Book Review: On Garden Style by Bunny Williams

I come back to this book again and again, every time I feel stuck with what to do next in the garden.

If I remember correctly, On Garden Style by Bunny Williams was the first gardening book I ever purchased. I can’t really even say I purchased it, because I bought it with a gift card my sister gave me for my birthday, but that’s neither here nor there, really.

I picked it up for the coffee table value of its beautiful cover, long since destroyed by two small children.

In some ways, it was kind of a funny first gardening book, since it was written by a famous interior designer, not a horticulturalist or landscape architect, but I’m actually very glad I found it first. This book is the perfect starting point for someone who wants a framework or a way to think about outdoor living in the space you own.

No plant lists or specific combinations recommended. Light on latin botanical names. Written in an engaging style for a true amateur.

And fantastic photography.

This is the book I pulled out again when we bought our new house. It’s my starting point. It helps me break 1.5 acres down into a first step, and then a next step, and develop a vision for my space. And the principles can be applied whether you have a patio or rolling pastures.

Here area a few of my favorites quotes:

“In search of atmosphere: What the garden lacked, of course, was structure. These were plants plunked down in the middle of the lawn without any rhyme or reason. Our little plot did qualify as a garden—the foxgloves grew, and I had wonderful bouquets each weekend for the house—but it was not beautiful. The plot had no relation to the house, no shape, no backdrop. And clearly no style.”

“Structure not only enhances a garden, it is a garden as much as anything you plant within it.”

“I’m asking you to reframe the popular notion, held by many Americans, of what a garden is. Too often a perennial border is equated with a garden: that’s comparable to mistaking a couch for a room. I’m asking you to think about the room first, and then decide how you will furnish it.”

"Enclosure, more than any other aspect, separates the garden room from the great outdoors. The very qualities we see in our homes—privacy, serenity, and intimacy—can be approached in nature by creating ‘walls.’”

“Before you put pencil to paper, it’s important to start with some basic understandings. You must find what you truly love and want in a garden, and you must understand the strengths and weaknesses of your property. You also have to realistically assess how much time you can give to maintaining a garden.”

“Those of us who garden on a small scale in flat rectangles or pie-shaped wedges, in subdivisions where the original landscape has long been lost, must use our own wits to create some gardening brilliance. In the absence of the land’s strong features guiding us in a specific direction, we have to create our own ‘incidents’ and our own views rather than respond to picturesque features that nature has already endowed. The simple act of enclosing your space sets you in that direction.”

“In our small American gardens, the landscaping must respond to the house in some way: proximity demands it. Look to the style of your home for direction. It will help you rule out designs that are wrong from the beginning.”

“Since everyone needs a place to sit and view the garden, and since a terrace works as a transition from house to nature, that may be the first room you plan. The rest of the garden rooms can evolve from that point, becoming perhaps less formal as you proceed away from the house into wilder gardens.”

“Don’t be afraid to edit: it’s often the better part of landscaping an old home.”

“I am not a purist who believes only native plant material should be used in a garden or that all gardens in one area of the country should look alike. But I do believe in growing what’s happy in my part of the world.”

“So much of designing is picture-making. The window and door act as frames for your view of the garden.”

“If you’ve recently purchased a home, it’s advisable before you plan a new garden to go through one whole year’s cycle. See where the sun falls in afternoons and what springs up next to the house before you tear into the yard.”

“Sometimes we miss the most pleasant views by only looking out from the house.”

And those are just my favorite quotes from the introductory chapters! The book gets practical with wisdom for creating garden rooms, with everything from creating “walls” and a “ceiling” overhead, to paths, passageways, hardscaping materials and furniture, and planting.

It’s great book to pick up for a beginner, or to help you structure your mind as you pursue a new project in an established garden.