Eduardo Mencos

Eduardo Mencos is obviously well connected. So much so that this book comes across almost as a who's who in Spanish society ....including the Duchess de Alba who is so impossibly titled that she doesn't have to bow to Queen Elizabeth. Wow!
But it's really about the gardens...... which are off limits to the great unwashed ......though Eduardo had those connections. As a generality, I found most of the gardens a bit too formal for my own taste. A few too many closely-clipped box hedges or mazes and a bit too much in the way of terraces and paving and decaying statuary. Maybe it was not a coincidence that one of the gardens I most liked had been designed by a New Zealander.
He does cover a great range of environments in Spain from Asturias in the north to Sevilla and the Costa Brava and includes Majorca and the Canary Islands. Many of these gardens are old...or at least the buildings and estates are old and that introduces some interesting angles and some charm. Some lovely photographs but not the best garden photography that I have seen. It is basically a picture book and doesn't rely too heavily on the short descriptions of the gardens. The map was helpful. A nice book but I was a bit disappointed in the gardens themselves. But, maybe, that is just Spain. It's a tough environment..."Nueve meses de invierno y tres meses del inferno.… (mehr)