Hicks: My Kind of Garden

This book is a very personal collection of David Hick' favourite gardens; the ones that were to inspire him to pick up his tools, and start ordering the landscape into something more desirable. This is the man who gave us the tablescape and who once described himself as ‘undoubtedly the best known interior designer in the world'. This statement sets the tone for the book: some may find it pompous and self righteous but it does give the reader an insight into Hicks' ordered mind. Sadly the author died before completing this book but his son, Ashley, took over the reins and made it a lasting testimony to this talented man.

David Hicks' life was spent working with houses and their interiors and it wasn't until the 1980s that he turned his eye to gardening, giving gardens that strictly linear treatment for which his interiors are renown. His love of formality and symmetry is there for all to see. Lovers of the Picturesque would shudder at his words, 'I find almost tragic the work of "Capability" Brown who destroyed so many fine avenues and marvellous English gardens'.

The photographs by Dana Hyde, the acclaimed international garden photographer, are exceptional and on the strength of these, propel the book into the super bracket. The photographs are interspersed with some of Hicks' own, which in comparison lack lustre but fortunately, there are not many of them.

The book is divided into sections charting the influences on Hicks as his burgeoning love of gardening developed. The reader is guided through the gardens he admired. Hidcote, Sissinghurst and John Fowler's Hunting Lodge at Odiham were his favourites; all designed by men which he makes a point of mentioning. Are women garden designers only good for billowing, flowery borders? The female plantsmen of our times are given credit (amongst others, Hobhouse, Lennox-Boyd and Verey). A chapter covers his work as a garden designer and there is also a very useful compendium on furnishing gardens, from fences and doorways to pavilions and statuary.

My Kind of Garden is really a walk through Hicks' mind in the form of a photograph album. All those precious moments that we store away for dull, rainy days and which, when remembered, bring a smile to our faces. But having said that, gardeners will draw inspiration from this book. They will be able to improvise on his ideas and there are enough of them, to keep the keenest gardener going for several seasons. A starting point could be a hornbeam tent or one clad with ivy or virginia creeper and it doesn't stop there.

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Garden Art Press
£30
ISBN 1 870673 30 1

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