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Volume 11, Issue 7 | July 2024
Chatsworth: The Gardens and the People Who Made Them
By Alan Titchmarsh
Reviewed by Priscilla Grundy
detail from the cover of Chatsworth book
“There is an indefinable quality about the setting of the ‘Palace of the Peaks’ which has always exerted a hold over me and caused my spirits to rise and my heart to flutter” (p.17). Alan Titchmarsh begins his tour of the gardens and people of Chatsworth with this personal response and then compares it to that of Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice on first seeing Pemberley, the vast estate of the man she eventually marries.

Both Chatsworth and the fictional Pemberley are in Derbyshire in central England. Chatsworth, the seat of the Duke of Devonshire, consists of 35,000 acres, 105 of which are gardens. Titchmarsh combines a history of the gardens and the gardeners who created them – including famous landscape designers like Capability Brown and Joseph Paxton – with accounts of the owners’ family over the centuries. Luscious photographs and historically accurate pictures of family members combine to excellent effect.

Interestingly, the women of the family seem to have been a major, if not the predominant, influence on the gardens. From Bess of Hardwick, who convinced her husband to buy the property in 1549, to Deborah Devonshire in the 21st century, a number of decisions about the gardens have been made by women. Titchmarsh tells good stories about all these characters. He enjoys a personal friendship with the current family, calling Deborah “Debo” in the text.

Each of the estate gardens receives a chapter, noting its planting history and challenges over many years. The formal gardens, the rock garden, Arcadia, the arboretum and pinetum, the maze, the glass houses (several!), the follies, and the sculptures all receive admiring descriptions. Titchmarsh also shows how the family has maintained solvency by inviting in the public for carefully chosen events, such as art exhibitions and fairs.

Mostly this book is a work of admiration for both the gardens and the people. Titchmarsh very rarely gives a less than completely positive opinion. Of the monkey puzzle trees, one originally introduced by Paxton, he notes, “Victorian plant collectors . . . seemed to prize oddity as much as beauty” (p. 192). Monkey puzzle trees here in Seattle may reflect the same taste. 

Descriptions of visiting royalty and historic cricket matches add variety to this very engaging, as well as beautiful, book.

Sally Kim-Miller presents chlorophyll and lumen prints

Detail from Apollo and Daphne chlorophyll print by Sally Kim Miller
The Miller Library welcomes Sally Kim-Miller for her exhibit, Botanical Photography: The Sun and Alternative Processes. From the artist’s statement:

Throughout history, the sun has been the source of natural light and heat to sustain life for all living beings. Humans, plants, flowers, and animals all depend on the sun for food, for warmth, for health, for energy, and also for creating beauty.

My current body of work uses this power of the sun to create beauty. I select and arrange botanical specimens and expose them to the sun by using different photographic processes. For example, the chlorophyll print process uses the sunlight to activate photosynthesis in the leaf to then “develop” the photographic image onto the leaf. This is a unique collaboration between the sun, the leaf, and the photographer. Another example is the lumen print process. The botanicals are placed on photographic paper and exposed to the sun for hours, which then produce a whole different set of colors of the specimen, not ordinarily seen.

The exhibit is open during library hours July 2-30. Meet the artist at a reception Monday, July 8 from 5 to 7 pm.

Urban Farming resources featured this summer

browse urban farming resources
This summer, find inspiration for your food-growing projects in the city. Check out an array of Urban Farming resources, on display near the library's large reclaimed wood table.

oral histories of the Seattle Japanese Garden

The Seattle Japanese Garden recently completed a series of oral history interviews exploring the history of the Garden from the perspective of its gardeners. You can listen to recordings of the interviews or read them on the Seattle Japanese Garden website: https://www.seattlejapanesegarden.org/oral-history.

Digital resources

Periodicals available online
Thesis collection online
Cover of Botanic Gardens Conservation International Technical Review, 2018
book reviews

New to the library

A gardener at the end of the world / Margot Anne Kelley.
Farming with soil life : a handbook for supporting soil invertebrates and soil health on farms / Jennifer Hopwood, Stephanie Frischie, Emily May, Eric Lee-Mäder.Chatsworth : the gardens and the people who made them / Alan Titchmarsh ; foreword by The Duke of Devonshire ; photography by Jonathan Buckley.
Followed by the lark / Helen Humphreys.
Demystifying orchid pollination : stories of sex, lies and obsession / Adam P. Karremans.
 	 Jardinología : la ciencia de la jardinería / Dr. Stuart Farrimond ; [traducción, Ana Riera Aragay].
An encyclopedia of gardening for colored children / Jamaica Kincaid and Kara Walker.
Visionary : gardens and landscapes for our future / Claire Takacs with Giacomo Guzzon ; with additional research Hilary Burden.
The bird way : a new look at how birds talk, work, play, parent, and think / Jennifer Ackerman.
Medicinal perennials to know and grow / Dan Jason and Rupert Adams ; watercolour illustrations by Lyn Alice.
Wild flower hunter : the story of Ellis Rowan / by H.J. Samuel ; illustrated by Maie Casey.
Woodland flowers : colourful past, uncertain future / Keith Kirby.
Guide to the flowers of Western China / Christopher Grey-Wilson & Phillip Cribb ; edited by Victoria Matthews.l garden : innovative techniques for combining bulbs and perennials in every season / Jacqueline van der Kloet ; English translation by Kay Dixon.
Knowing the trees : discover the forest from seed to snag / Ken Keffer ; illustrations by Emily Walker.
Uprooting / Marchelle Farrell.
Restoring prairie, woods, and pond : how a small trail can make a big difference / Laurie Lawlor.
 	 A jungle in your living room : a guide to creating your own houseplant collection / Michael Holland & Philip Giordano.
The birthday of the world : a story about finding light in everyone and everything / by Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen ; illustrated by Rachell Sumpter.
Hello, rain! / Katherine Pryor & Rose Soini.
The together tree / by Aisha Saeed ; illustrated by LeUyen Pham.
Greta and the giants : inspired by Greta Thunberg's stand to save the world / Zoë Tucker, Zoe Persico.
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University of Washington Botanic Gardens
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