Hello American Gardeners,
What do I know of you, American garden-interested people? Very little, I believe, even about Americans generally. Well, as a child I knew you were all fabulously rich, with central heating and huge fridges.

This is our central heating.
I have since learned that you all like to have endless sweeps of joined up lawn in front of your houses: houses which strangely have no names. And in the Land of the Free you have lots of regulations about what to grow and how. (Is this really true??)
You have yards which are not the small enclosures outside the back door where we used to have the privy, but gardens. I love the way you have retained older English usage like this and so I treasure some of these differences. Together with the fact that you also still measure things in yards, feet and inches. (But ‘cups’??)
You eat grit? (Plural?) You have bangs! (Plural, meaning ‘fringe’) And you have dirt, which you garden in, with green thumbs, where the rest of us use fingers.
Which all seems very strange to a Brit. And you garden with a shovel?

These are shovels over here. Underneath are British spades.

A spade – usually called a spade…
In Britain:
We have no issues about using British native plants – we have been re-importing plants which got marooned on the continent in the Ice Ages ever since it thawed, but we don’t generally regard them as native, even if they once were. Now we’re happy to use plants from everywhere and do. With some ecological success. I know, however, that this is a different issue for you.

A British native
We don’t use mulch nearly enough. Many professional gardeners seem to prefer to fiddle about wasting time with a hoe and why not, since we’re paying them? Whereas I gather you sometimes get more mulch than plant and sometimes it comes in bizarre colours.
We generally call plants by their Latin names, apart from a few err… British natives, like daisies. Even for us it would sound pretentious to refer to Bellis perennis. I gather though your plant breeders call plants by sometimes excruciating names, like ‘Big Daddy’ ‘Sharp Dressed Man’ and ‘Hallellujah’, (that’s just hostas) and I think that may be catching on here now, meaning that when you go to a nursery you’re reduced to pointing rather than asking.
So you will need to be tolerant and forgiving – and maybe ask me whether I mean the same thing as you do, before you assume I’m dreadful?
Though dreadful I may be…..
Thrown out of the NGS:
I once made the dreadful error of suggesting in print that a little criticism of the gardens which open under the auspices of the National Garden Scheme might be appropriate. Plants, as we all know, are lovely. Or if they are not lovely, they are at least interesting, as used in the dubious term ‘winter interest’. But the idea of putting such creatures together in a way to create something beautiful is not, in the UK, considered an acceptable topic of conversation or of horticultural prose. Better by far to tell people it is time to sprout their potatoes.

National Gardens Scheme handbook of gardens to visit. But not including Veddw….
The National Garden Scheme (NGS) is a very worthy and prestigious society which organises garden openings in the UK for charitable causes. I thought (and think) that such criticism, in the sense of the dictionary definition “analysis and judgement of the merits and faults of a literary or artistic work” might encourage us all to raise our game and give those lovely plants the settings they deserve. It would also save people the cost of travelling sometimes considerable distances only to be disappointed by the reality of the garden they visit – after all, what does it take to have a garden live up to this description: “This other Eden, demi-paradise”? (Garden owners write their own descriptions of their gardens for the NGS website and book.)
In response to my article, our garden was thrown out of the National Gardens Scheme and my position as anathema in the UK garden world escalated. And our takings from opening our garden also escalated, not just from us ceasing to give our takings to the NGS charities but also by doubling the number of visitors who came to see what they could criticise legitimately.
Come and visit us
So British gardens continue to be terribly overrated. Though I hope that won’t deter you from coming and looking at them, because you may also visit mine at the same time and that would be most welcome. You may find it excruciating to think that your visit is not supporting NGS charities, but it will support the garden itself, which amazingly, does not come cheap. And you will be really welcome to tell me how you think I could improve my garden.

Japanese anemones (Anemone hupehensis) at Veddw House Garden
Love this addition to the ranters line up. Love the dry wit and the cross-ocean point of view. Love the idea of garden criticism that actually matters.
Bravo, for the new writers and for the new design.
Thanks! xxxx
Welcome, Anne!
It will be fab to read about gardening in the UK!
Thanks fir your contribution to our world here in the US!
It’s a pleasure, Maggie.
I enjoyed reading, and watching the video of your garden near the border of England and Wales. The hedges were quite interesting in shape and layout. Is the pool in your garden tinted/dyed black? My grandfather immigrated to the US from Wales so I’m interested in hearing the language, too.
The pool is dyed. A manufacturer of food dyes saw a new market! Sadly, I don’t speak Welsh, so you’ll still need to come and visit when restrictions are lifted, to encounter the real thing.
Oh, gosh! Fun times ahead. Bring it on, dear critic, we can take it.
I’m hoping so! xx
Always interesting to realize the evolution of languages over time, and find the humor in the differences. It’s very much an Old World versus New World issue, as not just English, but also Spanish, Portuguese and French have undergone the same process.
The use of the word compost versus potting soil is the difference that strikes me the most absurd, as compost is what we Americans apply as a mulch! The mention of European versus American garden differences apparently reflects a curious lack of awareness of West Coast USA conditions, as large lots with sweeping connected lawns is just not a thing here on the West Coast.
Having said all that, the British influence of garden culture is also much weaker in California, for reasons of geography, climate and cultural colonizing influences. The Cottage Garden theme is a universal however, albeit with much different plants.
Welcome to Garden Rant, and hopefully we’ll all enjoy the cross-Atlantic exchange of different regional viewpoints!
Thanks for the welcome – and I’m sorry about the Cottage Gardens. Don’t know how they escaped…..
Just a little back chatter: some of us at this end of the pond have read so much about British gardens that we tend to think that all Brits are avid gardeners. I was disabused of that notion when speaking with a neighbor who is British. Neither he nor his wife know much about gardening … or care. Can you do something about that, Anne?
I’ve put a lot of effort (uncharacteristically) into introducing easier ways to garden, since the usual ‘here’s what you must do in your garden this week’ which appears remorselessly in the garden media, must be dreadfully off-putting. And more people are reputed to have been driven to their gardens by being confined in lock downs. But gardening will never be a universal pursuit while it involves being outside in the British weather……
I’m so looking forward to reading your posts and hearing a British point of view. There are a lot more of us out there than you would think, who are passionate about gardening, and yes I actually have a spade or two in my shed! We may have that big green front lawn in keeping with the neighbor rules (don’t get me started on that topic), but the back yard, hidden from view, is where flower-and-veg lovers show their true colors.
I’d love to start you on the topic of neighbourhood rules – it seems so wonderfully bonkers!
Hold on to your seats! Reading Anne’s Rants will be a roller-coaster ride for some. But, I can assure you they will be full of wisdom, truth and provocatively refreshing thoughts.
I didn’t pay him for this, either!
Anne, I am a new devotee of yours, having just discovered The Bad Tempered Gardener! I love it and find so much inspiration in the writing and the photographs. The chapter on the Reflecting Pool is fascinating. One might expect that such a serious garden would be the work of a pompous owner but pompous you ain’t! I am longing to visit the garden and see the hedges representing the shape of your nearby fields. Strength to your elbow, madam!
Hope to see you here then, when the world opens up again. Delighted you enjoyed the book and hope you’ll enjoy the garden when you get here. And I suspect gardens knock pomposity out of people….Xxx
You Brits have Monty Don. We have “In the Garden” by Randy T.
I hope Randy T is worth having but I can take or leave Monty Don. Might write about my thoughts on how predominantly female gardeners are fed male presenters, as if we are desperate for male totty…..
Love reading Anne Wareham and in particular sharing her “Deck Chair Gardener” with new gardeners who are intimidated by trying to figure out what to do and how to do it and when to do it. It’s brilliant and opinionated and funny — three of the best qualities all good garden writings share.
Hoping to see the Veddw House Garden some day!
Love to think of you making sure new gardeners don’t develop tedious garden habits – thank you! And yes, do come and see us. Xxxx
A great addition to the Rant! I am, perhaps, one of the exceptions in that my house and garden are named and I don’t use mulch. Perhaps, I too will be hurled from the American gardening diaspora for my non-conformist ways.
I made one trip to Britain to tour gardens, ending at the Chelsea Flower Show. While it was a lovely time, I hope to return and craft a trip that is less herded and more meandering. Perhaps then, I can visit your garden. That would be lovely. I can bring a gift of mulch.
Yes , we Americans are buying huge fridges. I however, have a ranch home from 1953 and can not find a fridge , in the style I want, that will fit it my house without taking out kitchen cabinets! I don’t want a big designer fridge!! Also, real gardeners in the US use broadforks and sometimes shovels too. LOL Oh, and my American garden has soil not “dirt” and will soon be devoid of grass. So go figure: maybe real gardeners are more similar than you think all across the globe.I garden in the center of the USA zone6B near St Louis , Missouri
You were having huge fridges when we had larders (wish I had a larder) so your 1950s house should have spot on fridge space. But I guess, strangely, America being very big with quite a few people, it must be hard to make any accurate generalisations, especially when gazing across the water from a small island. But yes, gardeners inevitably have lots in common, even when they don’t know what a broadfork is or what it’s for XXX
As a long time reader of your Veddw House Garden blog, it will be a delight to read your postings on Garden Rant.
Yes, there are the terminology differences. Your compost is not our compost, we do use shovels, and the mention of a hose pipe ban during a summer’s drought will be met with a blank look. And then there is horticultural grit, which UK gardeners spread around like fairy dust , and is a unknown ingredient in US planting mixes.
Unfortunately, gardens like Veddw don’t exist in the US. Here we have grand gardens such as Longwood, Chanticleer, and the Hunjtington, here in California, These are the match of anything you’d find in the UK. But what we don’t have are the relatively smaller institutions such as Great Dixter, Sissinghurst, or Veddw, that are going concerns and reflect the work of one or, in Veddw’s case, two people.
US gardeners also have a lot to envy in what is available to their UK gardening brethren. I doubt if there is a single garden center in the US where you can sit and have a cup of tea and a pastry while thinking about how did I spend so much money,.or where am I going to put all these plants.
Hi, and there’s interesting – no grit! As a grower of succulents I’d find that hard to manage.
But from what you say the biggest gap in the open garden. My perspective on our garden is inevitably informed by opening to the public, which makes it a form of communication. And, as you must know, very few gardens of any merit fail to open in the UK. And, you suggest, no teas at garden centres (never mind in open gardens) ! Horrors!
I wonder why this is??
As I have noted in our private discussions, there are far more private gardens that open regularly to the public that you suggest. There is a national Open Gardens program run by the Garden Conservancy and there are many local tours. In Buffalo, as many as 500 gardens open to the public every July, either through weekend events or weekly “Open Gardens.” (It is a comprehensive and multifaceted effort.) There are similar programs throughout the US, though not as extensive as Buffalo’s.
That’s good to know! Xx
I’m glad you are writing here. Also, thanks for the referral to the article about naming your garden. I enjoyed that.