BOOK REVIEWS

The Defined Garden

Paul Bangay
Photos by Simon Griffiths
Published by Penguin Viking
$NZ45.00

ACROSS the Tasman Paul Bangay is something of a household name when it comes to creating gardens with style.

In this large-format book the young landscape designer walks the reader through a number of his projects, many of them for the grander breed of Aussie garden.

There's a bit more to this book than just "wallpaper", though. Bangay's text gives a glimpse into the way a top designer must approach a job - what must be taken into account in the forbidding task of integrating the various elements of a large job to ensure a harmonious outcome.

"A successful garden," he says, "has a strong sense of identity: each component of the design has a purpose, either aesthetic of practical; and all elements work together to achieve a coherent whole."

The garden that is perhaps the easiest to relate to is that of his mother, the last one dealt with. Bangay grew up in this garden and saw it evolve through various styles. Deciding that, along the way, the form had been lost, they decided to start from scratch. The result appears tantalisingly stunning. It's a pity there aren't more pictures of it. The Defined Garden will attract the design buff or those trawling for ideas for a garden revamp.

Reproduced with permission from the former Weekend Gardener magazine. The views expressed here are not necessarily those of the RNZIH