Foreword

The loose informality of planting below the Rosa glauca all but hides the sturdy oak gate in the old wall. Softly clipped Quercus ilex draw the eye and suggest there is more to discover.

Rare is the garden book, like this one, that makes the reader feel personally included as a friend in a long conversation with the writer. We set out with the author Jinny Blom as she interweaves early family experiences, including childhood visits to Hidcote Manor and an uncle’s vineyard in France, and moves inextricably, though unexpectedly at first, to a full-blown life as a landscape designer on an international scale. Her education evolves from the worlds of literature and the arts, as well as previous work as a psychologist, and frequent references say to Thomas Hardy or Cy Twombly and others reveal the breadth of her intrinsic knowledge.

Like Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, whom she lauds for his estate management in the 18th century, Blom is herself a cultural geographer who scopes out the historical features of paths, gates and antiquated farm buildings on a given property prior to drawing up a plan that proceeds almost instantaneously, a process fascinating to follow. Whether in town or country, with either single or multiple garden areas, Blom establishes architectural enclosures, like Cotswold drystone walls, prior to the overlay of her signature, beautifying horticulture, thus creating what she calls ‘environments for intimate experiences’.

In the end, Blom radiates a humanistic approach to landscape design, combining her fascination with physical traces from former lives with her ultimate concern for present owners and the transforming effects of gardens. While she subscribes to traditional features like topiary, pleaching and espaliered fruit trees, and stitches together native plants with other ornamental species and grasses with year-round interest, her romantic borders possess a contained but natural simplicity that speaks of modernity. By generously sharing her theories, and teaching us how to read the land, Blom has set forth an unforgettable, sui generis narrative that thankfully demonstrates that she is, in her own words, ‘unmoved by fashion’.

Paula Deitz

Editor, The Hudson Review