This piece received a gratifyingly good numbers of emails and social media appreciations – hit a nerve?
Voted one of the UK’s Top 100 Gardens by Garden News
Recent Posts From: thinkinGardens
Are Gardens just for Gardeners?
Do you visit art galleries and museums? Do you enjoy theatre and concerts? Hauser and Wirth – art gallery and Oudolf Gardens 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 […]
Should thinkingardens migrate to Substack?
I think it’s possible that such platforms are the future. At least for as long as blogs were, once.
Otherworldly Gardens by Mary Keen
“The question to ask is, ‘what is here that is true, that is underneath the superficial things? What is here that matters?”
Autobiography of a Garden by Patterson Webster: a review
Autobiography of a Garden is about the garden making, Pat’s life, the history of the land, the ideas, the art, the plants and the devouring deer.
Garden regionally, get inspired globally by Marianne Willburn
But to dream, and perhaps more importantly, to innovate, we should inspire ourselves globally:
Chelsea or Chaumont? by Catharine Howard
“Have issue. You were so adamant that you wouldn’t go to Chelsea again. Discuss, please”.
Gifting the Ephemeral
. And now, knowing we won’t live forever, we’re thinking about what will happen to the house and garden when we die.
Hadspen aka The Newt in Somerset, by Anne Wareham
The garden is actually interestingly old fashioned. It’s not just the bedding but the relentless inclusion of every garden cliché, however brilliantly executed.
This site built by
Uncanny – is this what is called zeitgeist ? Been thinking along these lines for a while now. Yes a lift of the spirit – precious beyond price. X
Hope you see beauty tomorrow, up a Welsh hill…. Xxx
I think you’re spot on, Anne. I can add to your list of what gardeners do when looking at another garden. I also find myself running through a mental checklist by identifying the plants in the garden and then ticking off when they flower, how they’ll look in autumn, what crops they’ll have etc and considering if should I photograph something. It’s often the unexpected that stops me in a garden and reminds me to actually enjoy being in someone else’s garden and admire its beauty and design and soak up the atmosphere.
Our ability to disappear into thinking is amazing. Useful, but what we lose…
I find it too easy to get lost in watering pots, tutting over potato blight, feeling guilty about plants long overdue for potting and so on. Then I read this and went out to look at my first dahlia flower properly. Thanks for the reminder, Anne
A pleasure!
Since my garden became a trough 20 in by 30 in with 6 different alpines, plus a trough of herbs and a dish of sempervirens ( because of living in a narrow boat) I’ve visited a few gardens and fund that I’m much more aware of the magic that different gardeners and garden owners weave. I used to be quite critical and admit to viewing with a jaundiced eye looking for weeds and spotting ‘I want that ‘ plants. Now I can’t have anymore plants than I have and because I’m constantly moving through a forever changing landscape I find seeing the bigger picture of the gardens visited much easier. Thought you made some great points though Anne and I notice your thoughts were commented on in the Garden magazine too.
I missed those (comments in the magazine). I do like having things online though, for the unedited and copious responses on websites and social media. Print seems positively silent. Hope you trip is going well – do we get a thinkingardens update sometime on gardens seen from the water? Xxx
All so true Anne. I’m just back from holiday in Madeira (hence delay in reading your piece) & Madeira is full of wonderful plants & gardens, but instead of just absorbing the beauty of the plants I kept thinking “What is that?” & then scrabbling around looking for a label to tell me! And when working on my own garden, I’m constantly sighing about weeds, plant failures, etc, & rarely take in the beauty of individual plants in flower, or the overall look of the garden. Must try to change this!
Took me a while to pick up your comment – so I can ask: have you? Xx