Diarmuid Gavin came to popular attention as the gardening half of the design team in the television series Home Front, with Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen (Ginger to Gavin's Fred). Home Front in the Garden sees him on his own, showcasing his striking architectural garden fantasies. It would be safe to say that these tend to the extravagant end of the garden spectrum, a long way from the flower-filled paradises of Vita Sackville-West or Rosemary Verey. Gavin confesses to being inspired by, among other influences, the sets of old Star Trek episodes. This is postmodernist gardening with a vengeance. A long, narrow garden is transversely divided by a huge steel shark's fin; a serpentine hill, studded with lights, extends the length of another space, ending in a mound that conceals a cave; a glass cube room hovers above a pool surrounded by a rainforest garden of ferns and other flowerless exotics. Gavin provides a comprehensive outline of the principles underlying his approach and explores in some depth the properties of the materials, some of them new, some merely new to the garden, which allow him to express with such vividness the personalities and lifestyles of his patrons. Nor does he neglect plants. A number of detailed case-studies show his ideas and theories at work. This is powerfully inspirational gardening, though definitely not for the nervous. --Robin Davidson

2003-04-02 Awe inspiring

I found the book (and the series) awe-inspiring. I just sat there with my mouth open - this is definately not Alan Titchmarsh in Ground Force. Fantastic coffee table book, but I relly can't see may people actually having the courage or persistance to pull off anything as stunning as these designs, but at least it will inspire you to go outside. But when you get outside - the reality of your garden is so far different from anything in this book, it is hard to make the leap. ....