This book leads the reader through eighteen of the loveliest private gardens in Santa Fe and tours one of the city's oldest horticultural treasures, the public garden at El Zaguan that has been restored to its former glory by the Historic Santa Fe Foundation. In stunning color photographs, the carved doors and gates of these gardens open to the reader, revealing fantastic, eclectic, naturalistic oases amid the dusty roads of the high desert environment.

Among these are Sol y Sombra, the former Georgia O'Keeffe estate that is now an ecological wonderland, as well as the baroque garden of Ford Ruthling, a painter whose garden "rooms" include his own creations, the folk art of New Mexico, and a tumultuous abundance of poppies, cosmos, and sunflowers.

Elizabeth Berry tills a site that borders the land of the Navajo, bringing heirloom produce, rich with long-lost flavors, textures, and colors, back to the tables of Santa Fe's finest restaurants, supplying Mark Miller of the Coyote Cafe, Katherine Cudgel of Cafe Pasqual's, and other noted chefs of the area.