Abstraction and hedge, interaction and landmark, labyrinth and synthesis, pond and utopia - the reader is confronted with a tremendous variety of terms, from the description of the various elements of a garden all the way to theoretical, historical, symbolic, and iconographic aspects of landscape design. Meto J. Vroom, a former professor of landscape architecture at Universität Wageningen, defines and analyzes more than 250 terms, concepts, and objects. While the definitions convey the universally recognized meaning of the headwords, each essay briefly outlines a subject with a critical commentary and numerous commendations for further reading.

Thus the lexicon serves to clarify important terms and expressions that designers use on a daily basis. More than that, however, it also constitutes a general introduction to the major themes of landscape design.