Thou art Mecca for the gardener's hand
Part of my anglophilia can be attributed to my love of gardening. My whole family (at least on VolMom's side) are big gardeners. My grandfather always had a pretty yard (and he raised lovely orchids)and his two daughters have taken it to the next level. VolMom regularly wins prizes in Lawrenceburg for good gardening in both the commercial and domestic categories and my aunt is on the Nashville pond and water garden tour. (You tour, the ponds stay where they are)
I was surrounded by books and magazines extolling English gardens (e.g. Kew and Wisley). And when I worked at Oakes Nursery and Garden Center in Knoxville for a number of years one of my colleagues, Ty, was a devotee of English horticulture, and he had a strong influence on my approach. Fort Sanders residents of a certain era may remember the wild and colorful garden on Highland Ave next to the fire station. That was me.
The first night I arrived in the UK, I was astounded to see prime time network coverage of the Chelsea Garden Show. Gardening in England is just as big and just as wonderful as I ever imagined.
But when people care that much about something, they can be a bit precious about the subject, too. Garden snobbery is rife. There is even a term in regular usage to denote "common, or not class" that comes from a horticultural distinction "yew" or "non-yew". Class gardeners used slow growing yews, common oik use privet for hedging. Of course, when lesser gardeners caught on and starting using Taxus for themselves even yews became "non-yew" for a time.
This morning on the Today programme Anne Wareham was on saying that gardening standards were slipping and what was needed were professional critics (perhaps she fancied herself for the role). She thought gardeners were using "too many plants" and that public gardens should have a more artistic and modern approach.
Here’s what she says in The Guardian:
… their association with gardens is more about "how-to" and plants than art. If
someone sits down in front of an easel with a brush in their hand, all their
thoughts and cultural notions about art hover over their shoulder, but anyone
can happily garden without thinking for a moment about art or aesthetics.
Yikes! Too focused on plants? Not focused enough on art. I do think about impact and effect when I garden – and I garden in the round thinking through seasons, colors, smells, texture and sound. What the garden looks like at night and in the day. But I’m not sure I want Anne Wareham in my garden with her own tastes and reflections. My garden is a private thing. My garden is also a work in progress and an experiment – it’s not a finished work ready for criticism. I constantly seek new ideas and discuss with others, but in the end I need only please myself.
I worry that Anne Wareham’s vision is less about green and living things and more about the light playing on concrete blocks and decking. And in gardening terms, it all sounds a bit non-yew to me.
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