‘A look behind the walls in Ghana’

Bermudian Karen Hendrickson has created a full-colour book dedicated to beautiful gardens in Ghana.

 Mrs Hendrickson, who has lived in Ghana for 12 years, launched the project more than a year ago with friend Arafua Apaloo-Aning. 

“Ghana’s Beautiful Gardens: A look behind the walls” is a 200-page coffee table book filled with fabulous photographs of more than 30 gardens.

She said many Ghanaian homes have scenic, lush gardens, but they are not viewed by the public because they are behind the walls of the property.

“When we moved to Ghana, our house had a huge garden but it just had palm trees and grass. I hired a horticulturalist then I got more and more involved with it.

“Next thing I knew, I was growing my own plants and vegetables and then orchids — I have hundreds of orchids.

“One thing kind of led to another. The soil here is very rich and the sunshine is great.

“Everything grows more brilliant and colourful here.”

Mrs Hendrickson said 15 months ago she wanted to do a book to change the western mentality of what Africa is supposed to look like.

“I thought if I did a coffee table book where people could see a different perspective, it would shift their mental image”, she added.

A conversation with Ms Apaloo-Aning saw the two decide they would collaborate together on the book.

Happy

“We didn’t know anything about pictures or printing, but we had a vision. We knew enough people that had gardens.

“People were happy to show us their gardens, but they didn’t quite understand what we were going to be doing.

“After seeing the book, they said ‘oh my God’. They didn’t know it would be such a great calibre of book.”

The book took 15 months in total to put together. It was printed in China and will be available in Ghana next week.

“We had two of them FedExed to us before they put them on the boat.

“I put it on my Facebook page and friends in Bermuda have already ordered for Christmas.”

Mrs Hendrickson said the book is limited edition and there are only 1,000 copies. There have been 400 orders placed so far.

The books will be available in Bermuda in late December to early January. It will sell for $75. 

For more information, visit www.ghanasbeautifulgardens.com.