Green Thoughts and Memories

Horticulture has been a core subject for photographer Marina Schinz throughout her career. This found expression in her previous books, Visions of Paradise, The Gardens of Russell Page, and A Tuscan Paradise. Visiting and photographing countless gardens around the world made her engage in gardening herself and culminated in major garden design projects for her houses, first in Westchester County (New York), then in the Hudson Valley (New York), and finally near Piacenza in Italy.

In Green Thoughts and Memories, Schinz looks back at her gardening adventures, interweaving horticultural observations with memoirs of her childhood in Zurich. Entertaining and engaging at the same time, full of practical considerations, and rendered with humor and philosophy, the book offers an unconventional appreciation of garden art. It conveys basic knowledge to put budding gardeners and rank beginners on the road to planting a mere tree or starting an entire garden. In 12 chapters, it explores all the elements of gardening, such as weather, soil, labor, planning, flowers, shrubs, and more.

Richly illustrated in full color throughout with Schinz’s photographs of famous and unknown gardens around the world, this beautiful volume will appeal to anyone with a love of plants and gardens, or with a desire to create a personal paradise.