No comments about The Lure of the Japanese Garden.

1 comments about Landscapes of Privilege: The Politics of the Aesthetic in an American Suburb.

1. In this book, Nancy and James Duncan probe deeply into the landscape of the affluent town of Bedford Village, New York to expose its role in the production and "performance" of the townspeople's identity and the attendant social ramifications. The authors assert that class and status are at the heart of a series of struggles for control of Bedford Village's landscape. By insisting upon the retention of a particular aesthetic for the town, enforced through laws, zoning, advisory boards, and social pressure, the people of Bedford Village are for the most part able to successfully cloak class, race, and power struggles in aesthetic terms that are less volatile and seemingly apolitical. By this they manage to create and sustain a place-based identity that isn't always savory, although--and this is an important point--this would surprise the residents of Bedford as much as it would surprise many others who took such a hard look at where and how they live.
   
   The Duncans rightly place class at the center of Bedford's issues and, with almost equal force, money. This seems right as it pertains to Bedford, where houses cost up to millions of dollars and yet where there are long-time residents who, while living much more modestly, engage just as strenuously in the pressure to sustain the particular pastoral character of the town's landscape. But maintaining the "look" of the land masks other issues. In Chapter Two the Duncans assert that "[i]n capitalist societies...where identity is linked to possessions, the aesthetic often plays an important role in depoliticizing class relations" (p. 25). The residents of Bedford cling tightly to a vision of their town as a rural, historic, Colonial town and landscape, drawing from it all the symbolic force of the New England Village (cf Meinig) from which they claim to descend and using it as the primary locus and signifier of their identity. They resist at nearly every turn the pressures of development and modernization while taking full advantage of the amenities of the modern world just beyond the borders. To a great extent Bedford Village still looks rural, still has its pastoral charm and its romantic vistas. It even has dirt roads (maintained at great expense). This is (of course/ironically) what makes Bedford the perfect place to live. Its perfection _for a certain category of people_ is confirmed in the language of the real estate ads that amount to coded appeals to Anglo sensibilities, 19th-century English nostalgia, and an invented historicism. In sum, the web of issues that surround the production and sustenance of Bedford's landscape constitutes an aestheticized view of the world and is so powerful and pervasive it seems simply natural, without malice, "uncontestable" (p. ? --sorry).
   
   When class relations are centered on aesthetics, other consequences that reach into arenas beyond landscape and beyond the town are hidden even if they are unintended. Residents of Bedford frame the most important issues in terms of protecting the environment, protecting the rural character of the town, or protecting its historic structures, trees, and greenspaces; arguments typically accepted (here, in the U.S.) as benign, even noble. While the Duncans don't go so far as to say that they never are, it is fascinating to follow them as they probe how this framework obscures an inherent hegemony of class and, worse, can lead to a latent racism against "Guatemalans" in Chapter Eight. Bedford was largely built on exploited labor and is increasingly maintained by it, even if both facts are equally inadmissible to the dominant sensibility. Although "popping Bedford's bubble" wasn't the direct aim of the authors, by the end of the book I was convinced that nearly everything about Bedford was artificial in some way, the result of a complex interweaving of class and social forces that go mostly unnoticed. I especially like the authors' use of the term "performance" to describe the interplay of these forces and their materialization on and production through the landscape. It seems to strike squarely at how Bedford is more than just a place; it is the resulting effect of many individual "actors" including people, the land, the market, the immigrants, the history, the buildings, class relations, etc. In combination these constitute the thing that is "Bedford." In this way, every place is artificial (i.e., "denaturalized") if you want to think of it that way.
   
   The Duncans write clearly and forcefully and for the most part, jargon-free. They strive (as professional geographers at Cambridge) to retain an objective viewpoint. This book is not meant to tattle or to reduce people to sets of selfish causes. I imagine other places could have served as well, but in this book Bedford Village is taken as a case study upon which to build the theoretical argument that aesthetic claims serve as convenient and effective codes for political and cultural issues.

No comments about California Public Gardens: A Visitor's Guide.

2 comments about The Art of French Vegetable Gardening (Workman Artisan).

1. I read this book after stumbling across it at the library. I am going to purchase a copy because I think it is an invaluable reference for gardening and travel. I am plotting a course of the gardens described in the book and hope to tour some of them on my next trip to France. Thanks to Ms. Jones for a rewarding read and a visual treat.



2. This book strikes me most with its beautiful pictures. If you can stop thumbing through the pictures long enough to read, you will find that the format is user friendly, and there is useful information on many aspects of gardening. One of my favorite book to look through in the winter!

No comments about New Jersey's Great Gardens: A Four-Season Guide to 125 Public Gardens, Parks, and Arboretums.

3 comments about Gardens in the City: New York in Bloom.

1. Much cheaper than the cost of living there and much easier than the stress of visiting there, Gardens in the City: New York in Bloom, fulfills all your NYC fantasies with no litter or traffic in sight.



2. If you have a private roof deck, you have to check this book out. I started designing a garden on my roof and the photographs in this book were inspiring. If you don't have a roof deck, well, this is great for all those New Yorkers who wonder just what is on top of some of New York's buildings (from high-rises to brownstone walkups).

   Happy Gardening!




3. Remarks by Gregory Long, Presdent of The New York Botanical Garden, spoken at Rockefeller University in May, 1999. "This book is truly a relevation. Who knew until Mary Jane Pool and Betsy Pinover Schiff revealed it to us, that there were so many varied and significant gardens in New York City? Who would have figured that New York City is probably the gardening capital of the world? Who among us know that we possess such a vast network of important designed places out-of-doors? Of course our park system is loved, but our garden system is a new idea... Gardens in the City: New York in Bloom is a celebration of our garden heritage and tradition in New York City. There's never been such a compilation in our history, and now that we can see our tradition so clearly, we are proud of it indeed."

2 comments about Great City Parks.

1. First of all let me state catagorically that this book is hella overpriced..it's a VERY thorough book on the parks the author decided to cover..quite an eclectic selection. Where was the Bois de Bologne, Hyde Park, Fairmont Park, Hermann Park, Golden Gate Park...???..For this amount of money, I would expect every major urban park in the world to be included..certainly more of the great American Parks...and frankly Hyde Park and the Bois are arguably the most famous in the world, the great Central Park, Prospect Park, and the Teirgarten are included thankfully, but this is hardly comprehensive, the parks he does cover, he goes very indepth and the images are adequate..but get real, the price of this book is in a word: outrageous



2. An invaluable reference book for those interested in urban park design. Tate has surveyed 20 city parks in Western Europe and North America ranging from tiny Paley Park New York to the whole of the Minneaplois Park system. He has described each systematically under the heads of History, Development, Planning and Design, Management and Usage, and Plans for the future, and then drawn conclusions.

   He knows his stuff; he sent out questionnaires to the parks managers in 1987 and 1998 and the book is generously illustated in colour with photographs by the late Martin Jones, again taken over two decades. This is a bit of a labour of love, Tate's magnus opus is a must for any academic landscape or planning library. It is not a light read, nor is it a historical account of park design (though the the page 1 thumbnail ouline of two centuires of park design on page 1 is a model of its kind). But it does give a fair and impartial landscape architect's critique.

   Each park is accompanied by a line plan. It's a bit pricey and very Anglo-Saxon in world view, but if this is really your subject then do buy it or order a copy for your library. Pity to mix metric and imperial, and Richard Haag's Gasworks Park in Seattle (see p.114) was not the source of the Latzs' design for Duisburg Nord Landschaftspark (Latz's Hafeninsel Burgerpark, Saarbrucken from the 1980's was the source).

3 comments about Practical Golf Course Maintenance: The Magic of Greenkeeping.

1. A couple of years ago, I purchased a small golf course in California. I knew nothing about how to keep a golf course in good shape much less improve it. When my superintendent quit, I was up the proverbial creek. I turned to this book for help. It is a great book for those who have had minimal or no exposure to how to keep up the various parts (green, tee boxes, fairways, rough, bunkers, etc.) of a golf course. While I probably won't act as superintendent for very long, I feel armed now with basic greenkeeping knowledge, and it is recommended (and soon to be required) reading for all of my course and clubhouse workers.



2. While perhaps limited to the basics, Witteveen's text is well organized and comprehensive enough to assure that I'll achieve my professional goal of being promoted from Assistant Greenskeeper to Head Greenskeeper within 6 years. In fact, in my opinion, it's on par with Chuck Shick's seminal treatise on the subject. One nitpicky point is that the treatment of cinch bugs, manganese, nitrogen and gophers (and other varmint menaces to the golfing industry) is far too brief. Also, more advanced topics such as the theory and practice of inventing your own type of grass would be welcome. Overall, though, it is top notch!



3. This book is best suited for the first-time greenskeeper or a greens committee member. It contains basic processes such as top-dressing and stays away from specifics like optimal mower height settings for greens. In addition, this book stays away from prescribing remidies for such things as excessive thatch buildup or constant fungus problems. If all you want are the very basics in management practices then buy this book. If you are searching for innovative and detailed turf management applications then you will need to supplement this book with other references.

No comments about Successful Small Gardens.

No comments about Northwest Landscaping: A Practical Guide to Creati.