The Good Garden

Reviews / Votes

'These two landscape architects had served as ever-patient mentors in my early days of garden writing for Newsday, on Long Island, when I hardly knew a perennial from a petunia, and later for the New York Times, when I was stretching out into writing about public parks, environmental restoration and landscape architecture. No question was too small. No time too busy. For the months we were working on The Good Garden, we three spent a few hours every week talking about the essence of good design. For instance, they may plant an allee of Natchez crepe myrtles marching down to a Hamptons beach because these icons of such Southern cities as Charleston and Savannah are tolerant of salt winds and lean soils. Or they may use a single London plane tree, with its high spreading branches, as an airy ceiling for a summer terrace. And they'd be loath to bulldoze a cluster of wild cherry trees, their trunks and limbs sculpted by the wind, as other designers might do in order to create an uninterrupted lawn.' - Anne Raver, 1st Dibs' Introspective Magazine


'Known for his prolific work on the estates of New York's Long Island, Edmund Hollander creates grand gardens to embrace the palatial homes that dot the enclaves of the Hamptons: majestic oak allees leading to shingled manses, sharply sculpted hedges ringing sleek contemporary piles. In The Good Garden, Hollander explores the alchemy that connects landscape to residence. The volume, helpfully divided into sections by element - such as borders, hedges, and pool plantings - offers verdant insight into the poetic ways nature can improve and enhance architecture. It's lush, leafy escapism of the highest order.' - Veranda


'Large or small, a pool under the sun is the quintessence of summertime in the Hamptons. In his new book, The Good Garden, Manhattan- and Hamptons-based landscape architect Edmund Hollander has gathered some of the memorable pools and adjoining gardens he and his firm have created during the past several decades. From an infinity-edge masterpiece with a glass wall overlooking the ocean to a simple in-ground pool, Hollander stresses 'understanding the human, natural, and architectural ecology of a site.' - Hamptons Cottages & Gardens


'Flip through for breathtaking examples of their layered, nuanced approach, whether the subject is a gorgeous allee of cherry trees supplying seductive cover for a house, a clipped privet hedge providing an architectural backdrop for a large sculpture, or a dreamy profusion of flowering plants enclosing a swimming pool.' - Town & Country