Garden Reviews

Interested in a specific garden? See the Garden Index page for an alphabetised list (or the Garden Tweets page for short Twitter reviews).


The 9/11 Memorial Park in New York reviewed by Sheppard Craige

April 8, 2012

A poignant piece about a very particular site, sensitively written. Thank you, Sheppard. Anne Wareham, editor. Sheppard Craige: The still unfinished 9/11 Memorial Park in lower Manhattan has already been seen by more than a million visitors. It is a powerful minimalist composition of two large squares excavated in the earth by architect Michael Arad. [...]

Sussex Prairies Garden reviewed by Darryl Moore

November 17, 2011

It may seem strange to have three reviews of one garden on the thinkingardens site. However, we are frequently told that different people experience gardens differently. It seems right to me that those differences, or lack of them, should be available for people to consider. It is interesting to me that the three thinkingardens reviewers saw similar [...]


Sussex Prairies Garden Again – reviewed by Susan Wright

October 17, 2011

I make no apology for a new and different perspective on the Sussex Prairies Garden. I’m fed up with the ‘isn’t it lovely’ single viewpoint on gardens. Critical comment may also be easily dismissed – but perhaps not so easily when it is clearly not simply an eccentric, single person perspective. Every year, one garden, by either luck or skilful management, will appear [...]

Appeltern Gardens, Netherlands reviewed by Wanda Oprea

September 30, 2011

Is there an inherent problem with show gardens? And can you have too much of a (maybe) good thing? Does quality shine in the most challenging circumstances? These are some of the questions raised by this piece by Wanda Oprea in her review of the permanent exhibition of show gardens at Appeltern in the Netherlands. [...]


Sussex Lines: Meadows, Prairies and Downs by Kate Buxton: a review of the Sussex Prairies Garden

August 30, 2011

The topic of contemporary naturalistic planting design is a fascinating topic: what is the relationship between ’Dutch Wave’ gardens, the ‘New American Garden Style’, wildflower meadows, quasi arable fields, prairie gardens and ecological planting design? It would be good to consider their similarities, differences, virtues and limitations further on thinkingardens. Kate Buxton’s piece here, on the Sussex Prairies [...]

The End of the Party at Bryan’s Ground by Sarah Wint

August 3, 2011

An entertaining approach to reviewing here by a new contributor, Sarah Wint. I hope we may hear more from the in-laws and – an unreliable? narrator. I have enabled comments and will see if this creates too much work for poor harassed editor or not.. Anne Wareham  editor Review of the garden at Bryan’s Ground, Herefordshire. I’ve just [...]


A dog’s dinner or a curate’s egg?

July 18, 2011

Barbara Taylor has recently discovered, Chiswick House & Gardens. In the interests of research, she decided to give it the once over and find out just what this 18th century building and its grounds had to offer. Here, she shares her findings with us Anne Wareham, editor MrB has had the joy of commuting to [...]

The Laskett reviewed by Emma Bond

July 8, 2011

“It is a shame that Sir Roy Strong is subjected to the now-obligatory drivel about his being a ‘national treasure’, because this unthinking cliché diminishes his contribution, over more than 50 years, to our cultural life, whether as a curator or, in later times, as a gardener.” Simon Heffer in The Spectator 6th August 2011 [...]


Veddw reviewed by Bridget Rosewell

May 9, 2011

Just to wind up Matthew Appleby, who is complaining there is too much Veddw on this site… Having just been sent the review I can’t resist adding it to thinkinGardens – and I think I have earned a bit of self indulgence. Anne Wareham editor.   The garden made by Anne Wareham and Charles Hawes [...]

Mill Dene Garden reviewed by Darryl Moore

April 4, 2011

Darryl Moore is a valued garden critic on thinkinGardens, with an astute sense of the relationship between the owner and the garden and its implications (see also his piece on Coombe House/Plas Metaxu). I am grateful therefore to have this review of the garden Mill Dene in the Cotswolds, which was rather curtly dismissed in [...]


Boughton House – Kim Wilkie’s Orpheus reviewed by James Alexander-Sinclair

February 28, 2011
Boughton House Orpheus, design byKim Wilkie ©Charles-Hawes

“Perfect, Impressive, Majestic and Splendid. It is the sort of thing that makes one sigh from the pleasure of it all. And I did..

But…”

The High Line: more than the sum of its parts

February 14, 2011

“But it wasn’t Piet Oudolf who got most of the early press about the High Line. New Yorkers are far more interested in architects and landscape architects than garden designers, and in this case it was the elevated rail line itself, and its very costly rehabilitation, that was the focus of public and media hype. Now that the aerial garden has been opened to the public for over a year, the plantings themselves are garnering more public acclaim.”


A Crying Shame by Susan Cohan

January 4, 2011

“Despite my swagger, I’m a softy. I well up in tears when I am moved by something–not usually landscapes or gardens. In most professional situations, I am able to contain myself. At Lawrence Halprin’s Heritiage Plaza in Fort Worth I was not…”

Hidcote – a review by Barbara Taylor

December 22, 2010

“So, what did I think?

Initially I thought all the different views and vistas were fabulous; looking down little paths to a different area…..”

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