The Gardens of Mien Ruys - by Conny Den Hollander (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A celebration of 100 years of the Mien Ruys Gardens, where legendary designer Mien Ruys conducted her lifetime of experimentations and innovations that have deeply informed today's naturalistic gardening movement.

Widely considered the Mother of the Modernist garden, Mien Ruys (1904-1999) is one of the most influential gardeners and landscape architects of the 20th Century. The Gardens of Mien Ruys is the first authorized book in English to discuss her life, influence, process, and designs, written by the head of the Mien Ruys Gardens who continues to steward Ruys's horticultural legacy.

Part illustrated biography and part garden case study, this book is an important link to history that can help us put into context a future of gardening in line with nature, as informed by a strong, feminist leader. Ruys worked hard to break down the elitism of gardening, and was a woman far ahead of her time.

She is known best for her use of small spaces, designing gardens without large lawns, and using materials like concrete, railroad ties, and exposed gravel long before they were in style. She was influential in bringing a modernist garden design into cities and public places where they could be enjoyed by all, rather than just behind the walls of the private estate.

Ruys had an extensive knowledge of plants, especially perennials, and included in the book are some of her iconic planting plans.

Also featured in the book are tips on how to design a small garden in the Ruys style, and a list of Mien's 100 favorite plants.

Review Quotes

"Some gardens you merely visit, but Mien Ruys Gardens is more like a pilgrimage to the revolutionary birthplace of modern landscape design. It's remarkable to think that much of what we commonly accept about western gardens today dates back to the design experiments conducted here by Mien Ruys over her long lifetime. This is where I discovered the full creative possibilities of her maxim Wild planting in a strong design, an idea that deeply inspired the original Dutch Wave and continues to be piercingly relevant today."
--Tony Spencer, The New Perennialist

About the Author

Conny den Hollander is the head of the Mien Ruys Gardens and has worked there since 2010. She has an intimate knowledge of the gardens and how they have developed over time. She also writes for the magazine Onze Eigen Tuin ("Our Own Garden"), a magazine founded by Mien Ruys and her husband, publisher Theo Moussault.