The Sensuous GardenTaking the five senses (or six, if you count intuition) as his starting point, Montagu Don offers us a wide-ranging and deeply involving discussion of the emotional, spiritual, and physical effects of a sensuous approach to the garden. Perhaps the most undervalued horticultural virtue, he maintains, sensuality claims the garden as a jumble of experiences rather than a sequence of botanical exercises. In the hands of this brilliant polymath of a writer we learn how to create and manage a garden to optimize all the senses. We see how each season brings its own distinctive sensations - the smell of newly mown grass in spring, the sublime flavor of a perfectly ripened tomato at the height of summer, the clinging smell of bonfires in autumn, the severe purity of the garden in winter. Also included is practical information about such sensuous touches as planting night-blooming flowers to perfume the evening garden, using richly textured ground covers to soften the path, creating monochrome flower beds to explore the nuance of color, and experimenting with the sweet and delicate flavors of baby vegetables. What emerges is a portrait of the garden as a place that affects not only our senses but also our moods and emotions, providing spiritual refreshment as well as physical delight. |
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The sensuous garden
User Review - Not Available - Book VerdictThis book would be enticing even if it consisted only of the lavish photographs, but it is the text that reminds us of why we garden and suggests ways to return to the basic pleasures. Don, a British ... Read full review
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Common terms and phrases
Alba annual apples autumn Bambusa multiplex bark beautiful become better biennial blue border brown Buddleia bulbs chives Clematis climber color combination Cosmos bipinnatus Cultivation dark deciduous delicate Description early spring early summer evergreen feel flavor flowers foliage fragrance frost fruit full sun garden Gertrude Jekyll grass green leaves ground grow grown hardy hedge herbs honeysuckle Hosta intense Iris reticulata late spring late summer light look Lychnis chalcedonica magenta moist Narcissus jonquilla Nicotiana sylvestris OPPOSITE orange pale pastel pear perennial petals pink plants poppy Primula vulgaris Prune purple range redcurrants rich soil Rosa roses Rudbeckia hirta salad scent season seed sensation sensuous shade shrub smell soft sound stems sunny sweet taste texture tolerate tree tulips vegetables Verbena bonariensis Viburnum x bodnantense violet visual warm well-drained soil white flowers wind winter yellow flowers
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Sensuous Garden |
| Author | Montagu Don |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster Editions, 1997 |
| Original from | Pennsylvania State University |
| Digitized | Oct 11, 2011 |
| ISBN | 0684839652, 9780684839653 |
| Length | 160 pages |
| Subjects | › Gardening / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |