Are Gardens only for Gardeners?
Do you visit art galleries and museums? Do you enjoy theatre and concerts?
As a garden writer and garden maker I deeply regret that my audience for both appear to be almost exclusively gardeners.
It is as if the works of painters and sculptors were only ever seen and discussed by painters and sculptors. As if theatres only played to playwrights and music of all kinds was only ever played and enjoyed by musicians.
Gardens which open to the public are expected to showcase plants and provide ‘inspiration’ to – gardeners. Or perhaps to be nature reserves for our troubled wildlife. And, increasingly, gardens are declared to be good for mental health. The mental health of the gardener.
We might think that gardens could equally benefit the mental health of the garden visitor. A great garden may offer beauty, peace, intellectual stimulation, pleasure for all the senses and excitement in exploration and discovery.
Or a great garden may offer discord, challenge, a confrontation with banal expectations. Ian Hamilton Finlay cautioned “Superior gardens are composed of Glooms and Solitudes and not of plants and trees.”
In the 18th century gardens were considered a great art form. Horace Walpole said:
‘Poetry, Painting and Gardening, or the Science of Landscape, will forever by men of taste be deemed Three Sisters, or the Three Graces who dress and Adorn Nature’. (Horace Walpole).
I think we may have lost both men and women of taste, and poets too will be lamenting their loss of status. But you may be missing something if you think gardens are just plant zoos, mini farms, or wildlife sanctuaries. They can be so much more.
If you did decide that a great garden might be worth your attention, or wanted to demonstrate that to a non gardener, how will you find one which will reward your visit well?
All British gardens are described as ‘lovely’. It wouldn’t help much to take a sceptical non gardener to visit a garden of random planting.
You may try to shove your way round Chelsea Flower Show. But that is a travesty of what a garden visit should/could be. You should at the least be able to be in the garden, not simply looking at it from behind a rope.
You may try a search on the National Gardens Scheme, intending to do a little for charity. You will find that all are described by their owners, which may not be the most objective review. In America try The Garden Conservancy? I can’t speak for that. How are those selected?
In the UK you could also try the National Trust or the RHS gardens, but on the whole you’ll find there that the creating spirit of the gardens in question is probably gone.
Wisley has a worthy exception – the new borders at Wisley designed by Piet Oudolf.
It has the enormous advantage of not being a dead man’s garden. It is original and contemporary. It lacks the immersive quality of some of our best gardens but it is full of life. It may challenge your notion of what a garden is and thereby take you to other new and exciting gardens.
Suggestions for other exciting gardens (besides Veddw!) will be welcome in the comments. In the UK there is a long list – so with inevitable weaknesses – in Great British Gardens.
Perhaps if you are a gardener reading this, you might do one good thing for our depleted culture:
Send or take someone you know who is not a gardener to a great garden that you know is worth their serious consideration. I know - it’s the wrong time of year. Make this your project for next summer?
And if, somewhat accidentally, you are not a gardener and have stumbled upon this post – visit a good contemporary garden and discover what the garden world has to offer. And maybe tell us about it?
Please restack and heart, in the hope that this plea may catch the eye of a non gardening person?
This is a very interesting subject or topic. When I started gardening aged 15 not only was I told (not by my parents) girls don't do gardening - only boys do that. I don't think anyone in my locale had ever heard of Vita Sackville-West but also all the garden books available to me had been written in previous decade s and were by the likes of the above V.S.W,Margery Fish,yes Christopher Lloyd and many others. None of those books were,thank goodness "relevant" so I had an old style mindset and even now I inwardly wither when someone tells me I bought a whole lot of plants for my garden at ..think of any super cheap discount store....and I only spent £3.99. Call me a snob but you just know it's not going to work. Back in the day even up to the 1960s gardening was another cultural activity as valid as being able to write novels,or compose symphonies,or critique the theatre etc. I know,those people still exist but there seems to be a,what to call it,a movement within some of the media to represent liking or doing gardening as a bit loser,a bit sad. Maybe it's so people wont mind having to live in a house with no garden like the new builds around me,and all over now. Maybe an interest in gardening has to be discouraged so people don't know what theyre missing. Just a theory. I like your idea of a hard hearted garden critic giving a waspishly cruel view of a famous garden. I think the idea would need to be developed with care though. It would have to be gardens that gave permission (obviously) and gardens that are either NT,EH or Stately Home + all set up for visitors plus private gardens that nevertheless are pretty professional at garden visits,they might even like the publicity. The garden visitor should be,not a gardener,but an entertaining and witty person who could be a bit cruel but keep the audience on side. Send for Richard E. Grant. I think that would make a very entertaining Tv or you tube half hour. Pity I'm not a TV producer or id have commissioned it!
I haven’t seen the new Wisley borders but hopefully can get there next year. One if the things that I often think about is how to preserve the spirit of place when the creator of a special garden either dies or moves away. Although I was disappointed on my visit to Gt Dixter last year, it’s the closest garden I can think of where it’s creator’s spirit still partially lives on.