The Garden Against Time : In Search of a Common Paradise

The Garden Against Time offers pleasures on multiple fronts. Olivia Laing weaves together elegantly a narrative of reviving her English garden originally designed by Mark Rumary, a well-known landscape designer; numerous accounts of other gardens and gardeners, some literary and some real; and a thread of deep searching into the exclusion underlying nearly all these gardens.

Although Laing had yearned for a garden of her own since early childhood, she was in her forties when she and her husband Ian found the right neglected garden to restore – in January 2020. It was only a third of an acre, “so cunningly divided that you could never see the entirety at once . . .” (p. 5). Then came Covid, and everything shut down. Three million people in Britain began gardening, and Olivia and Ian moved into their new home in August.

Preparing the soil with huge amounts of manure, waiting impatiently for a year to see which of Rumary’s original plants had survived, then laboring many months to put her plans in place – the story makes one ache in sympathy but feel inspired as well.

The other gardens in the book begin with Eden in John Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” and the poems of John Clare bewailing the enclosure of once public land. They include real English and Italian gardeners and gardens, especially Shrubland Hall.

William Morris receives much attention. One of this book’s great pleasures is Laing’s writing style. Her description of Morris shows that style nicely: “It’s true he was a dynamo, a spinning top, who compulsively taught himself to master a dozen crafts, who could weave a tapestry and dye a chintz, embroider a wall-hanging, construct a stained-glass window, write a poem (often on a bus and often too at the astounding rate of a thousand lines a day), illuminate a manuscript, bind and print a book, perhaps translating Homer or Virgil as an evening’s respite from the more exacting work” (p. 161). This book could be used in advanced writing classes as an example of how to play with the English language as if it were a musical instrument.

The subtitle, “In Search of a Common Paradise,” refers to the book’s underlying theme of unease about the unsavory underpinnings of many gardens – certainly all those Laing visits in this book. Do only rich people get to have gardens? Why can’t everyone have access to that soul satisfying pleasure Laing found in hers? Her research led to the slave trade behind Shrubland Hall’s wealth. On the other hand, Morris hoped for the opposite, a utopia where gardens (and all properties) are held in common.

Instead, Laing opts for a combination of public and private ownership: “We need gardens and the life they support established everywhere, if we are to survive” (p. 284). We do.

Many additional delicious nooks and crannies await the reader of “Gardens Against Time.” Run, do not walk, to the nearest library (ours). Don’t miss this book.

Reviews by Priscilla Grundy in The Leaflet, Volume 11, Issue 11, November 2024.

Becoming a Gardener

First off, this book is a feast for the eyes. Big glossy photographs of Marron’s garden are combined with charming gouaches from the Copenhagen collective studio All the Way to Paris, plus an array of painting reproductions ranging from Beatrix Potter to Cy Twombly. The visual experience is rich.

Marron, with a background of success in business and journalism, assigned herself the task of learning to garden in eighteen months. She and her husband had bought a house in Connecticut, but she needed to put down literal as well as figurative roots to feel she belonged to this land. This book is an account of that journey.

An impressive amount of gardening research preceded and intertwined with the development of the garden itself. Marron includes memories of gardens in children’s books like “The Secret Garden” and the visit to the Luxembourg Garden in “Madeline.” As she read classic gardening books, she learned there are many kinds of gardeners, and they all have strong opinions, often differing with each other. From Alexander Pope’s idea of a “spirit of the place” she learned that she wanted her garden to echo its own surroundings. And after reading about famed gardens and recalling those she had visited, she realized she had to build something smaller and simpler than any of them.

In her learning process, Marron watched carefully to see how even cut flowers changed over a few days. She put aside her conviction that she did not have a green thumb and sought out hands-on mentors, who taught her what to do and that persistence and hard work can lead to gardening success for anyone. With a landscape architect she developed a plan and turned a 48 x 54-foot space into a walled garden.

One notable discovery from her research was that gardeners make mistakes, learn to accept them, and start over. She describes several of those she made, seeing them as part of the learning process.

In the section on “Building My Garden” Marron describes working to create a garden that fit her goal of relative simplicity and comfort in its surroundings. She struggled with fencing, replacing one design that turned out to look like “a corral fence from the Wild West” with a more pleasing one. She developed a layout with rectangular beds and wide paths. She spent many hours choosing flowers and vegetables and then deciding where to plant them. She considered color and scent, even choosing to paint cold frames “a happy yellow” and the door frames of the garage bay “bright grass green,” the same green Monet used for his own door and window frames.

In the middle of the project Marron’s husband died. Grieving, she came to learn how digging in the dirt can help heal pain. She describes five kinds of gardeners: “scene setters, plantspeople, colorists, collectors, and dirt gardeners” (p. 78). Dirt gardening was her choice. As she returned to dig in the garden after her loss, she felt connected to soil and roots.

At the back of the book Marron includes a list of “Literary Mentors in the Garden,” with a paragraph about each. A page of “Recommended Reading and Viewing” and a very thorough bibliography provide further research opportunities for those who aspire to the title of “gardener.” For herself, Marron still considers herself an “urban dweller,” but she attests to the power of her gardening project to make a major difference in her life.

Reviewed by Priscilla Grundy for The Leaflet, Volume 9, Issue 12 (December 2022).

A Beautiful Obsession

I was fortunate to hear Jimi Blake speak at the virtual annual meeting of the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon in November 2021. He radiates enthusiasm for garden plants of all kinds, especially ones newly available to keen gardeners, expressed in a lovely, Irish lilt.

Much of that energy, if not the lilt, is captured in a new book, “A Beautiful Obsession” written with Noel Kingsbury and focused on Blake’s Hunting Brook Garden near the Wicklow Mountains south of Dublin. This is not one of the Irish gardens with a favored, western exposure to the Gulf Stream. Instead, it is at a thousand feet elevation with acidic clay, making its limits for plant hardiness similar to many Seattle area gardens.

This is a very personal space. One of his garden areas is named in memory of a former partner. Another after a long-lived canine companion.

Blake’s story is compelling. The youngest child of a large family growing up on a farm, he learned gardening at an early age, greatly influenced by his mother and older siblings. After formal training and a long apprenticeship at an estate farm, he took over a portion of the family property to create Hunting Brook.

From the beginning this was intended as teaching garden. A classroom was built into the new house and courses are taught almost year-round. Teaching about gardening, providing space for retreats, including young people in recovery from drug and alcohol problems in Dublin.

It is also a very kinetic space, as Blake is frequently swapping out old plants for new, and bringing tender plants out of protection every May, only to be returned in October.

Kingsbury acts as the observer as they walk together through the garden, often quoting Blake’s comments about the plants, why they were chosen, which ones may soon be removed. It is not as polished as many books about a collector’s garden, but I liked that informal quality, making reading as much fun as admiring the vivid photographs.

Readers of “Gardens Illustrated” magazine have appreciated Blake’s seasonal selection of plants over 2021. A plant directory in the book provides a similar sampling of his personal style. For example Red Tussock Grass (Chionochloa rubra), native to New Zealand: “I know I use the word ‘favourite’ a lot, but this is my favourite grass. I was delighted to find hillsides of it in New Zealand with sheep grazing through it.”

Published in Garden Notes: Northwest Horticultural Society, Spring 2022

Fearless Gardening: Be Bold, Break the Rules, Grow What You Love

“Gardening is not a straight line. There are many detours along the way, and thankfully, you never actually arrive at the finish.” This is a motto of Loree Bohl, a Portland gardener and author of “Fearless Gardening.”

Bohl’s garden typifies this thinking with many, quite non-traditional plants for a Pacific Northwest garden. She is not afraid to try new things and regards the failures as lessons to be learned, and perhaps to be tried again. It might work this time!

Among her favorite plants are Agave, Yucca, and Opuntia. She is another big advocate for using pots: on the ground, amongst the garden plantings, and hanging off walls or the rafters of a covered, outdoor seating area.

She credits her inspiration in part to two noteworthy and innovative West Coast, women gardeners of the past: Ruth Bancroft, who lived to be 109, and Ganna Walska, who lived to be 96. Each crafted gardens very unlike their neighbors, starting at an age when many would be beyond new projects. They are models of how the creative energy of gardening can lead to a long and happy life.

Bohl also profiles several Washington and Oregon gardens that have stretched the plant palette. These include the McMenamins Anderson School garden in Bothell, the Point Defiance Zoo garden in Tacoma, and the Amazon Spheres in Seattle.

Her own garden is another fine example. I was part of a tour led by the Northwest Horticultural Society in 2017 to Portland area gardens that included hers. In an essay titled “Successful Gardeners Kill Plants and So Will You,” she describes how the day before we arrived, despite it being late July, a large, established Grevillea victoriae ‘Murray Queen’ suddenly died. She was horrified, but what could she do. For us visitors, committed gardeners all, it was an excellent lesson and opportunity to commiserate.

Excerpted from the Spring 2021 issue of the Arboretum Bulletin

Spirit of Place: The Making of a New England Garden

[Spirit of Place] cover

Why did the Miller Library add a new book about a private garden in Vermont? Partly because the author and garden creator, Bill Noble, has several connections to the Pacific Northwest. However, I primarily recommend this book as an engaging memoir.

Spirit of Place: The Making of a New England Garden is Noble’s almost 30-year story of the property he and his partner, James Tatum, own in the Connecticut River Valley. This was not a new garden; the previous owners had formed its design for 60 years.

The challenge that the author faced was retaining the garden’s historical character while shaping his own vision. “Much of what gardening is about is the feeling of being connected to a place, fostering a sense of belonging, and becoming familiar with the natural rhythms and cycles of a particular piece of the earth.”

Many famous gardens and their designers in North America and Europe influenced the author, including the artists of the nearby Cornish Art Colony. However, his long-time role as director of preservation for the Garden Conservancy had the biggest impact. This included his work with the Chase Garden in Orting, Washington.

He credits Ione Chase with helping him to understand the value of designing a garden to incorporate its view: Mount Rainier in her case, the foothills of the White Mountains of New Hampshire in his garden. She also taught him the value of using familiar or common plants “to created refined garden beauty.”

Plants in Noble’s garden include a blue willow (Salix irrorata) he discovered in the Witt Winter Garden at the Washington Park Arboretum, and Berberis × ottawensis ‘Royal Cloak’ found at the Bellevue Botanical Garden. Three plants of the latter came home in his carry-on luggage and are now “part of the garden’s backbone.” Heronswood and Forestfarm (Williams, Oregon) Nurseries were important sources for other plants.

Vermont has long and cold (USDA zone 4b) winters with snow often lasting well into April. While Seattle is much milder, this is the perfect book to read for inspiration while staying out of the grey and gloom of our winter!

Published in The Leaflet, December 2020, Vol. 7, Issue 12.

Japanese Garden Design

Marc Peter Keane has published several books based on his landscape architecture degree from Cornell University and the 18 years he spent in Kyoto designing gardens. “Japanese Garden Design,” his earliest, has stood the test of time.

The first section is a well-illustrated introduction to broad concepts such as Zen gardens, tea gardens, and stroll gardens. The author emphasizes the context that led garden designers to create these “new forms of gardens and, more importantly, new ways of perceiving what a garden is” (author’s emphasis).

The final third of the book is about design: the principles, techniques, and elements. I wouldn’t recommend relying on this book for developing your own garden but rather for understanding the intentions of the creators of established gardens. In those intentions, Keane sees a myriad of perceptions, including the garden “as a living entity with a spirit, or by perceiving the garden as a painting, an object of contemplation, a spiritual passageway, or as a work of religious art.”

Excerpted from the Summer 2020 issue of the Arboretum Bulletin

The New Zen Garden: Designing Quiet Spaces

For designing your own space in a Japanese style, consider “The New Zen Garden” by Joseph Cali, an American who lived many years in Japan, using his education as an interior designer. In this book, he urges his readers to treat the garden as an extension of the home’s indoor space, and is very practical and systematic in his advice.

For expertise in specific elements of the garden, Cali includes tutorials by Japanese landscape architects, artisans, and garden designers. Topics include lighting, building walkways and walls in traditional styles, and even how to arrange a dry waterfall.

Excerpted from the Summer 2020 issue of the Arboretum Bulletin

A tapestry garden : the art of weaving plants and place

A Tapestry garden book cover Marietta and Ernie O’Byrne are very clear about their gardening goals. They are not interested in low-maintenance gardening “with orderly shrubs, surrounded by chipped mulch, and plants that don’t touch,” but neither do they care for plant thugs that dominate their neighbors. To achieve these ends, much maintenance is required and they relish this work. “A Tapestry Garden: The Art of Weaving Plants and Place” captures these ideals as they have been expressed in their two acres of gardens on a farm in Eugene.

The O’Byrnes are famous for their hellebores, so I wasn’t surprised to read about their woodland gardens with profiles of shade loving favorites, including trilliums, arisaemas, and podophyllum. But I didn’t know they had large swaths of sun, too. These includes a riotous summer perennial border (a “full-flowered buxomness of leaning, mingling, sprawling growth”) and a chaparral garden, that recreates the look of the southwest, albeit with plants that can survive a Pacific Northwest wet winter and spring.

In reading this latter chapter, I was reminded of the books by Beth Chatto, especially “The Gravel Garden” (2000), one of my favorite all-time gardening books. The O’Byrnes are not afraid to experiment. The writing (primarily in Marietta’s voice) recounts all the successes and failures in a matter-of-fact way and quietly expounds their right place, right plant philosophy throughout their several garden settings and microclimates.

Both Marietta and Ernie grew up loving nature. Both had college degrees in biology and worked together in their own landscape management company for much of their careers, but when it came to their own garden, they made plenty of horticultural mistakes, especially in the early years. While this at first seems like a book for the gardening elite, I encourage beginners to give it a read. You will be amused by the authors’ misfortunes and encouraged to shrug off your own failures and try again.

As they spent more and more time in their own garden, the authors eventually curtailed some of the maintenance business to start their own nursery. This latter continues today as a wholesale business exclusively selling hellebores. A chapter highlights the beauties they have developed, especially the Winter Jewels series, with stunning photographs. This book also includes a very helpful chapter on their maintenance practices, and maps of the garden inside both covers, in case you get lost during the written tour.

The O’Byrnes even sleep in their garden, enjoying the night fragrances of their summer, sunny perennials and the hummingbirds and other pollinators that are on wing at first light. Their plant palette is very broad, including many natives but also challenging-to-grow plants from around the world. Many of these are grown from seed – often there is no other way to obtain these plants. They have decided, “harmonious chaos is possible in a garden, with denizens from multitudes of countries of origin. Would that we humans could be as comradely as is the diverse plant world here represented.”

Excerpted from the Fall 2018 Arboretum Bulletin.

The Intimate Garden

Intimate garden cover Consider “The Intimate Garden” for very detailed examples of highly individualized garden spaces, with an emphasis on hardscape and ornaments. While both author Brian Coleman and photographer William Wright are from Seattle and the gardens are mostly on the west coast, examples from the east coast and even England are included, making this a very diverse selection of design styles and plant material.

Excerpted from the Fall 2012 Arboretum Bulletin.

Landscaping for Privacy

book “Landscaping for Privacy” by Marty Wingate is very practical and addresses annoying issues like siting the recycle bins, and how to embrace wildlife or pets without letting them run amok, while empowering you to create a space that is very distinctly your own. Relatively few gardening books address fences and hedges in any depth, but for Wingate “screening hedges become more than shrubs planted in a line; they create a green, living wall, incorporating the design elements of sequence and repetition to pull together the landscape.”

Excerpted from the Fall 2012 Arboretum Bulletin.