Urban Sanctuaries: Peaceful Havens for the City Gardener

By Stephen Anderton

By presenting examples of innovative designs from both private and communal inner-city gardens all over the world, this book invites urban gardeners everywhere to create an inspiring outdoor haven no matter how limited available space may be.

As well as showcasing design ideas for varied styles of peaceful and refreshing inner-city gardens, Stephen Anderton offers practical advice on the basic design elements necessary to create any urban sanctuary, including a consideration of soil, light, space, scale, and water, together with plant use and appearance. Examples provided include low maintenance minimalist gardens, family-friendly havens, gardens with soothing water features, roof terraces and balcony retreats, indoor-outdoor rooms, and natural style gardens. Designs and practical tips are given to create each of these different garden styles.

Awards for this book: New York Times Editor's Choice - Best Books for Gardening
  • Format: Hardcover
  • Pages: 144 pp.
  • Book dimensions: 8½ x 11 in. (280 x 215 mm.)
  • Images: 148 color photos, 4 color plans, 4 b/w plans
  • ISBN-10: 0881925020
  • ISBN-13: 9780881925029

Media reviews

"A fine book for anyone who wants to reap the visual, fragrant and edible rewards of introducing plantlife into their city home, Urban Sanctuaries is a highly recommended addition to personal, professional, and academic reading lists and reference collections."

—Bookwatch

"The perfect text to peruse any time you need an idea for your garden."

—Joel M. Lerner, Washington Post

"Among the many design ideas, you should be able to find some that meet your needs."

—Joanne S. Carpender, National Gardener

"By reading this book, the thoughtful gardener will develop a sense of purpose and direction in building a pleasing urban garden."

—Barbara Joe Hoshizaki, Fiddlehead Forum

"This is a jimdandy book on designing and building beautiful gardens in the restricted spaces of small city lots ... Both landscape architects and designers should find the ideas set forth in this book very helpful."

—N. Thomas Strnad, Gardener for the Prairies

"A wonderful resource and treasure trove of ideas for all gardens, be they in the city of the country ... powerful images and enthusiastic writing."

—Lynette Walther, Palatka Daily News

"I have to rave about this gem and use all those phrases any good English teacher would edit. Urban Sanctuaries is something you will keep for a lifetime, bestow upon friends and consult often. The author's spirit, intelligence, creativity, knowledge and depth brand every choice of word and illustration with excellence ... [A]n outstanding player in the field of design."

—Chicago Botanic Garden

"A useful, well-written book."

—Chris Young, Garden (Peterborough)

"‘Urban Sanctuaries’ is helpful for the gardener who yearns for a peaceful haven in the city. Who doesn’t? Anderton offers beautiful suggestions on how gardeners might achieve such a place. Read and be calmed."

—Annie Bloom's Books Newsletter

"Anderton gets to the soul of garden design by prompting you to think deeply about the pure essence of what you want to accomplish. It helps focus your creativity into actually being able to take your dream garden out of your head and into the landscape."

—Deborah Mills, Ventura County Star

"Anderton combines easy-to-follow and fun-to-read writing with a multitude of beautiful color photographs ... He makes this guide accessible for both novice and experienced gardeners."

—Carl Ringelheim, American Reference Books Annual

"His writing is clear, concise and practical. Readers of this book will easily be tutored in the planning and successful installation of their own little hideaways, havens from the tensions of city life."

—John Bagnasco, Garden Compass

"I'm always a sucker for beautiful books, and this is one of the loveliest I've seen in quite some time ... Anderton's book is a gem, with gorgeous photos of small-space gardening."

—Valerie Easton, Horticulture

"A down-to-earth yet inspiring presentation of alternatives ranging from cutting-edge designs of cool contemporary plots to family-oriented backyards and container gardens that make maximum use of minimum space."

—Booklist

"This is a jimdandy book ... Both landscape architects and designers should find the ideas set forth in this book helpful."

—N. Thomas Strnad, Gardener for the Prairies

"Anderton's approach is a down-to-earth yet inspiring presentation of alternatives ranging from cutting-edge designs of cool contemporary plots to family-oriented backyards and container gardens that make maximum use of minimum space ... This unique resource for the city dweller should appeal to gardeners of all levels."

—Gary Jennings, Sida, Contributions to Botany

"Stephen Anderton's seductive new title, Urban Sanctuaries, Creating peaceful havens for the city gardener, taps into a current trend for urban gardening. His eloquent, enthusiastic support for tailoring an urban garden to suit the needs of its users gives the reader the confidence to create a garden according to his or her own taste."

—Chris Young, Garden (Peterborough)

"An idea book with lots of excellent photographic examples on how to get the most of a small urban space."

—George Weigel, Harrisburg Patriot-News

"Stephen Anderton gives us a thoughtful discussion, with excellent illustrative photographs."

—Bobbie Schwartz, Buckeye

"It is a must-have for the urban gardener or, for that matter, any gardener. The important basics are covered in a fashion that is easy for the beginner to understand and still refreshing for the seasoned gardener."

—Deborah Mills, Ventura County Star

"Provides ideas and stunning examples of the inspired havens being created in backyards and on balconies and rooftops all over the world."

—Avant Gardener

"If you have, or wish to have a garden in the city, study this book so that you will achieve your desire and get it right the first time."

—Marty Figley, Michigan Observer and Eccentric

About the author

Stephen Anderton

Stephen Anderton, B.A., M.I.Hort., is a well-known gardening columnist, author, and lecturer whose work is valued for its practical, down-to-earth sense, and his ability to write for a wide audience. He lives near Saffron Walden in Essex, with his wife and three daughters, and is developing a new half-acre garden around an Edwardian villa. As a teenager he was a member of the National Youth Theatre, and graduated in Drama and Classics at the University of Birmingham before studying Landscape Design. For twenty years Stephen worked in the management of large private and public gardens, and is best known for his restoration work, as National Gardens Manager for English Heritage, at Belsay Hall, Northumberland, and Brodsworth Hall, Yorkshire. Both are renowned for their quarry gardens. His career as a garden journalist began with commissions from Country Life and The Times, and rapidly grew until in 1996 he left English Heritage to become a freelance writer. As might be expected from this background, he enjoys writing on issues involving both garden and landscape design and practical plantsmanship. He is well known for his weekly Saturday column in The Times, which has been called “sometimes practical and sometimes cerebral, but always well written and informative” by The Royal Horticultural Society’s Gardener’s Yearbook. The column has twice been given the Garden Writer of the Year award by the Garden Writers Guild. He also contributes to other publications, including Garden Inspirations, Horticulture, Country Life, New Eden, The Garden, and Gardens Illustrated, and is the author of several books on gardening. Stephen is now a Trustee of the Essex Gardens Trust, and Vice Chairman of the Garden Writers Guild. Previously he sat on the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens, and was Vice Chairman of the Professional Gardeners Guild and a Council Member of the Garden History Society. In Northumberland he personally held the NCCPG’s National Collection of Spuria Irises, having previously grown over 120 species in Kent, and having been Secretary of the British Iris Society Species Group. He lectures widely in Britain and internationally, to academic, professional and amateur societies, including the Royal Horticultural Society, York University Centre for Conservation Studies, and Winterthur. Subjects range from the philosophies of garden conservation to the practical and inspirational. He is an occasional leader of special interest gardening holidays and cruises. In addition, he often appears on various radio and television programs in the UK, including annual Chelsea Show coverage. He also comments on gardening in other forms. Having written chamber music and songs since childhood, he now concentrates on cabaret songs about gardeners and gardening. Writing in The Times in 1996, Jane Owen said of his one-man show "Love and Death in the Garden": “Stephen Anderton’s songs are to gardening what Private Eye is to politics.” As Master of Ceremonies at the 1999 Garden Writers Guild Awards Lunch, he received a standing ovation for a musical satire "The Road to Success", about the gardening media. He has taken part in many charity and public performances, including a Gala Evening for the Prince’s Youth Trust. At home, Stephen’s own half-acre garden lies behind an Edwardian brick villa in village in north Essex. The garden was begun in 1996. At its centre is a minimalist, miniature landscape garden leading to the Lyceum, a modernist garden building by architect Christopher Bradley Hole. Elsewhere the garden is very full in its planting, making much of perennials, bamboos, and foliage plants. Sculpture figures largely in the garden, including some commissioned in and imported from China.

Read more about Stephen Anderton

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