Laura C.Martin’s Southern Gardens: A Gracious History and a Traveller’s Guide

As a tribute to the gardening of a unique region this volume portrays 32 of the most celebrated gardens of the American South, ranging from the grand gardens of the Antebellum Plantations to strikingly simple, creative plantings of the modern era. Drawing from primary sources as well as first-hand impressions of each garden featured, the author reveals the special beauty of southern gardens along with the personalities of their gardeners. This volume, illustrated with 200 specially commissioned photographs in colour and many vintage prints, surveys the southern garden from 1750 to the present. It includes early gardeners who introduced new plants and garden designs to the early coastal plantations; homesteaders who moved inland as far west as Tennessee and planted small, practical gardens; industrialists who used new money to build large formal gardens, such as the Vanderbilt country estate in Asheville, North Carolina; and, finally, 20th-century individuals whose rustic getaways consist of fantastic country grounds or quaint walled gardens in cities. From reconstructed sites to recent plantings, this is a treasury of the southern garden - offering ideas for all gardeners or inspiration for the armchair traveller.