Private Paradise ─ Contemporary American Gardens

Sweeping, voluptuous, and authoritative, Private Paradise instantly joins an elite collection of great and inspiring garden design books. Charlotte Frieze presents forty-one cutting-edge gardens, all richly photographed and profusely illustrated, emphasizing design, climate, and horticulture.?

Overarching themes of Aqua, Arcadia, Bold Geometry, Color, Nightscapes, Oasis, Sanctuary, and Urban cogently frame chapters about the challenges presented by the land, the climate, and the client’s interests. Located throughout the United States, these gardens demonstrate the intersection between traditional elements of garden design and current concerns such as sustainability, drought tolerance, and use of native plants.

Private Paradise features the work of the most talented landscape architects and garden designers working in the United States today, including Topher Delaney, Marta Fry, Kathryn Gustafson, Raymond Jungles, Steve Koch, Ron Lutsko, Steve Martino, Pamela Palmer, Ken Smith, Christine Ten Eyck, and Thomas Wolz. In a publication that rightfully takes its place on the sturdy foundation of a century’s worth of garden surveys and design monographs, Private Paradise creates a compelling portrait of contemporary landscape design.

Charlotte M. Frieze is a contributing editor at Town & Country. A noted garden writer and frequent lecturer, Ms. Frieze was the garden editor at House and Garden for more than nine years. She is a registered landscape architect, a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and a member of the New York Botanical Garden Horticultural Committee. Her previous books include Social Gardens and The Zone Garden series. She lives in New York City and gardens in Little Compton, Rhode Island.
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Charles A. Birnbaum is founder and president of the Cultural Landscape Foundation. A Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, he previously served as coordinator of the National Park Service Historic Landscape Initiative.