Press

In its introduction, Mill Valley author Michelle Slatalla calls the book “a version of Gardenista you can dog-ear.” Photographs show many of the editors’ favorite gardens, both their overall design and close-up shots of details. Also shown (with Web sources) are 100 stylish and useful objects you might want for your garden.

Slatalla is a garden dervish intent on taking us on a bracing romp through 13 of her favorites. You won’t find any pretensions about contemplating the beauty of a crack in the wall: these well-loved spaces are also well lived-in.

Gardenista is the stylish gardening blog of the same name in book form. It’s packed full of tasteful gardens that offer a welcome escape from your own sodden/boring/non-existent (delete as appropriate) garden. There’s plenty of useful advice here, too, although I suspect most of us would rather simply salivate over the ‘twelve gardens we love’ section (An outdoor shower! A beautiful greenhouse!).

More than mere garden planning, the book explores the additional elements of furnishings, accessories, accoutrements and color, integrating nature and luxury to create an outdoor home setting as a place of personal retreat.

I have always been a gardener. But as recently as four years ago, I was very much a dabbler. The three other houses we had owned had a garden, but previous tenants had designed them. I was just the caretaker. The situation at hand would require more. I had to start from scratch.

If you love Gardenista.com, sister site to Remodelista.com, you’ll be as happy as I am to have a photo-rich look-book for modernist gardens in hand. The focus is international, with up-to-the minute planting ideas, including lots of tempting DIY projects.