The Authentic Garden: Five Principles for Cultivating a Sense of Place

by Claire E. Sawyers

What makes a garden "authentic"? For American gardeners, this question can be vexing. Because America is a comparatively young nation, it hasn't had much time to develop an indigenous garden style. Gardeners have tended to turn to other national traditions--such as Italy's, Japan's, or England's--for inspiration. The unhappy result of this piecemeal stylistic borrowing has been the creation of gardens that bear no relationship to local landscapes and history, and that have no connection with our daily lives.

Clair Sawyers shows this tendency can be reversed: how we can create gardens that are both deeply rooted in their surroundings and deeply satisfying to their creators and owners. Drawing on her knowledge of a vast array of American and foreign gardens, she identifies five principles that help instill a sense of authenticity: capture the sense of place, derive beauty from function, use humble or indigenous materials, marry the inside to the outside, and involve the visitor.

Practical and inspiring, "The Authentic Garden" will enable the reader to make a garden that is true to a specific time, place, and culture; to capture and reflect an authentic spirit so that the garden, in turn, will nurture the spirit of those who cherish and dwell in it.

Genres: Gardening, Horticulture

285 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2007

Reviews

[Juli Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A refreshing, place-based perspective on garden design. I can't wait to incorporate Sawyers's advice in my soon-to-be garden!

[Chris Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book for the beginner, the hobbyist, and the professional. One doesn't need a wide knowledge of plants to grasp the concepts of this book, making it a great book for a wide audience. In fact, this is a great book to read before even selecting plants. The Authentic Garden is a forward-thinking horticultural book and deserves 5 stars.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well to be perfectly honest I mostly just looked at the pictures in this book. It has a lot of pictures illustrating the five main principles that the author suggests (and I would agree) are necessary for an 'authentic' garden.
- Capture the sense of place
- Derive beauty from function
- Use Humble materials
- Marry the inside to the outside
- Involve the visitor
It doesn't tell you which plants to plant where, nor how to look after them. It's a broad sweep of these principles with, like I said, lots of photos of examples.
The book is aimed squarely and unashamedly at an American readership, which is fantastic if you're American, or living in America...

[Linnae · Rating 2 out of 5]

I admired her principles, especially the idea of using materials and plants that are native to your area or have have meaning for you, rather than trying to import an exotic look, but her examples and applications tended toward large public spaces or equally large estates. It started out by talking about "when you design your home..." If we all had the money to design our own homes or spend thousands of dollars re-doing landscaping, I'm sure it would all be much more authentic and beautiful. There was not nearly as much about working with what you have on a [much] smaller scale.

I liked it better when I stopped reading and just looked at the pictures.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent.
A common sense book yet one that inspires and provokes thought.
Written from an American point of view, which is no bad thing, but the five principles are transferable to any garden, any time, any where.