced and eye-opening biography of the woman who has enchanted numerous generations of children.

Chanticleer, a forty-eight-acre garden on Philadelphia's historic Main Line, is many things simultaneously: a lush display of verdant intensity and variety, an irreverent and informal setting for inventive plant combinations, a homage to the native trees and horticultural heritage of the mid-Atlantic, a testament to one man's devotion to his family's estate and legacy, and a good spot for a stroll and picnic amid the blooms. In Chanticleer: A Pleasure Garden, Adrian Higgins and photographer Rob Cardillo chronicle the garden's many charms over the course of two growing cycles. Built on the grounds of the Rosengarten estate in Wayne, Pennsylvania, Chanticleer retains a domestic scale, resulting in an intimate, welcoming atmosphere. The structure of the estate has been thoughtfully incorporated into the garden's overall design, such that small gardens created in the footprint of the old tennis court and on the foundation of one of the family homes share space with more traditional landscapes woven around streams and an orchard. Through conversations and rambles with Chanticleer's team of gardeners and artisans, Higgins follows the garden's development and reinvention as it changes from season to season, rejoicing in the hundred thousand daffodils blooming on the Orchard Lawn in spring and marveling at the Serpentine's late summer crop of cotton, planted as a reminder of Pennsylvania's agrarian past. Cardillo's photographs reveal further nuances in Chanticleer's landscape: a rare and venerable black walnut tree near the entrance, pairs of gaily painted chairs along the paths, a backlit arbor draped in mounds of fragrant wisteria. Chanticleer fuses a strenuous devotion to the beauty and health of its plantings with a constant dedication to the mutability and natural energy of a living space. And within the garden, Higgins notes, there is a thread of perfection entwined with whimsy and continuous renewal.

The acclaimed interior designer combines rich tradition with modern sensibilities in this beautifully photographed book of homes across the deep South. James Farmer’s design firm works with clients across the South who want to turn their houses into homes. Now Farmer takes readers on a guided tour of eleven home projects—from makeovers to remodels and new construction—as he brings together a cultivated mix of high and low, storied and new, collected and found; presenting them all as a thoughtfully exhibited array of taste, style, good architecture, and interior comfort. Woven alongside beautiful photography of interiors and exteriors are personal stories James shares about living in the South, the people in his life, and how he fell in love with home design. A Place to Call Home is a beautiful book to inspire Southern style at home―infusing the new with antique, vintage, and heirloom pieces.