Madoo is an artist's unusual and beautiful garden at the far end of Long Island. Described in the New York Times as "Robert Dash's ever-changing masterpiece," it has been pictured in many books and magazines and visited by lovers of gardens from this country and abroad.

Now the author/artist/gardener describes his making of Madoo in a book that is as charming and entertaining as it is enlightening. Dash's artist's sense —or senses — of the movement of air and the effects of light and color suffuse all his writings, and show us new ways to look at our own gardens.

As with Henry Mitchell's books, one learns more from reading these essays than from a dozen how-to books. And whether we like to make gardens or simply to look at them, Dash has given us a book to keep by the bedside, where we can read and reread our favorite pieces ("Fairies"? "Manuring"? "The Name of the Rose"? "The Garden Tour"? Too many to list!) over and over again.