Since the time of the Transcendentalists, Bostonians have worked hard to promote gardens, parks, green spaces, and ecological conservation. Now, Boston’s diverse open spaces share a rich legacy and exciting future. Once again ingenious Bostonians are working hard to make their city and its environs green. Invoking the ecological spirituality of Emerson and Thoreau, these neo-Transcendentalists are growing cutting-edge rooftop greenery, building harbor-side sculpture gardens, and tending verdant urban wilds.

More than a historic parks handbook, Boston’s Gardens & Green Spaces shows how locals are using, creating, and enjoying their urban landscape today. This lavishly designed guide provides readers with a new way to explore the contemporary and long-revered public spaces of the Boston area. Organized into thematic categories, readers have at their fingertips all Boston has to offer: the suburban wilderness and urban wilds, the Sapphire Necklace and newly created Big Dig parks, pocket parks hidden amid the city’s streets, and living roofs dotting the skyline. Complete with chapters on community gardens, venerable botanic gardens, and grand estates, as well as gardens devoted to art, healing, and children, Meg Muckenhoupt has given every resident and visitor to Greater Boston a reason to get outdoors.