This book is a work of art. It is beautiful, giftable book all about the gardens created by Patrick Watson. The book is one of those stunners, created for coffee tables everywhere, written with Garrett Van Niekerk, photography by Elsa Young and Artworks by Heidi Fourie.
Patrick Watson is a National Treasure, who creates incredible gardens out of the veld. These are not small urban gardens, there are those, but what astonished me was vast gardens spread over hectares. To create a vision for a garden on the scale of the restoration project at Spier Estate in Stellenbosch or the jungles of the Lost City in the Pilansberg, to the minimalist garden of the iSTORE in Sandton.
The gardens in this book are beyond comprehension and the genius behind them that has to consider the art, the biology and ecology of creating these incredible landscapes.
Struik Nature, the publisher had a wonderful launch at Kirstenbosch Gardens, with an opportunity to meet and greet the man himself, and the author.
A fantastic spread of eats and treats…
And an evening of anecdotes and memories of how they created the book together… how Patrick creates dream gardens for his clients, listening to their ideas and then putting them into practice; how he visualises a future garden, creates it and then let’s it “lose” to grow into itself. Literally magic of the horticultural kind.
I love the photography in this book, the thoughtfulness that went into creating the photographs through the seasons, including views from above so that one can get a vision of the entire garden. There is simplicity and complexity, a book of contrasts and yet, harmony and all the details beautifully captured in spread after, full colour spread.
I love that this book includes lots of lovely biographical insights, as well as “tricks of the trade,” like why would a landscaper throw coloured sticks across the veld? For the avid gardener there are plant lists, this is a lovely book to dip into, a fabulous read and inspirational photography. Veld, is a great addition to the landscape of coffee tables, taking the reader behind the scenes of well known and private gardens, far and wide.
This book was published by Struik Nature. This is not a sponsored post and opinions expressed are entirely our own.