Adventures in Eden: An Intimate Tour of the Private Gardens of Europe

by Carolyn Mullet

Overview

A bucket list tour of Europe’s private gardens

Acres of white-blooming garden rooms on the island of Mallorca. A seven-tiered wonder of stone, plants, and water above Germany’s Rhine River. The Garden of Cosmic Speculation in a quiet Scottish valley. These sumptuous landscapes are just three of the fifty destinations you’ll visit on this exclusive tour of Europe’s most beautiful private gardens. From Belgium to Ireland, Scandinavia to Wales, Carolyn Mullet is your guide through intimate retreats normally off-limits to visitors. Short profiles introduce the intriguing owners and rich histories of each garden and the land they inhabit. Among the featured gardens are works of eminent designers such as Tom Stuart-Smith, Andy Malengier, and Louis Benech.

Whether you love exploring faraway places or creating your own landscape haven at home, Adventures in Eden is the ideal armchair getaway—glimpses into personal garden artistry that are sure to spark inspiration.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781604698466
Publisher:	Timber Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	12/08/2020
Pages:	332
Sales rank:	996,770
Product dimensions:	8.90(w) x 11.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Carolyn Mullet is a prominent landscape designer and the founder of Carex: Garden Design by Carolyn Mullet, a garden design and consulting agency in the Washington, D.C., area. She is also the principal of Carex Tours, which has quickly gained a reputation for offering the best-planned, most discerning, and most exciting garden tours anywhere. Find her at carexdesign.com.

Editorial Reviews

★ 09/07/2020

Mullet, a garden designer, leads readers on a spirited tour of 50 private European gardens. “The private garden has a special place in the roster of outdoor spaces,” writes Mullet, as a site that is at once natural and cozy. Before each photo spread, Mullet introduces the garden’s history, designers, and theme. Broughton Grange in Oxfordshire, England offers a “singular, sweeping panorama” designed by Tom Stuart-Smith in 2000, whereas Veddw in Wales was designed to honor the region’s farming community. In Scotland, she finds Charles Jencks’s scientifically themed Garden of Cosmic Speculation, where forking paths mirror the double helix structure of DNA and a grid of artificial turf and aluminum is arranged to suggest the warping of spacetime by black holes. In the Netherlands and Germany, the gardens Mullet surveys betray the common influence of contemporary Dutch Wave designer Piet Oudolf, with his style of soft naturalistic contours. In northern Spain and Italy, she finds a pair of gardens united by their success in growing olive trees in unforgiving climates, and in France, a château garden planted to emphasize the azures and silvers of the ancestral owners’ family crest. Homebound gardeners will be dazzled. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Homebound gardeners will be dazzled.” —Publishers Weekly

“A sumptuous, utterly escapist hardback featuring all the most beautiful gardens in the UK and Europe we could possibly dream of visiting… This book makes a wonderful substitute for travel in these difficult times.” —The English Garden

“Adventures in Eden offers a way to get a glimpse of far-off garden perfection from the comfort and safety of home… readers will find much inspiration in both the words and images, as well as plenty of planting and design ideas to adapt at home.” —Horticulture

“This image-rich peek at 50 gardens in Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Spain… leaves me longing to visit many of the gardens.” —The Washington Post

“A richly illustrated tour of 50 private contemporary gardens across Europe, chosen and led by landscape designer Carolyn Mullet.” —Gardens Illustrated

“United by plant-led design, the well-chosen examples include the private domains of Dan Pearson and Tom Stuart-Smith, and others created by Europe’s horticultural elite. Each is generously illustrated and accompanied by a short but insightful text that tells the story of the garden’s creation.” —House Garden

“A captivating guide to gorgeous gardens, each as diverse as its origins, each as lovely as the other.” —The Oregonian

“Enjoy Adventures in Eden for pure escapism, but this wonderful new release also offers attainable inspiration for creating or reimagining your own private garden space.” —Winnipeg Free Press

“From Belgium to Ireland, Scandinavia to Wales, Carolyn Mullet is your guide through glorious gardens that are normally off-limits to visitors. It’s the ideal armchair getaway.” —Garden Answers
 
“This book might just inspire you to live out your own extravagant garden fantasies by starting your own.” —The Washington Gardener

“The simple act of enjoying gardens—and, let’s be honest, having a good nose around—is at the heart of this beautiful book.” —RHS The Garden

“One of the very best garden coffee table books that I've seen.” —Literati Bookstore

From the Publisher

09/01/2020

Garden designer Mullet (founder, Carex Tours) introduces readers to 50 private, European gardens open to the public, including the author's favorites from 11 countries based on specific plants, creativity, and passion. Representative of current design, all of the spaces were developed over the past 25 years (though some boast older features). Arranged by country, typical entries run four to eight pages long with one text page followed by captioned photos. Mullet discusses the site, highlights features, and sometimes conveys an owner's motivation or attitudes by sprinkling in previously published comments (with references). This book lacks more in-depth information that would make it easy to quickly ID a garden's vital info (size, climate, designer, specialty), which is helpful when gardens vary tremendously. There are also lists of gardens, the designers, references, and an index (unseen). Photos are well done, though cold-climate gardeners will notice few depict snowy, winter-interest examples. VERDICT Recommended particularly for traveling gardeners, though all could cull ideas from this book, which is similar in scope to Cristopher Woods's Gardenlust.—Bonnie Poquette, Milwaukee

Library Journal