If the New Yorker published a regular gardening column, it would be authored by Penelope Hobhouse, the British garden designer with a soft spot for America. She brings an intellectual approach to the pursuit that makes you feel as if you're earning an advanced degree in the subject. In Structural Elements, she explains how the hardscape, or bones of the garden, define a space, and how specific juxtapositions of plants work together. Quiet advice is also dispensed while roaming through gardens, including gardening expert Rosemary Verey's magnificent manor, Barnsley House ("Your garden must always curtsy to your house"), and the pergola at West Dean Garden in Sussex (where we learn that Thomas Jefferson once said shade was one of the most important features of a garden). Visions of Nature highlights two native plant gardens--including one in Pennsylvania--and Stourhead, considered England's greatest 18th-century landscape garden, as Hobhouse explains the artistry that goes into deciding on plant combinations that result in a natural look. One master gardener says that every day he's in the garden, he's moved by it. "I like to think of it as soul food," he says. The same could be said for this essay-like, poetic look at planting. --Valerie J. NelsonPrice:
