Author: Clare Gleeson
ISBN 978-1-98-859584-9
Social history / biography
170 × 230mm
252pp
Casebound, full colour
- Social history packed with anecdotes and archival photos
- Stories of rural women and their gardens
- Insights into Buxton designs
ALFRED BUXTON was the father of landscape design in New Zealand. Working in the early twentieth century, he was one of the first in the country to create expansive and sophisticated gardens that transformed people’s properties and way of life. His rural gardens became creative outlets for the wives of the farmers who commissioned them, recreational spaces for their families and meeting places for the community. Independent women commissioned Buxton gardens for their own enjoyment and for the schools they worked for, while mothers and wives raised funds for gardens to enhance the memorials being built to remember those lost in the Great War. Clare Gleeson tells an intriguing story of a man who played an important role in developing Aotearoa’s horticultural landscape, through the lens of the ‘fairer sex’ who supported and took pleasure in his work.
With a foreword by Julian Matthews.
Will fascinate all those who love plants, while those with a feeling
for New Zealand history will find this to be an intriguing picture
of our past from a different perspective.
JULIAN MATTHEWS
Meticulously researched and beautifully illustrated … a long
overdue tribute to this extraordinary man. It is sure to have a
wide appeal to gardeners, garden designers and lovers of social
and rural history.
BEE DAWSON, A HISTORY OF GARDENING IN NEW ZEALAND
Clare Gleeson is a Wellington historian and author. Her first book was Meet me at Begg’s: the story of Charles Begg & Co, music and appliance manufacturers and retailers, 1861–1970 and she has published a range of articles on music-making and music retailing in New Zealand including on the Audioculture website.
Clare’s recent research has focused on Aotearoa’s horticultural history and this has led to articles in a range of New Zealand and overseas publications, including New Zealand Gardener.