Secret Gardens of Santa Fe

Fülszöveg

^'An incredible book that captures the light, the colors, the seasons — the sense of beauty that pervades this 'land of enchantment/ I found it utterly absorbing — and I learned more about the place I call home Anyone interested in gardening or nature in the Southwest will find this book fascinating"
Mark Miller
Chef and author of The Indian Market Cookbook

SECRET GARDENS OF SANTA FE
Sydney LeBlanc photographs by Charles Mann
I 1 he exuberant and brilliantly colored gardens of Santa
I Fe, hidden behind adobe walls, are at the heart of a city known throughout the world for its natural beauty. The features of these dramatic gardens— their intimate courtyards and walkways meandering through terraced, curving beds of flowers, leading to extraordinary vistas—reflect the regions Nadve American, Mexican, Spanish, and southwestern history and culture, as well as its ongoing love affeir with art. And while continuing as enclaves of the old-world romanticism so essential to Santa... Tovább

Fülszöveg

^'An incredible book that captures the light, the colors, the seasons — the sense of beauty that pervades this 'land of enchantment/ I found it utterly absorbing — and I learned more about the place I call home Anyone interested in gardening or nature in the Southwest will find this book fascinating"
Mark Miller
Chef and author of The Indian Market Cookbook

SECRET GARDENS OF SANTA FE
Sydney LeBlanc photographs by Charles Mann
I 1 he exuberant and brilliantly colored gardens of Santa
I Fe, hidden behind adobe walls, are at the heart of a city known throughout the world for its natural beauty. The features of these dramatic gardens— their intimate courtyards and walkways meandering through terraced, curving beds of flowers, leading to extraordinary vistas—reflect the regions Nadve American, Mexican, Spanish, and southwestern history and culture, as well as its ongoing love affeir with art. And while continuing as enclaves of the old-world romanticism so essential to Santa Fe's charm—lush with roses, lilacs, and fresh bouquets—the gardens incorporate experiments with native plants, painting with chamisa, sage, and sunflowers, a new image of what constitutes beauty in the garden.
This book leads the reader through eighteen of the loveliest private gardens in Santa Fe and tours one of the city's oldest horticultural treasures, the public garden at El Zaguan that has been restored to its former glory by the Historic Santa Fe Foundation. In stunning color photographs, the carved doors and gates of these gardens open to the reader, revealing fantastic, eclectic, naturalisric oases amid the dusty roads of the high desert environment. Among these are Sol y Sombra, the former Georgia O'Keeffe estate that is now an ecological wonderland, as well as the baroque garden of Ford Ruthling, a painter whose garden "rooms" include his own creations, the folk art of New Mexico, and a tumultuous abundance of poppies, cosmos, and sunflowers. Elizabeth Berry tills a site that borders the land of the Navajo, bringing heirloom produce, rich with long-lost flavors, textures, and colors, back to the tables of Santa Fes finest restaurants, supplying Mark Miller of the Coyote Cafe, Katherine Kagel of Cafe Pasqual s,, and other noted chefs of the area.
Gardeners learn to be especially creative and adventurous in and around Santa Fe, where days are hot, nights are cold, and water is precious. This treasured liquid, so critical to the history of the West, is a source of delight in virtually all Santa Fe gardens, from the "dry waterfeUs" of the Bartos Zen garden to the artfiJ fountains, springs and grottoes, and irrigation acequias that weave a cool thread through these pages.
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These are gardens that are havens, made to be lived in for up to nine months of the year. Many are carved from hillsides, taking their cues from the contours of the site. A stroll through the gardens with the most dramatic terracing yields striking contrasts of perspective, as views of mountain scenery alternate with the nearly miniature scale of garden alcoves, replete with santos—carved wooden statues—against the neutral background of earth-colored adobe walls. Many of the garden owners were once typical newcomers to Santa Fe: visitors who came back again and again, until they finally came to stay. This Santa Fe spell can still be felt in the original, idiosyncratic, and delightful gardens now open to the readers of this volume.
Sydney LeBlaNC, who lives in New York, is the author of The Whitney Guide to 20th Century American Architecture. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times.
Charles Mann is a plant specialist and garden photographer living in Santa Fe. His photographs have appeared in such magazines as Sunset Fine Gardening, and in publications by Time Life and Fulcrum. Vissza