A vernacular garden is a garden that is made using local plants and materials, by local people. It expresses the character of the place in which it is made. This book champions local expression and the vernacular approach, particularly the way in which it has been interpreted in the late twentieth century - the New Vernacular - as the only sustainable approach to garden-making. The principles of vernacular gardening are timeless and not restricted to any one culture or geographic area of the world, but here the authors look especially at the gardens of the British Isles, where the art of the vernacular has flourished. Britain is blessed with an extraordinarily rich geological range which has resulted in a patchwork landscape of great variety. At one end of the country there are some of the oldest rocks in the world, the granite cliffs of the Outer Hebrides; and at the other end some of the newest, the soft chalk cliffs of Kent and Sussex. In between there are hills and valleys, woods, pasture, moorland and river plains; granite, limestone, snadstone, flint, gravel and chalk; all uniquely combined to produce myriad different terrains, each witha particular character, culture and set of traditions. In this book you will find gardens that have been made on moorland, chalk downs, in woods, in the mountains, by the sea, and also in urban environments. Each one reflects the spirit and the story of the place where it is rooted.