In Art and the Gardener, Gordon Hayward's tenth book on garden design, he makes a radical departure from his earlier approaches in order to explore elements of visual language across two artistic disciplines-fine painting and garden design-in hopes that the remarkable crosscurrents will help reveal how to design or simply appreciate your garden with greater acuity.

The Artist’s Garden will feature up to 20 gardens that have inspired and been home to some of the greatest painters of history. These gardens not only supplied the inspiration for creative works but also illuminate the professional motivation and private life of the artists themselves – from Cezanne’s house in the south of France to Childe Hassam at Celia Thaxter’s garden off the coast off Maine. Flowers and gardens have often been the first choice for artists looking for a subject. A garden close to the artist’s studio is not only convenient for daily material and ideas, but also has the advantage of changing through the seasons and over time. Claude Monet’s Giverny was the catalyst for hundreds of great paintings (by Monet and other artists), each one different from the one before. Sometimes a whole village becomes the focus for a colony of artists as at Gerberoy in Picardy and Skagen on the northernmost tip of Denmark. This book is about the real homes and gardens that inspired these great artists – gardens that can still be visited today. The relationship between artist and garden is a complex one. A few artists, including Pierre Bonnard and his neighbour Monet were keen gardeners, as much in love with their plants as their work, while for others like Sorolla in Madrid, his courtyard home was both a sanctuary and a source of ideas.

“Delightful!” —The New York Times Book Review Discover a world of beauty and creativity! Chanticleer has been called the most romantic, imaginative, and exciting public garden in America. It is a place of pleasure and learning, relaxing yet filled with ideas to take home. And now those lessons are available for everyone in this stunning book! You’ll learn techniques specific to different conditions and plant palettes; how to use hardscape materials in a fresh way; and how to achieve the perfect union between plant and site. And Rob Cardillo’s exquisite photographs of exciting combinations will be sure to stimulate your own creativity. Whether you’re already under Chanticleer’s spell or have yet to visit, The Art of Gardening will enable you to bring the special magic that pervades this most artful of gardens into your own home landscape.

Creative recipes and celebrations of seasonal bounties—in the garden, in the kitchen, and on the canvas. Artist Claude Monet took inspiration from his gardens and the lily ponds at Giverny. Van Gogh, Manet, Matisse, and Cezanne created still life masterpieces of fruit and flowers. Similarly, cooks from Julia Child and Alice Waters to Patricia Wells and Jamie Oliver have taken culinary inspiration from homegrown or fresh local produce. Now artist Maryjo Koch explores this centuries-old connection in a new cookbook inspired by her studio garden. The garden not only provides the artistic subjects she and her students paint, but also serves as the culinary toolbox for the delectable and visual feasts she prepares for her family, guests, and painting classes throughout the year. Artists, cooks, and gardeners alike will find tips, recipes, and painting projects centered on seasonal food pairings. For example, the winter garden focuses on soups with offerings like Minestrone with Crumbled Bacon and Butternut Squash-Apple Soup. Springtime brings culinary attention to leafy greens such as Flower Petal Salad and Spring Asparagus Frittata with Peas and Peppers. As the seasons’ bounty progresses, the painting subjects and menus change as well, invented with whatever is freshest and most beautiful in the garden. Whether you find yourself more at home with an artist’s brush, a cook’s wooden spoon, or a gardener’s spade, you’ll find inspiration inside this lavish cookbook.

This beautifully illustrated book presents a history of our relationship with nature, beginning with the civilisations of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, when gardens served as ‘the dwelling place of the gods’. Tracing this history through subsequent epochs, the author shows how human awareness of the divine presence in nature was gradually eclipsed. As nature came to be viewed primarily as a physical resource to be controlled and exploited by us, this was reflected in the ordered, rational designs imposed on such gardens as Versailles. More recently, gardening has come to be seen less as an instrument of control than as an art in its own right, enhancing nature’s inherent beauty. Jeremy Naydler suggests that the future of gardening lies not simply in its being regarded as an art but as a sacred art, which once again honours and works with the spiritual dimension intrinsic to nature. ‘This thoughtful book challenges the gardener in us to work as an artist and experience the sacred presence around us by becoming creatively engaged with the hidden formative forces of Nature.’ – Network Review ‘The main thrust of this profound and inspiring volume is to remind us that gardens are essentially sacred spaces in which we may work together with Nature in order that we may help her – and ourselves in the process – express more fully the divine presence hidden within the heart of her outward beauty.’ – Resurgence ‘An exceptionally well-referenced, delightfully illustrated and informative work.’ – New View ‘In his beautifully illustrated book, [Naydler] re-sounds the call of the garden as a “necessary counterbalance and corrective”. It’s a welcome message towards re-sanctifying our world.’ – Nexus Magazine ‘Gardeners will love this book. Occasionally you look down the garden you have worked all day … and you have that peace, that sense of the numinous that cannot be understood except by somehow knowing that it is vital. Our author has been so kind as to declare it for us: gardening is a sacred art.’ – Derek Cunningham, Self and Society

A comprehensive and highly practical study of the art of growing flowers, Mastering the Art of Flower Gardening presents expert tips on growing both annuals and biennials (including native and heirloom species) alongside 300+ lush photographs. This gorgeously illustrated book by Matt Mattus is based on decades of first-hand experience in his own garden—every variety or cultivar presented is one that he has personally tested and grown. Mattus sets you up for success by first providing everything you need to know about starting seeds, soil, sowing, hardening off, transplanting, plugs, growing on, cutting, and saving seed. Then you'll find tips for growing over 100 different annuals from seedand 12 types of spring and summer bulbs—all based on his hands-on experience, going beyond the information available on the seed packet. Every one of the hundreds of stunning photographs is taken personally by Mattus from the flowers growing on his own farm in Massachusetts. Just a small selection of the annuals covered: aster, cornflower, chrysanthemum, impatiens, larkspur, California poppy, delphiniums, sunflowers, morning glory, kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate, salvia, and zinnia. The bulbs are allium, anemone, ranunculus, fritillaria, freesia, tulips, lily of the valley, true lilies, canna, calla, gladiolus, and dahlia. In short, there is nothing ordinary about this book—it is unlike any other cut flower book you will find anywhere.

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.