Adventures in Eden: An Intimate Tour of the Private Gardens of Europe

Garden designer Mullet (founder, Carex Tours) introduces readers to 50 private, European gardens open to the public, including the author’s favorites from 11 countries based on specific plants, creativity, and passion. Representative of current design, all of the spaces were developed over the past 25 years (though some boast older features). Arranged by country, typical entries run four to eight pages long with one text page followed by captioned photos. Mullet discusses the site, highlights features, and sometimes conveys an owner’s motivation or attitudes by sprinkling in previously published comments (with references). This book lacks more in-depth information that would make it easy to quickly ID a garden’s vital info (size, climate, designer, specialty), which is helpful when gardens vary tremendously. There are also lists of gardens, the designers, references, and an index (unseen). Photos are well done, though cold-climate gardeners will notice few depict snowy, winter-interest examples.