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A visual feast of garden design inspiration that embraces diversity and teaches you how to create a lush, colorful, edible, and meaningful garden wonderland of your own.
Award-winning garden designer Leslie Bennett creates gardens filled with stunning layers of color and texture. But even more than that, they “feed the eye and nourish the soul” (Elle Decor).
Featuring practical how-to information alongside examples from nineteen gardens, Bennett shows how to incorporate personal and edible elements into the landscape to honor a variety of cultures, while including families of all shapes and sizes, to create space that nurtures self, community, and more. For example, the team designed a garden for the cofounder of the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation to showcase art from emerging Black artists, while for a vegan chef’s garden, they incorporated unusual vegetables that can’t be found in grocery stores. A garden for a daughter of diplomats reflects the many places she’s lived around the world; for a family that wants to beautify their neighborhood, they designed a vibrant community-oriented front yard.
With chapters on floral, edible, gathering, healing, and cultural wonderlands, Bennett provides advice for tailoring a garden to your own needs, whether it’s a place to host elegant garden parties, for children to play, to grow your own food and creativity, or a sanctuary to rest and relax. In Garden Wonderland, Bennett helps you unlock the potential of your garden to become a space of inspiring natural beauty, abundance, connection, and belonging.
BIO
Leslie Bennett is an Oakland, CA based landscape designer and writer who creates gardens that help to nourish us and tell the story of who we are. Raised in the Bay Area and based in Oakland since 2009, Leslie holds degrees from Harvard University, Columbia Law School and the University College London in the fields of environmental justice, land use law, cultural property and preservation.
Leslie is the founder and owner of Pine House Edible Gardens, an Oakland, CA based landscape design/build firm that creates aesthetic edible gardens and productive outdoor spaces, and is co-author of The Beautiful Edible Garden (Ten Speed Press, 2013). Leslie's work as a principal at Pine House entails guiding the overall vision for the firm’s work and working collaboratively with the Pine House design team to create culturally grounded gardens that provide as much visual inspiration as they do organic harvests of food, flowers and medicinal herbs.
Leslie has been featured in Architectural Digest, Elle Decor, OprahDaily.com, Martha Stewart Living, Better Homes & Gardens, Sunset Magazine, Garden Design, C Magazine, American Gardener, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle
“Pine House Edible Gardens projects always bring me joy. Founder Leslie Bennett understands the power of gardens to connect and feed us. I am grateful that this book allows her to share her wisdom with all of us on how to envision a fruitful, stunning, and personal landscape, and give us practical advice on how to turn that vision into reality.” -- Melissa Ozawa, former features and garden editor of Martha Stewart Living, and writer at Gardenista
“Through story and imagery, Garden Wonderland reminds us over and over that plants should be part of everyday for everyone: as food, experience, memory, and creativity.” -- Jennifer Jewell, creator and host of the Cultivating Place public radio program and podcast, and author of What We Sow
“Leslie is an expert on creating deeply meaningful and transformative garden spaces. This delightful book is equal parts inspiring and instructive. It’s brimming with ideas, whether you want to fill your plot with food or flowers.” -- Erin Benzakein, owner of Floret Flower Farm and New York Times bestselling author of Floret Farm’s A Year in Flowers
“Yes, your garden can change your life. Leslie Bennett shows you how to put your heart and muscle into your garden, so that it becomes a source of everything that matters the most. Leslie leads the way towards a garden-centric life that is richer, more delicious, and more connected.” -- Flora Grubb, owner of Flora Grubb Gardens
“Whether you’re an experienced gardener or embarking on this journey for the first time, Garden Wonderland serves as a guide through the transformative process of designing, cultivating, and wholeheartedly embracing your distinct outdoor haven.” -- Bryant Terry, James Beard and NAACP Image award–winning author of Black Food and editor-in-chief of 4 Color Books
[H] Ten Speed Press / April 02, 2024