Kingsbury is a Brit who is a leader in the 21st C transformation of gardens from formal, bedded plantings to a more natural look featuring wildflowers, grasses, and perennials in great naturalistic sweeps.  With spectacular photographs by Takacs, the book provides an interesting history of the movement which Kingsbury dubs The New Planting as well as an overview of more recent developments in private as well as public spaces.

The highlight of the book are the 41 gardens described in detail and accompanied by photographs both from a distance providing perspective and up close to delineate individual plants and combinations.  The photographs are well captioned with identification of plants in a user-friendly manner for those of us looking for new ideas.  The gardens range from the U.S. to Japan though the UK  and Europe are the majority, leading to lists of plants that are not quite hardy enough for our Vermont winters.

The mark of a good garden book for me is the ability to spend long periods leafing through the photographs jotting down ideas for my garden, the large majority of which will never be realized but are fun to contemplate. When I closed Kingsbury’s book I had two sides of a piece of paper covered with plants’ names, combinations, and even a photo of a bridge that I’d like to build across our brook.  I recommend this beautifully constructed book for anyone who likes to get their hands dirty in the soil or even dreams of that.