Just wait until you see this

The remarkable garden pictured so boldly on these pages sits on Bainbridge Island in Washington’s Puget Sound and is open to the public. To the thousands who have trekked there, this long-awaited book is a treasure. For those yet to visit, it’s a stunning come-hither.

Little and Lewis are celebrated collaborators in the studio and garden -- the latter a delirious melange of amazing foliage, brilliant flowers and astonishing painted concrete sculpture. As authors, they take turns with the text for an intimate dialogue between creative partners, as enlightening and provocative as their deceptively tiny landscape.

One writes “Creating Rooms,” the other “Creating Walls.” Lewis does “Using Water Features”; Little discusses “Stillness, Reflection, Vessels, and Fountains.” Lewis ends his list of favorite plants with: “10. All those that George wants to get rid of.”

Barbara Denk’s fabulous photos capture the setting and “brave plantings” -- most of which are cold-tender, container-grown and moved into a greenhouse each winter. Be inspired: In Southern California, these gorgeous plants can stay outdoors year-round.

Lili Singer