Baden bei Wien, Austria: Edition Lammerhuber (2019)

Hardcover.

Near fine in decorated boards with a little bump on the front bottom board. Still super lovely.

If you want to build a boat, teach your people the longing for the sea, is a well-known Chinese saying. It captures the exact purpose of this book: to plant a longing. A longing for beauty, harmony, for the joy of recognition through knowledge.

This book wants to instill in its readers the desire for being able to address herbaceous plants and weeds in the garden at species level or however far their diligence will take them. Knowing species and varieties is not an end in itself. The different families are nature’s vocabulary. Whoever learns them understands its language.

This book is not about the large, famous parks and show gardens but about a domestic garden – the 21st Century Garden of Georg Grabherr, one of the most influential conservation biologists. It asks whether the thousands of private gardens can contribute to maintaining biodiversity, whether they are Noah’s Ark, suitable for rescuing threatened species.

“This is a very personal book. For me, it is a joy and at the same time a release from the sometimes all too narrow restraints of science. It is a book of small delicacies – enjoy," says Georg Grabherr. The photos were taken following all four seasons and nature’s rhythm. They show the wealth, the philosophy and uniqueness of this garden in gorgeous pictures.