I have several gardening books tucked away in my library, and many of them focus on European garden designs, so it was a natural curiosity when I saw Louisa Jones book Mediterranean Gardens – A Model for Good Living in a local shop, to add it to my collection.
It is a compact little book just 144 pages, including acknowledgements and recommended reading. There are seven chapters covering such topics as pleasure gardening, gardening art and natural histories, and the author includes on around every 4th page, a quote from another author, accompanied by a full page picture.
It is a pleasant, light and visually pleasing read and if there was anything that I really did enjoy, it was the additional quotes that she included – from John Keates, Henri Bosco, Colette to Edith Wharton and Pierre Lieutaghi, and many others.
As a guide to Mediterranean Gardening, there are much more detailed books on the market, but there is no doubt that Louisa has a love and a passion for the colours, structure and presence of Mediterranean gardens, and I think she captures that here. It is a ‘pretty’ book and would make an ideal present the passionate gardener who, likes to take a little time to sit under the shade of a leafy tree in their garden and let their mind drift…..
The author has a significant list of other titles which you may choose to consider.
The book was published by Bloomings Books Pty Ltd (a specialist in gardening and natural history titles) in 2013.
