What do you think?
Rate this book
Bunny Williams On Garden Style
First published in 1998, On Garden Style established Bunny Williams as a reputable expert on gardens. In Bunny Williams on Garden Style, Williams visits impeccably designed gardens around the world, shedding light on the key components that make a garden so appealing and idyllic. For Williams, gardens offer an escape, and she imparts vital information on how to envision your garden and design a space that translates into a lush sanctuary reflecting your taste and style. Once you’ve imagined your garden, Williams offers advice for bringing it to fruition—the garden structure,” furnishing the space, and establishing an aesthetic. The book also includes plant lists, a reading list, and more. Filled with new photography of spectacular gardens, this latest volume is both a wonderful inspiration and a practical guide to gardening from one of the world’s most renowned design experts.
Also available from Bunny Williams: An Affair with a House and A House by the Sea.
Also available from Bunny Williams: An Affair with a House and A House by the Sea.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published February 11, 1998
107 people are currently reading
109 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 11, 2021
This oversized coffee table book is a cornucopia of written knowledge and visual delights! For someone who had to be coaxed into writing this book, Bunny has done a stellar job.
Starting out as she works in the office of an interior design company she recalled childhood times of fresh veggies eating off the vine and thus began her again for a back to nature adventure. She and hubby rented a cottage in Connecticut and started on their learning via catalogs and trial and error. They wound up buying a Connecticut house where they had carte blanche on what, where and when she did with the yard. She later even opened up her own garden store with a friend.
I loved her concept of a perennial border not being a garden any more than a couch is a room. Yes! Her interior design background took front and center in regards to how she designed her own yard and subsequent gardens therein.
Dressing the bones - what a fabulous analogy - she likens to runway models. Plant around the obvious with surprises..
There is near step by step to designing the garden, from the house on out, encompassing the neighbors as well as the neighborhood as a whole. (Some thing I refuse to do, more I set an example of what might be if they would only give up the ugliness of plain old grass.)
There are plenty of nods given to other gardeners and Gardens, both historically and of today.
Tips on designing garden rooms from the “ceiling” and walls down to the ground, including all the tchotchkes to whimsy it up a bit. The laying out of plans, be it by string, hose, flour, to mocking it up with pipe cleaners and cardboard. I also like her idea of using photos with tissue paper over to draw ideas on.
Select histories on certain gardens and styles are noted as well as photos from various Gardens she has visited internationally. In fact nearly every other page is a full color photo of a garden or a section there of.
Paragraphs on walls, fences, gates, terraces, decks, steps, and walkways as well as every other aspect involved in creating a fabulous garden. Garden rooms and special selections, as in the kitchen garden, (of which her own is super fabulous), are well thought out and explained.
Bringing up the end is of course the maintenance of your gorgeous creation and a few winter shots to show how even when the green is gone there is still beauty.
A list of US gardens, a plant list that is sectioned off as to use and where best suited and why, container planting schemes, further books suggestions and endnotes close this up as a start to finish, VERY informed and visually appealing book to add to your gardening collection.
Starting out as she works in the office of an interior design company she recalled childhood times of fresh veggies eating off the vine and thus began her again for a back to nature adventure. She and hubby rented a cottage in Connecticut and started on their learning via catalogs and trial and error. They wound up buying a Connecticut house where they had carte blanche on what, where and when she did with the yard. She later even opened up her own garden store with a friend.
I loved her concept of a perennial border not being a garden any more than a couch is a room. Yes! Her interior design background took front and center in regards to how she designed her own yard and subsequent gardens therein.
Dressing the bones - what a fabulous analogy - she likens to runway models. Plant around the obvious with surprises..
There is near step by step to designing the garden, from the house on out, encompassing the neighbors as well as the neighborhood as a whole. (Some thing I refuse to do, more I set an example of what might be if they would only give up the ugliness of plain old grass.)
There are plenty of nods given to other gardeners and Gardens, both historically and of today.
Tips on designing garden rooms from the “ceiling” and walls down to the ground, including all the tchotchkes to whimsy it up a bit. The laying out of plans, be it by string, hose, flour, to mocking it up with pipe cleaners and cardboard. I also like her idea of using photos with tissue paper over to draw ideas on.
Select histories on certain gardens and styles are noted as well as photos from various Gardens she has visited internationally. In fact nearly every other page is a full color photo of a garden or a section there of.
Paragraphs on walls, fences, gates, terraces, decks, steps, and walkways as well as every other aspect involved in creating a fabulous garden. Garden rooms and special selections, as in the kitchen garden, (of which her own is super fabulous), are well thought out and explained.
Bringing up the end is of course the maintenance of your gorgeous creation and a few winter shots to show how even when the green is gone there is still beauty.
A list of US gardens, a plant list that is sectioned off as to use and where best suited and why, container planting schemes, further books suggestions and endnotes close this up as a start to finish, VERY informed and visually appealing book to add to your gardening collection.
November 15, 2013
What a beautiful, visually appealing book! Bunny Williams, the famed interior designer, also has a serious knack for designing outdoor spaces. Her advice is salient; her photos are very well chosen; and her choices of poems and quotes add such a pleasant, refined air to the process of garden planning. I also love that she drew heavily on the writings of Vita Sackville-West and Edith Wharton in her garden research. Although most of the gardens featured here would require a full-time gardener to maintain, there's lots of inspiration here. Recommended to people interested in plants.
July 5, 2025
informative, beautiful, deals more with garden form in relation to your surroundings, home, land, neighbors, garden art, furniture, than actual plants and color selections. Bunny Williams uses same approach for designing a garden as designing a room in a home, looking to a person's personality, wardrobe, style, habits. so many interesting things in this book on the basics of design.
May 12, 2017
Loved this book, I have a very large garden and it brought back all the years of planning, we are looking for new property and I can't wait to start all over again. Love formal gardens with classic lines and pieces, loads of wonderful pictures.
October 10, 2024
I learned. so. much. from. this. book. I’ve had ideas and have even lost sleep trying to figure out how to plan the landscape of the acreage we just purchased. This book helped me plan strategically as I thought about enclosure and garden rooms—height and color, etc.
December 31, 2017
I can't wait to get outside! This book has lots of inspirational photos and good ideas for planning your spring attack.
April 1, 2020
This is an inspiring book for late winter in the Midwest.
April 23, 2021
Didn’t give me the inspiration I was hoping for.
February 6, 2023
This book is almost as practical as it is beautiful.
June 30, 2016
Superb!!!' On Garden Style by Bunny Williams is a must read for any avid gardener or landscape artist. She shares her infinite knowledge of garden design in brief, well-organized contexts. A beautiful coffee-table book that will serve as a garden reference for years to come!
November 17, 2021
beautiful but too formal for my taste
August 28, 2015
Dreamy. Traditional gardens. Gorgeous photos. Not so much practical info.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews