It's that time of year again, when we settle in to watch some winter movies, where plants play the starring role! This year I've chosen Monty Don's BBC series "American Gardens". He has profiled other great gardens of the world, and visited gardens in North, Central and South America in Around the World in 80 Gardens. I always enjoy his perspective and insights on gardens and the landscape. Grab your popcorn and join me as we visit American gardens with Monty Don!
In this episode Monty Don asks whether America has contributed to garden design, and goes in search of the typical American garden style. He starts his tour at the Prairie Garden Trust in New Bloomfield, Missouri, which was started in the 1980s to preserve the beauty of the original American grasslands. From there, Don travels to the Lurie Garden at Millennium Park in Chicago (designed by Dutch landscape designer, Pieter Oudolf, and inspired by the prairies). In New York, Don visits Central Park, a roof top veg patch in Brooklyn, one of the Target Bronx Community Gardens, the New York Flower market (and avant garde florist, Emily Thompson), and strolls The Highline (an elevated train track repurposed as a city park, also inspired by the prairie style).
On Long Island Monty Don visits restored wetlands and an artist's garden, and in Pennsylvania he encounters suburban gardens with big lawns (and sometimes picket fences), and tours several estate gardens including Chanticleer Gardens and the over-the-top Longwood Gardens. He ends his tour in New Jersey and The Garden at Federal Twist (also inspired by the prairie). Don concludes that the prairies continue to have an impact on American gardens, but that no one style captures the American garden style. Instead, American gardens capture the optimism and pioneer spirit of Americans. Nicely stated!
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