Garden Book: 'The Magic of Monet's Garden'

By Derek Fell (Firefly, 160 pages, $35)

This is one of those beautiful books you will want sitting out on a coffee table. It's also one of those books you'll actually use to create beautiful scenes in your own garden. The author uses gorgeous photographs to illustrate the genius of Monet's garden in Giverny near Paris. And he gives detailed growing and design information so gardeners can re-create the same innovative color combinations in their own backyards. You'll learn how to create the dazzling luminescence for which Monet's garden and paintings are known by planting airy white flowers throughout the garden, by choosing bicolored flowers with white in their composition, and by adding see-through flowers and vines to veil the bolder colors of other plants. These are just a few of the design tricks that Monet used in his paintings and that author Derek Fell shares in his decades-long study of this amazing garden. What a great gift this would be for lovers of art, history and garden design. It also will inspire you to take a trip to France and see Monet's garden with your own eyes -- and I'll gladly join you.

-- Marianne Binetti