Championing historic gardens
The Historic Gardens Foundation is a small, dynamic NGO that champions important places across the globe. It operates through a worldwide network of garden enthusiasts and a handsome 50-page journal, … Continue reading
Anglo-chinois gardens
It can be hard to grasp the shift in France from the great classical, geometric gardens of Le Nôtre and his followers to the so-called anglo-chinois style which swept the … Continue reading
Grands Moulins revisited
Three years ago I wrote rather disparagingly about the jardins des Grands Moulins – Abbé Pierre, in Paris’s 13th arrondissement. It is a new, self-proclaimed sustainable park, and I wondered … Continue reading
The London Olympic Park
The start of the World Cup tomorrow has been overshadowed by concerns about the readiness of the infrastructure, and hostility from many Brazilians to their government spending so much money on … Continue reading
How naughty we have been
I am delighted to have joined the rosta of writers at ThinkinGardens, a British website eager to encourage serious, stimulating and critical writing about designed landscapes. My first piece is Worthy … Continue reading
Paris post-script
My visit to Paris this summer revealed some odd goings-on at the venerable parc Monceau, in the heart of the city. Originally created in the 18th century as a flamboyant … Continue reading
A car wreck of a park?
Parc André Citroën in the southwest of Paris was created just twenty years ago, on the site of an old car factory. The only park in the capital with frontage … Continue reading
Field Trip
Posts from landscapelover now feature on Google’s new app Field Trip. This seems to me a nifty concept that allows information about local places to pop up on your phone … Continue reading
Faroese landscapes
Today I am delighted to introduce a guest post on the landscapes of the Faroe Islands, the archipelago that lies roughly midway between Iceland, Norway and Scotland. Its author, Jacqui … Continue reading
Celebrating Dan Kiley
As regular readers will know, I am a great fan of the work of the US designer Dan Kiley. His spare, modern parks and gardens arguably made him the finest … Continue reading
Eco-grazing in Paris
Or éco-pâturage à Paris, in the more elegant French description. I really want this to work. As a pilot scheme, the Paris parks department has installed four sheep in the … Continue reading
Northumberlandia
It’s been described as a pagan love goddess, a gesture of environmental stewardship, the largest human figure in the world, an abstraction of the Cheviot hills, a recumbent partner of … Continue reading
Mughal gardens, Kashmir
One of the best and most beautiful expressions of Mughal culture is its gardens. Sadly, few examples survive, but among the finest are the terraced gardens in the Kashmir valley. … Continue reading
World landscape of the year
Awards are funny things. A while ago I was sniffy on this blog about Gardens Illustrated’s Garden of the Year, which seemed to be picked from a random shortlist solely … Continue reading
The greenest city?
It seems appropriate that Singapore is the only country in the world with a hybrid as its national flower, the orchid Vanda ‘Miss Joaquim.’ This is such a manicured, efficient, … Continue reading
The Unexpected Joys of Quarrying
One of the pleasures of landscape history is the often surprising places where information can be found. Trainspotters’ model drawings, last wills and testaments, records from a convent, romantic novels, … Continue reading
A mysterious French designer…
Search the internet for Elie Lainé and you’ll readily find that he was a once-celebrated nineteenth century French landscape designer. You’ll learn that he worked on big projects in at … Continue reading
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