Blog
The good garden blog is about sharing garden inspiration and ideas from historic gardens around the world and some right next door. Garden stories explore garden history, design, and the garden people behind famous and not-so-famous gardens. My garden photographs span dozens of places across 5 continents. Please join me in celebrating good garden design.
Close up from Roberto Burle Marx's design for the Minister’s Rooftop Garden. Ministry of Education and Health, Rio de Janeiro, 1938.
Maquette for the Burton and Emily Hall Tremaine Beach House, Santa Barbara, California, 1948. Architect: Oscar Niemeyer, Garden by Roberto Burle Marx.
A portion of Roberto Burle Marx's design for the Clemente Gomes residence garden. 1979.
Piece of Roberto Burle Marx's garden plan for Walther Moreira Salles residence (now Instituto Moreira Salles). Rio de Janeiro, 1951.
Roberto Burle Marx design for Parque del Este, Caracas, Venezuela, 1956.
Roberto Burle Marx design for elements of Garden of the Franciso Pignatari residence, São Paulo, 1956
Close-up view of Roberto Burle Marx's garden design for the Burton and Emily Hall Tremaine Beach House. Santa Barbara, California, 1948.
Portion of the Roberto Burle Marx design for Biscayne Boulevard, with Haruyoshi Ono. Miami, 1988.
The Rio Olympics may have ended, but we have another month to visit “Roberto Burle Marx: Brazilian Modernist” at The Jewish Museum in New York City. The exhibit exposes us to Burle Marx, the pioneering landscape architect who brought us modern landscape design...
Read MoreI love the separation that middle age cloister gardens create -- between inside and outside worlds. Prinsenhof in Groningen, the Netherlands, is a wonderful example of this. Its role as a cloister dates back to the 1400’s. Tall brick walls separate it visually from a busy city street. Pleached sycamores peak out above the brick wall – the only sign of something special within. But in the 1500’s Prinsenhof became a residence and the gardens were updated...
Read MoreThere is something romantic about the slow decay of the built environment. This ruin is what is left of the spectacular country mansion started in 1910 for American Tobacco founder James Duke. Only the multi-storied basement was completed before work stopped. Today we get to experience 100 years of nature reclaiming the site...
Read More
