The English Country House Garden

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Buy on Amazon Buy on Waterstones.com
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app

1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date 2 Oct 2018 | Archive Date 9 Oct 2018

Talking about this book? Use #TheEnglishCountryHouseGarden #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!


Description

This revised and updated smaller hardback edition of the 2014 classic and best-selling The English Country House Garden is a welcome, affordable and attractive format. The first edition has sold 9k copies worldwide at £30 and this £18.99 smaller hardback edition is a giftable classic.


There is something special about the English country house garden: from its quiet verdant lawns to its high yew hedges, this is a style much-desired and copied around the world. The English country house is most often conceived as a private, intimate place, a getaway from working life. A pergola, a sundial, a croquet lawn, a herbaceous border of soft planting; here is a space to wander and relax, to share secrets, and above all to enjoy afternoon tea. But even the most peaceful of gardens also take passion and hard work to create.

This new book takes a fresh look at the English country house garden, starting with the owners and the stories behind the making of the gardens. Glorious photographs capture the gardens at their finest moments through the seasons, and a sparkling and erudite text presents twenty-five gardens - some grand, some personal, some celebrated, some never-before-photographed - to explore why this garden style has been so very enduring and influential. From the Victorian grandeur of Tyntesfield and Cragside, to the Arts & Crafts simplicity of Rodmarton Manor and Charleston; from Scampston, in the same family since the 17th century, to new gardens by Dan Pearson and Tom Stuart-Smith; and with favourites such as Hidcote and Great Dixter alongside new discoveries, this book will be a delicious treat for garden-lovers.

This revised and updated smaller hardback edition of the 2014 classic and best-selling The English Country House Garden is a welcome, affordable and attractive format. The first edition has sold 9k...


Marketing Plan

Key Selling Points:

  • Travel around the British Isles discovering the best island gardens in this visually stunning tour.
  • Packed with the best ideas, tips and techniques to grow plants in island conditions.
  • Follow in the author's footsteps using her detailed travel notes, producing the ultimate travel guide

 
 
Key Campaign Activity

  • Marketing and publicity campaign at gardening, luxury and homes media
  • Giveaways at Goodreads and select gardening media
  • Include in Quarto B2C and B2B campaign
  • Create sell-sheet for specialty sales accounts

 
Publicity/Media:

  • National Gardening and Related Print Magazines
  • Newspapers
  • Key Websites and Blogs
  • Regional Magazines with Gardening Coverage
  • Garden Center/Wholesalers media
  • Book Trade
  • Radio – Local & Syndicated Programs
  • Trade Review

Key Selling Points:

  • Travel around the British Isles discovering the best island gardens in this visually stunning tour.
  • Packed with the best ideas, tips and techniques to grow plants in island...

Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780711239760
PRICE US$28.00 (USD)
PAGES 208

Average rating from 15 members


Featured Reviews

If live gardens and gardening this is the book for you.
Full of ineteresting information and lovely pictures it made me dream fo visiting the illustrated gardens.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this arc

Was this review helpful?

Highlighting several of the well-known English country house gardens along with many lesser known ones, George Plumptre weaves a fastastic story. In The English Country House Garden, he interlinks each gardens with a theme and then shares the heritage, construction and special elements of the individual landscape! With amazing photography accompanying each, it’s like taking a walk through xx gardens! I, of course, wanted more photos, more on each garden, it was like have a tantalising taste of a main course! I had no idea I liked English country house gardens so much or that I would be inspired to implement several ideas, on, albeit, a much smaller scale, in my own garden!

Favourite gardens for me were:

Folly Farm: that water feature up to the house, amazing as are the foxgloves
Broughton Castle: I’m fascinated by the idea of gardening over and around moats
Goodnestone Park: the Jane Austen connection!
Lullingstone Castle: a world garden representing plants from different countries in different rooms
Seend Manor: taking the walled garden concept to a whole new level!

Despite being a non-fiction book, I whizzed through this one, thoroughly absorbing and highly recommended! Five out of five!

Was this review helpful?

The English Country House Garden by George Plumptre is a pictorial collection of the best English country gardens. Plumptre is an English author, journalist, and expert on gardening, formerly gardening correspondent for The Times, and since 2011, chief executive of the National Gardens Scheme.

I don't know much about country gardens. I was born and raised in the city and now living in the small yards of the suburbs. Gardening to me is more about tomatoes and peppers than about flowers. I have, however, visited and enjoyed botanical gardens. My interest in this book stems mainly from Vita Sackville-West the author and social rebel that settled down and became a world-class gardener. Her Sissinghurst Castle Garden is now part of the British National Trust. The chance to see more of this garden is the main reason I chose to read this book.

Sissinghurst is the second garden covered and one of the three essential gardens along with Hidcote in Gloucestershire and Great Dixter in East Sussex. Country gardens were an escape from the city and offered a retreat of sorts. The gardens typically are made of rooms with a central space and enclosed with plants and flowers. Paths separated Some of the rooms and paths appear quite chaotic when caught between seasons. Those rooms are not meant to be static and are planted to change with the season. Still, other gardens concentrate on open space and green like a French garden. Rousham House and Goodnestone Park are excellent examples of a cultivated open area with a sense of peace and freedom. Perhaps the most exciting gardens are those of Lullingstone Castle and Charleston. Here the gardens seem to overrun the man-made structures it has a very natural feel of nature reclaiming the land. The plants, however, are not the common weeds or invasive plants that reflect the beauty of nature.

English Country House Gardens is a richly illustrated book with detailed descriptions and histories of each of the two dozen gardens. The peace and tranquility of these gardens are expertly captured in the pages of this book. If one can't visit the gardens, this is your best opportunity.

Was this review helpful?

Is there anything more beautiful than an English garden in summer? I don’t think so, and with this book I was able to travel to some of England’s most famous and some it’s more obscure gardens. All beautiful, lush and swoon worthy. Accompanied by gorgeous photos, this is a must for any garden lover and Anglophile

Was this review helpful?

I actually have the original 2014 edition of this revised book. And I was lucky enough to live in the UK for several years and got to see firsthand a couple of these wonderful gardens.

This book has included talking to the owners and talking about the gardens, from images in the head to fulfilling the dream. These gardens are beautifully photographed. Gloucestshire has the perfect weather to be able to show off the flowers in their best.

Loved this book as much as the first! Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read and see the pre published book. I am homesick now!

Was this review helpful?

This is a new edition of the 2014 book and focuses on why the country house continues to become the apex of a designer’s aspirations. A garden is something we all seek to heal and replenish us, a sanctuary, a place of tranquility. This book shows the historical progression of gardens partnered with their houses. It is divided into: The Essentials, Unfolding History, Country House Garden Ideals, Personal Creations, and Contemporary Designs. This is a beautiful book of outstanding garden photography that look at a rich variety of country house gardens, their stories, styles, and personalities. Whether you have an estate or a small garden you can take away some of the designs and knowledge and appreciate this wonderful book.

Was this review helpful?

The English Country House Garden by George Plumptre has expanded my bucket list of gardens I would love to visit in England.
It conveys how each garden achieves its affects using their particular gardening styles by comparing a wide variety of England’s great public and private country gardens. Exploring how the gardens achieve harmony, the book covers how plants are grouped together, their forms, color and structure, the book also considers how they interact with the estate’s land features and buildings. Each garden reflects the personalities of those that tended them and lived in the houses they complement. Where some gardens were created in garden “rooms,” structures other designs drew on structures, shapes and colors in relation to each other or to enhance the features and homes they accompany and others were designed to be inclusive of the surrounding landscape.
The gardens are classified under diverse garden styles: classical, historical, country house, personal creations and contemporary designs. Under these chapters are the Hidcote, Sissinghurst, Great Dixter, Montacute House, Rousham House, Tyntesfield, Rodmarton House, Folly Farm, Broughton Castle, Goodnestone Park, Kiftsgate Court, Trebah, Cothay Manor, Helmingham Hall, Spencers, Charleston, Exbury, Thorp Perrow, Felley Priory, Lullingstone Castle, Scampston Hall, Seend Manor, East Ruston Old Vicarage, Broughton Grange, The Old Rectory, and Gloucestershire gardens.
The photography is remarkable and exceptionally demonstrates the words points about the gardens in each chapter. They can, however, be difficult to see in the Kindle edition. I wish there were more of them but, based off of the side notes, I expect the final version will include more.

Was this review helpful?

Beautiful book on estate gardens. Notes on the planners and overall plan of these gardens. Not a practical how-to or workbook, but wonderful for inspiration.

Was this review helpful?

This book is full to the brim of beauty. The pictures are breath taking and will have the person with the world's least green thumb dreaming of starting their own garden.

Thanks to Quarto Publishing Group – White Lion Publishing and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are fully mine!

#TheEnglishCountryGarden #NetGalley

Was this review helpful?

Sollten man die Möglichkeit haben, sollte man anhand dieses guides die englischen Gärten besuchen. Andernfalls ist es ein zauberhaftes Buch über Gärten, deren Gestaltung und was man aus diversen Bepflanzungen alles machen kann.

Was this review helpful?

This book will transport you from your sofa or wherever you are reading into a lush English Country Garden filled with magical arrangements of flowers and foliage. I could have spent all day looking at the wonderful photos in this book and reading about the heritage and history of them. If you enjoy beauty, then you would do well to get yourself a copy of this amazing book.

I enjoyed learning about the founders of these gardens and felt a sense of amazement at how they have been preserved over the years, many of them by the same families. England is full of history and this proves that once again. I loved this book and look forward to reading it again.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher, provided through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Was this review helpful?

A glorious book for garden gazers and a basic introduction to the history, style and people involved in England's best known gardens,

Was this review helpful?

“The English Country House Garden” by George Plumptre is a lush, lovely, revised and updated smaller hardback edition of the 2014 bestseller. Gorgeous photos and a lively text highlight 25 of the best British gardens in their finest seasons. A wonderful gift for those with green thumbs and readers wishing to travel the British Isles while exploring the most glorious gardens. Includes best practices for growing plants in island conditions. 5/5

Pub Date 01 Oct 2018

Thanks to Quarto Publishing Group - White Lion Publishing and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are fully mine.

#TheEnglishCountryHouseGarden #NetGalley

Was this review helpful?

Readers who liked this book also liked: