The Hortus Conclusus at Little Sparta
Patrick Eyres, Little Sparta Trust & New Arcadian Press, writes: The Hortus Conclusus is the final work conceived by the Scottish poet-gardener, Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925–2006), and it has been realised posthumously. The opening in June 2009 was featured in the Scottish broadsheets, which also reported the £1.2m appeal by the Little Sparta Trust to […]
The Mysterious Joseph Heely
Sandy Haynes writes: In 1777 R. Baldwin of Pater-Noster Row, London published a guide book to the three great West Midland gardens of the mid-18th century entitled Letters on the Beauties of Hagley, Envil and The Leasowes with critical remarks and Observations on the Modern Taste in Gardening by Joseph Heely. In an Advertisement in […]
Bonnington House & Jupiter Artland
Niall Manning writes: Charles Jenk’s ‘Life Mounds” from the drive at Jupiter Artland, on the approach to Bonnington House (photo by Christopher Dingwall) The first encounter with Jupiter Artland is dramatic: soon after passing through the front gates, the driveway winds through the Charles Jencks landform ‘Life Mounds’. On arrival at the house we were […]
Circe in Sampierdarena?
Alix Wilkinson writes: The dome of the central chamber in Sapierdarena’s grotto showing the transformations from Ovid (photo by Charles Boot) The GHS tour to ‘The Two Rivieras’ organized by Robert Peel and Charles Boot, visited an amazing grotto created by Galeazzo Alessi (1512–72), in a garden belonging to nuns in Sampierdarena, west of Genoa. […]
Reflections on ‘A Brazilian Odyssey’
Reflections on ‘A Brazilian Odyssey’ Posted on March 17th, 2010 by Charles Boot Dr Jill Raggett (Reader in Gardens and Designed Landscapes, Writtle College) reports on the GHS Tour of the Gardens and Landscapes of Roberto Burle Marx in March 2009. This is a personal account of the tour and reflects her experiences and reactions […]
Festival of Britain, South Bank: showcase for landscape architects
John Thompson writes: The spaces around the buildings of the South Bank Exhibition provided the opportunity for innovative ideas of Landscape Design to be tried out. A formal Beaux Art approach based on the axial cross avenue, the round-point, and vista, was the method previously favoured for exhibitions. The South Bank represented a complete departure […]
Greenwich update
Originally published in micro-news 81a (June 2008) Greenwich Park proposed as Olympics Equestrian Venue It has come to our notice that the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG), the body charged by the Government to ‘deliver’ the 2012 London Olympics, has plans to use four Grade I designed landscapes in the capital as […]
Dr Neil’s Garden at Duddingston, Edinburgh
Nigel Neil wites: Dr Neil’s Garden, which some GHS members visited after the AGM & Summer Conference in 2007, has been called Edinburgh’s Secret Garden. Lying beside a twelfth-century Kirk, where the lower slopes of Arthur’s Seat meet Duddingston Loch, this beautiful place of artistic, literary, and spiritual inspiration is the result of the imagination, […]
Waltzing with Wisdom in the Fabyan Japanese Garden
Amber Hare writes: In a period perhaps best characterized by social and economic pandemonium, one must not only prepare for the impending havoc, but also take a moment to savor that delightful quiet preceding any storm worth a salt. With this in mind, there is no time like the present to dip one’s toes in […]