Mary Keen

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 [...]