Bookshelf    Private Gardens of the Hudson Valley

Private Gardens of the Hudson Valley

By Jane Garmey (Monacelli Press, 2013) Buy It Now

The team behind 2010’s Private Gardens of Connecticut heads west to the wilder terrain of the Hudson Valley. Garmey notes that while English gardeners “have” gardens, Americans “make” gardens. That active verb reverberates as she details the creation of 26 distinctive private worlds, including Richard Jenrette’s stunning reinvention of Gore Vidal’s Edgewater estate and food writer Amy Goldman’s 220-acre vegetable empire. Hall’s sumptuous large- format photos seem to evoke the most beautiful season and time of day; one features an antlered buck posing pondside like landed gentry.