Media Reviews

Reviews of the The Garden by Graham Rice, Deborah Bird,and Bridget Rosewell.

February 6, 2012

A few months ago the RHS magazine The Garden had a major revamp and it seemed right to review the results. A little time has gone past, but the evaluation is of several copies. I wanted to get a spread of reaction and am grateful that I was able to do that. We have Graham Rice, [...]

Alan Titchmarsh’s Garden Secrets: review

November 12, 2010

“Why do they have to turn everything into a banal makeover program? ‘…Oh yes – I’ll have a trompe l’oeil window in my hedge’.”

The Garden Magazine Market is Skewed

September 20, 2009

A review of garden magazines by Matthew Appleby.

Sissinghurst – BBC4 reviewed by Darryl Moore

May 3, 2009

“Ultimately the over-egged, warts-and-all approach to the fractious situation failed to be convincing….”

Gardener’s World – 3rd April 2009

April 6, 2009

thinkinGardens asked Matthew Appleby to review Gardener’s World.
“Trendy efforts such as fast cuts and (2007 vintage) Kate Nash music does not stop the show being one presented by a middle-aged man in a red anorak with a bald spot (on his head, not the coat).”

Latest Articles and Reviews
- Bloggery by Emma Bond
  
  Garden blogs have become a vital and exciting – and deadly and boring – part of the garden world in the last few years. It seems time to review them and consider what they have to offer to serious gardeners, and the first reviews will appear here in a few weeks time. Here is Emma [...]
- Naturalistic Planting is anything but, by Michael King
  
  There has been a great deal of animated discussion recently about what a ‘meadow’ is in a garden context and I think this is a subject well worth clarifying a little better. It is clearly related in people’s minds to prairie planting, naturalistic planting, perennial planting and perhaps other confusing terms. Michael King, co-author with Piet [...]
- The 9/11 Memorial Park in New York reviewed by Sheppard Craige
  
  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. [...]
- More books on Italian Gardens reviewed by Charles Hawes
  
  Charles Hawes has a weakness for Italian Gardens and never misses a good opportunity to visit them. I think he’d quite like to take a tour of other interested garden visitors some day. Meanwhile, he is contenting himself with collecting books about them, and reviewing the books for thinkingardens. So here you are – more [...]
- Parks or Gardens? by Alison Levey.
  
  We (Charles Hawes and I) have been puzzled for years about why people rave about Rousham. In fact so puzzled that we’ve been back more than once to try and work it out. Pleasant enough – apart from the miserable rose garden, grotty green stagnant pool, shredded hostas and a statue of a horse being eaten [...]