Tree Gardens

Book excerpt: From their early use as protective shelter to the felling of thousands of trees to harvest wood and create farmland, to more recent attempts at conservation, trees remain one of mankind's greatest resources. But aside from their purely practical uses, trees are appreciated for their beauty and have long served as important elements in designed landscapes. Tree Gardens is the first book to focus on what author Gina Crandell calls the "largest living architectural structures"—masses of trees that form expressive spaces on sites all over the world. Each case study—from the grand park at Versailles, to New York City's 9/11 Memorial Forest—explains how the scale, context, species, and spacing of trees on a particular site establish its expressive structure. Featuring engaging text and beautiful images, this much-needed book combines useful how-to aspects of tree planting with theoretical discourse on tree garden design and will be an important resource for students, landscape architects, and horticulturists alike.