一切都源自Simon Griffiths（作者）的决定：他和他的小惠比特犬不能再住在墨尔本那个小小的但装修华丽的直通式商店门面里。他渴望开放的空间、乡村新鲜的空气和最重要的——属于自己的花园。在悉尼郊外的Meadowbank寻找小屋和尝试改良不同植物的过程中，Simon Griffiths逐渐成为秘密园艺关系网的一部分——朋友们会在他那里互换植物插枝，种植出来成功和失败的作品都会成为邻居间隔着篱笆谈论的家长里短。Simon是位极有才华的摄影师，能赋予他的摄影对象温暖和欢乐。同时他也是一位非常渊博的“植物爱好者”。在这本书中，他呈现了20个他最喜爱的乡村风格花园，并分享了他从爱好园艺的同伴处收集而来的知识。

It all began when Simon Griffiths decided that he and his whippet couldn’t live in his tiny but gorgeous one-up one-down shopfront in Melbourne any more. He had a yearning for open spaces, country air and, most importantly, a garden of his own. On finding his cottage in Meadowbank, just outside Sydney, and trialling different plants, he gradually became part of the secret gardening network – the one where cuttings are exchanged between friends, and planting successes and failures are recounted over neighbourhood fences. Simon is a brilliant photographer, bringing warmth and joy to all his subjects, but he is also a very knowledgeable plantsman. In this book he has captured his favourite twenty country-style gardens and shares the knowledge he has gleaned from fellow garden lovers.