The View from Federal Twist

Name: The View from Federal Twist
ISBN: 9781999734572

A New Way of Thinking About Gardens, Nature and Ourselves

By James Golden

Federal Twist is a naturalistic garden with a difference. Set in a clearing in the woods in western New Jersey, USA, it is a triumph of environmentally sensitive planting and fearless design. But what makes it different is its emotional power, the way the light falls to provoke certain moods, the energy of the place, how it allows space for dreaming, thinking and being. This is the story of the making of the garden from its beginnings in a dark, overgrown, derelict wood. It explores its cultural, historical and literary influences, its horticultural experiments and how it triggered certain awakenings in the author along the way.

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“Even after over 50 years of gardening and visiting gardens, it made me rethink what a garden can be and do.”
— Monty Don

“Thoughtful, well written and finely produced — far more than the usual 'we made our garden' offering.”
— Gardens Illustrated

Inside the book

Sample pages.

Press

What reviewers said.

If there is to be a definitive book on a garden’s sense of place, James Golden’s The View from Federal Twist is it. Drawing from history, literature, and traditional garden writing, Golden presents an eloquent philosophy on what defines the identity and soul of a garden. A successor to the type of garden autobiography proliferated by Great Dixter’s Christopher Lloyd, Golden offers a uniquely American narrative.

— Shannon Young, Northwest Perennial Alliance
A talented writer as well as garden maker, James gives free expression in his book to the emotional, poetic nature of garden creation, and of living within a garden. Reading The View, you fall under his spell and come to a deeper understanding of what it means to connect with a piece of land through gardening.

— Pam Penick, Digging
Here is an important book to provoke and stimulate all of us into asking questions about our relationship with our gardens and landscape and how we use it. Here too, is a book for naturalistic and ecological gardeners and anyone interested in exploring the relationship between gardens, nature and themselves.

— The Reckless Gardener
A fascinating, thought-provoking book that charts the author’s creation of his garden in north-east America. Be inspired by his choice of planting for heavy clay soil and the photography that captures the garden’s naturalistic beauty.

— Garden Answers
A deeply thoughtful, lyrical meditation on the challenges of creating a garden in harmony with the natural world and the lessons that it teaches us, Golden’s love for the land and the joy that it brings him sings out from its pages.

— Fionnuala Fallon, The Irish Times
Thoughtful, well written and finely produced, this description of the creation of backwoods plot offers far more than the usual ‘we made a garden’ story.

— Gardens Illustrated
This is the story of a gardener and a garden growing and developing together to create a modern American horticultural masterpiece.

— Paddy Tobin, Irish Garden Plant Society
More than magic was needed to garden on this challenging site; alchemy, or turning a leaden site golden, was what he accomplished.

— Christopher Woods
It is an immersive experience that produces feeling and mood, an ecological garden that works on the imagination

— Susie White, Garden Design Journal
Even after over 50 years of gardening and visiting gardens, it made me rethink what a garden can be and do.

— Monty Don
…a remarkable meditation on the creation of a curiously named garden in the wilds of western New Jersey

— Tim Richardson, The Literary Review
The View from Federal Twist … a digest of the most forward-reaching garden ideas of our time.

— Kendra Wilson, Gardenista
This book, subtitled “A New Way of Thinking About Gardens, Nature and Ourselves,

— delivers in full everything the title promises.”
Golden’s garden is very much magic through its naturalness.

— Rakes Progress

About the author

James Golden.

James Golden spent most of his working life in New York as a writer, with a Master's degree in modern poetry behind him. Nearing retirement he gave in to what he has described as a long-buried pull toward the natural world and moved to a clearing in the woods of western New Jersey, on heavy clay over a wet hillside, to make a garden.

Listening

The View from Federal Twist

A letter from the editors.