A Real Rant.
By now some of you may mistakenly be thinking I’m a nice person, but here comes a Proper Rant.
We visited a garden last week and we really didn’t like it.
As ever, other people think it’s ‘lovely’. (Though Americans must bear in mind that in the UK every garden is considered ‘lovely’) Perhaps you’ll help me out a little? – I need your thoughts. See below.
What didn’t we like?
Here’s the plan:
And you can see that it’s mostly trees, (all that green has trees in) so let’s get that in fast: if you love trees this garden will be a treat. There is many a long plod from tree to tree to be had.
The rest of the garden, which is truly what we came to see, is all squashed up at the top of the plan and the edge of the estate.
Cultural clichés
We began with this:
What is a Roman Temple doing in Britain in the 21st century?
Along with…
Poor soul has bare feet. Not a good plan in the British climate….
and another…
She/he looks rather troubled…
You can see it is definitely a Roman House…
or not…
But it strangely has a Japanese Garden with a Japanese Tea House. 
A Menagerie for Plants
But what it mostly has is plants. This is a Plant Zoo.
And for us, that was the major problem. Not that we dislike plants, not at all. Rather more that we think that treating them like this does them, and gardens, a disservice.
We quite fancied this spidery fern, but sadly this was one we couldn’t find a label for.
They are sitting in their own little island of bare soil, not speaking to each other. You might think that this is due to them being recently planted – was it too early to open the garden, perhaps? But if that is the reason, what is intended for all the labels when the plants have settled in? They will become invisible.
And there are a lot of labels. And hosepipe. Or lighting cable?
There is some pretty planting.
And everything is kept under tight control:
In places the plants have integrated and maybe those labels have vanished.
There’s always a Veg Plot, designed to feed huge numbers of cabbage lovers.
What’s the Problem?
So what’s to object to? Nice plants. Labels. Tidy garden. Pretty borders. Cream Tea. Let’s face it, this is most British people’s ideal garden.
Even the cream tea was very tidy in its plastic – no doubt a virus safety feature.
And that’s my problem, because how we feel put us out of sympathy with 99% of the garden loving public. A very uncomfortable place to be.
Yes, it’s that man again. Enjoying himself…..?!
I’m not entirely alone in this, as you can see. I asked Charles why he disliked it so much. And he ranted for half an hour or so along these lines:
“Souless, unlived in, the most unrelaxing place you could find, so unlike a garden belonging to anyone’s home, the tidyness! no imagination anywhere, institutional, why’s it all round the back of the house? boring! tedious! what’s the point of it?
Dated
I would add that while it has clearly been made fairly recently, apart from the trees, it’s so dated. We are making gardens rather as if we would have built Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral in the mould of Westminster Abbey.
Ordinary
At this point I need to clarify that the reason I am putting this garden in front of you is that it is ordinary. It may well be recognisable to many people for illustrative purposes but I’m not naming it. It is totally ordinary, and full of the clichés of the British garden. It is what people expect and how people think a garden should be. All described and advertised as ‘lovely’.
Please don’t trouble to tell me ‘we all have different taste’. I am not just telling you that we didn’t like it, but also asking you – does it matter?
It does matter to me. Enormously. It is such a travesty of what a garden could and should be.
What do we want from a garden we visit?
I want to say to the world that gardens are a critical part of British culture and as such should be celebrated and discussed. That they are worth taking seriously and as worth visiting as the rest of our heritage.
That they are exciting, original, thought provoking, atmospheric, immersive, challenging, stimulating, touching, even – for heaven’s sake – beautiful. That a visit will be memorable and not simply for a useful plant.
But I truly can’t make such a claim for most British gardens which open the the public.
Can’t we get beyond inevitable garden clichés and stereotypes?
What do you think?
Tell me – why do I feel it matters so much? Why does this ubiquitous kind of garden reduce me to despair? Is there any cure for me? Are there any other people out there who also get so troubled?
I know this may not mean much to Americans, as I don’t think you have many open gardens like this, but I’d love to hear what you think. Have you visited such gardens, perhaps on a tour, and been disappointed? Or would it actually meet what you would want and expect? Do you visit a garden to look for plants? Why do you visit gardens, if you do?
And what do people in countries with many gardens open to the public, like the UK, think and expect? (except not that ‘people have different tastes‘ please....I know that, but many people still rate Shakespeare over Frozen)
Though I did manage to smile for the camera man……
Is it just us? (me and the photographer) ??
Dear Lord…I should not like that garden. It is show-offy…look…saying – we know how to do gardens…spend money, plonk in socially acceptable plants, keep it tidy, garnish with ornaments…done.
I am prepared to be nice about effort, and the more mature bits of planting…but an owl amongst the kale and plonked classical statues and seats…arrgghhh…where is the wildness, the spirit of the owners,the fun?
and as faux Neo-Classical houses go…it isn’t all that. I want to wrap some distracting plants round it so as not to have to look at it. Lutyens did that at Hestercombe to great effect…and he didn’t garnish it with owls.
The showy-offy look – good analysis, so how come it falls flat on its face? Along with all the others of this kind….
As Annes co-visitor to this garden I thought I’d get a comment in straight away. The reason we went was because I had seen that The Garden Media Guild had made a visit recently and I had seen lots of tweets from their visit singing it’s praises. The GMG is a broad church of those in paid employment in garden journalism in the UK .Writers, photographers, broadcasters ,bloggers. Anyway they organise visits to gardens and nurseries which are free and usually hosted by the establishment who usually provide lunch and possibly tea. I’ve never asked how the venues get chosen but I suspect the establishments put themselves forward as a way to raise their profile and get more visitors and customers. So I can say with some confidence that this is a garden who’s owners consider it to be special and wish it to be better known. And clearly the garden media in the UK are going along with this. And that’s what I find so depressing. Because there is no discrimination being applied. No one saying “hang on, is this really a good garden. Should we be promoting it to a public who consider us to be professionals”. A competent photographer takes a set of pictures flattering the garden in the best light, a magazine editor snaps them up because the garden is little known and a writer is employed to tell the unsuspecting readers what a lovely garden it is. And the proud owners have their own good opinion confirmed. And it sucks! Garden journalism is thoroughly corrupted in the UK and published and broadcast opinions are not to be trusted. There is hardly a soul that speaks the truth to the public. Except Anne.
Therein lies your first mistake; if the GMG think something is good then it probably won’t be.
They provide an excellent service, promoting bland, uninteresting examples of the status quo; they visit these gardens so you don’t have to.
A wannabe garden. The owner wanting each of the things they saw somewhere sometime and said I’m going to have that in my garden someday. Roman stuff. Tea houses. Etc. And it didn’t come together.
Could be. And it takes so much more!
Yes
This is the kind of garden I call standard British “meh”…it feels like it’s trying to hold onto some kind old standard that sadly a large majority of gardeners seem to want to aspire to. For such a small country our influence is beyond what it should be. It’s dull, it’s regimental. Colour, variation, influence from overseas (not just taking their plants) is required. Different gardening styles are abound.
I understand some older large estates 100% should try maintain their form (but maybe update technique and thinking to current times), but rather than replicate old using myriad influences (as with this one), which then gives a disjointed feel, go mad, get modern horticultural, rather than antiquated design…do we need to change the gardens first? Or people’s expectations? Great post Anne.
Wouldn’t it be great if people did do as you suggest? A real renaissance. Your question is interesting.
Perhaps a truly radical garden in the posh domain (I’m not sure that whatever people like me did would make any impact) might get talked about and maybe effect one of those cultural shifts that leave earlier things looking as dreary as they are.
Or is true change incremental?
The focus on pseudo gardens in ‘flower shows’ perhaps doesn’t help?
I believe the cultural shift is happening, but it’s like pushing a huge rock up a long slow hill, various parties I feel, may think the cultural shift is a negative, telling off of how it has been,for many yrs, where in fact it’s (to me) more of a “we’re at the party too, it’s our turn on the Karaoke” kind of thing. People and ideas fade, new will come in, it always does, but an ‘old guard’ always remains to protect its perceived heritage.
In response to Charles concerning garden journalism, garden journalism is corrupted everywhere in the world IMHO and it is refreshing to see an actual ‘critique’ of a garden. Garden writers are often garden and garden book reviewers and their opinions are steeped in the relationships they have with those they are critiquing. Concerning this garden, I will appreciate the ‘bones’ of the garden. In America we don’t often have those bones such as walled gardens and beautifully laid pavement. We are a new country and diverse so one size doesn’t fit all. I will say that I visit gardens in order to see ‘the hand of the gardener’. In the UK that hand is often ‘hands’ of paid gardeners and it is more difficult to discern the vision of the owner if there is one at all. I think most garden visitors just go to see pretty flowers and the ‘lovely’. There are a few who go to get inspiration and practical ideas on gardening along with great design and function. I have found that the Brits are masters of ingenuity at staking and shearing and tidying. I have also found wonderful plant combinations and color palettes.
Please do not look for a cure for your discerning eye. How can one learn if every garden is the same? Most of us learn through comparison so the bad with the good is important. Thank you for the review.
Thank you so much for this. I couldn’t really call this a review – partly because I think a garden, just like a book or film, has to be good enough to warrant a proper review, which should then discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the garden. They can be very illuminating even for people unable to visit the garden in question. I wish we had them!
And it’s kind to suggest I don’t need a cure. Staking, shearing and tidying can be truly awful, so perhaps I would be happier in American gardens.
You are also quite right about the small world horticulture is, with an accompanying reluctance to truth tell. It does leave some of us wondering if we are quite mad, seeing the world the way we do.
Thank you, Anne. I agree. This garden is lost on me as well, but I’m scratching my head. Are the gardeners generally around on Open Days? I enjoy meeting gardener(s). To the manor born or just regular folks. It matters not a bit, but I can usually tell if a garden is swept out like a dog’s kennel. Not much good to takeaway from this garden.
O, yes, the (head?) gardener was there. I suspect there are many and that he was just rolled out for the occasion. We couldn’t meet him – what on earth would we say? (eg ‘do you want to run away?’)
I think gardeners, both owners and employed, are often around on open days. They spend much time identifying plants.
The trouble is the ubiquity of this kind of garden in the UK. Which must indicate a ubiquity of gardeners who sweep out like a dog’s kennel….
I think I’d want a little bit of context/backstory on the place, for example: what’s the history of the place, the story behind the property and people who own/owned it (would knowing that give it more cohesiveness?)? Is it a private garden or commercial attraction? The plantings don’t do anything much for me, they feel like something in a city park, but the house and funny statues (what is under that guy’s robe on his right hip? And the guy is standing on the fish, why?) give me a roadside attraction vibe, which is kind of an American thing, so it makes me curious. And if they sprinkled a bunch of those owls around the gardens instead of just plunking one down in the veggies, it would make me smile!
I’m taking the backstory thought as referring to any such garden, open the public, as I deliberately didn’t name it. And usually, it’s true, the visitor doesn’t know more of that than I offered here.
It’s an interesting thought, how much that might affect your perceptions of a place. Knowing the background of an author couldn’t make me enjoy a poor book, but might add a touch of sympathy if I learnt they were dyslectic.
I’m curious about the ‘roadside attraction vibe’ must find out about that. Maybe it will make me love those lumps! But a few dozen owls….hm. Maybe….
But you made me smile!
While there may be many gorgeous plants including those big trees in the garden it’s not really knit together cohesively. I appreciate many different landscape styles but to me wandering through a garden should be an immersive experience. I didn’t really get that immersive sense from your photos or your impressions. Thankfully gardens are always evolving so Nature, if given a bit of a free rein, might take things into her own hands.
You’re right – it’s very episodic. It’s a great fantasy to imagine it left to go its own way!
We do have quite a few open gardens in the US, and I have visited many. I look for beauty (yes, in the eye of this beholder), creative plant combinations, welcoming, interesting, even surprising, design that works with the site.. I agree that garden you visited is awful! No creativity, nothing seemed to relate to anything else, and the label issue – gardens open for visitors need labels. I want to know what that interesting plant is, with proper botanical name, please. Putting them out is hard; people need to know what the plants are, but not be overpowered by a forest of labels.
I can’t agree with you about labels until artists stick labels on their pictures telling us the names of the paints they’re using …..
I live in the Pacific NW of the US. This seems so typical of public gardens I’ve visited. Weird, meaningless statuary. Oh so organized! Laid out so… neatly. Thank you for this rant. Others around me would say these public gardens are “lovely.” Even visit them often. Plan their own yards accordingly. As usual, I felt the odd one out. I want wild! LOTS of plantings. Bee and bird visitors. Lush. Happy. Vibrant. Lucky for me my husband feels the same. So the two of us are the odd balls out in any neighborhood we’ve lived in. It took a bit of time to get this, but the neighbors seem to enjoy the beauty and people would slow down to look. I’ll blame these gardening preferences on my mother, who blamed it on her father. Crazy wild gardening people.
My attitude toward public gardens at this point in my 71 years – open land kept open and not built on. New wild gardening plans could take hold in these places in the future.
I would like to reach across the sea and shake you by the hand! I love ‘lush, happy, vibrant’! And crazy wild gardening people!
We are not (quite) alone!!! Xxxx
Let me just say ….exactly! My neighbor with a prim perfect lawn and little else called my garden “primitive”. I think she meant jungly, because another local called it (unfavorably) “that jungle”; her garden was a slope of black plastic with lithodora stuck into it.
Bring on the jungles!
Here is my take, speaking as a weaver who weaves rugs for clients. In our conversations I’ve always felt it as helpful to know what the individual did not like as what they hoped for. Gardens can offer the same information to us, this we like, that we do not, as we try to figure out what we want for our very own space. I appreciate your critical eye and review/rant!
That makes sense.
And don’t you also know many people who enjoy and admire the rugs you make, just for their own sake, as wonderful objects?
You asked why it falls flat. I think it’s because this garden lacks spirit and/or soul. The plantings don’t relate to each other, and the photos of it leave me wondering if the owners simply had someone put the garden together for them rather than imbuing it with their own personality. It’s “just” a garden.It doesn’t pop or shine.
When I tour private gardens, even ones that contain plants I wouldn’t use in my own garden, I appreciate the personality of the gardener(s) through his/her/their garden and its design. I’m drawn to magical gardens that contain not only plants but often art, humor, and interesting architecture. I enjoy surprises, texture, and color, even if the color is only between contrasting foliage.
The difference between this garden and a great garden is like the difference between a house dress and a dress of distinction. I didn’t come to see a house dress. I came to see a ball gown or a bohemian gypsy frock or an African caftan with color. Sadly, this garden is a house dress with a little lace at the hem, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be changed, right?
Right. In fact, amazing. I truly did not expect or hope that so many people would understand me. And understand this garden. (and those like it).
You are spot on and put it so much better than I can. I love your description of the gardens you are drawn to – and me too!
I have taken a lot of abuse in the past for being critical of gardens. We were thrown out of the National Gardens Scheme for this – see https://veddw.com/general/opening-for-the-ngs/
Thank you. Xxx
I’ve seen gardens on tours in my rural and small town county that make me ask WHY? Like one that was described as having a theme of circles, I assumed something special with circular beds flowing together and maybe an art theme…which was just three very small scruffy beds with scruffy plants in a scruffy lawn. Sometimes seven of eight gardens on our local tour make me ask why. I think the answer here is the pickings are slim. But even the Hardy Plant Weekend tours in Seattle and Portland (Oregon) tend to have one now and then that has also made me ask why, based on things like you noticed like cords and hoses lying around. I have hoses strewn about in real life but for a garden tour, I’d pick them up.
I love the ‘Why’? Exactly. So often – just ‘Why’?!!!! It’s no different in the UK, except the hiding beneath the cloak of ‘charity’. That, I suppose, is meant to answer the ‘Why?’
That is a very boring garden. Do those people love plants? It doesn’t seem like it to me. Do they live to make interesting combinations of plants? Do they have a sense of whimsy or anything? Do they visit and read about gardens? I visit a garden for inspiration. I don’t want to see a lot of bark mulch and I would rather see a meadow that a lot of lawn. All gardens have flaws. Not all designs work but even those that don’t can be thought provoking. I would much rather see a garden that is a hot mess of color and texture than a dull garden. I live in Indianapolis and we have an annual “Garden Walk” when people open their gardens for a day, but I don’t see much creative gardening here. The Lurie Garden in Chicago is breathtaking. We have botanical gardens which at least have interesting plants and are educational. I dream about being able to visit places like Great Dixter, but I would be very disappointed if I ended up at that garden.
If you do come to the UK, be careful. Research the gardens you want to visit thoroughly, preferably asking friends you trust who may have visited what they thought. Dull and second rate gardens are promoted as minor miracles. No-one tells the truth about gardens, so you have to try to read between the lines.
Photographers don’t help. (I know – I’m married to one!). They just take pictures which flatter a garden – because that’s what they can sell, but wouldn’t help you.
Thank you for your comment and I think your guesses about the people who ‘made’ the garden are probably right.
So many comments that have been made in this thread seem right on. We know a great garden when we see it, just as we know that a great painting is different from an uninspired one. Gardens are works of art. We are inspired by those who create plant communities that knit together interesting plants with appealing relationships of color, texture, scale, and intellectual purpose that make us feel we are immersed in an enchanted natural world, all the while appreciating how much thought was invested to make it that way. We want to feel surprised and delighted by being in the presence of a gardener’s love of plants and the expression of their personality. Garden ornaments need to have some relationship to their surroundings and be part of a unified creative vision. Great gardens do not seem to be made for others. They probably are collaborations between people who share a unique creative vision and who have something to say.
Thank you Ann Wareham, Charles Hawes, and others in this thread who look at gardens with a clear eye. We do need to have expectations.
Well said and such a great change from responses I am more used to. It’s surprisingly rare in the UK for people to take gardens seriously, so you may imagine what a relief it is to read something I can so wholeheartedly agree with.
Through the eyes of an American, these garden pictures strike me as a garden that belongs to consumers. These Owners perhaps traveled and purchased things they liked that they liked and wanted in the garden and nothing more. Everything looks new. The statues have no patina and other bits and bobs in the garden also look fairly new as well as randomly placed. The map is the first clue this is not a plants woman’s garden. There seem to be no cohesive design. In America there are very few gardens that I visit that make me suck in my breath and say “oh”. Very few. A good designer might go a long way toward bringing all these disparate purchases together in some kind of cohesive garden space. I am not a plants woman but I love good garden design and this garden does not have it. I also have a pet peeve about seeing a garden bench placed in a flower bed. Thank you Anne for always being honest about the gardens you see and helping us to critically think about what makes a garden “work”.
I concur with all of Charles’s remarks, as well as yours, Anne. And I’m an American who takes advantage of visiting our open gardens or on private tour. Because of that I might be slightly jaded, but I recognize a garden that fails to inspire me with new ideas or assemble a garden that makes a cohesive statement that hasn’t (tirelessly) been stated before. It’s a yawner!
Isn’t it just!
Yup–I was going to use the painting analogy, too. There are paintings you pass by, paintings that you look at, say, “How pretty!” and move on, forgetting about them ten seconds later and paintings that hold your attention, speak to you and make you think of them long after. A good garden makes you want to linger, to find a place to sit and just BE in it. It has personality. It has charm. It has soul. And the best ones–the house feels a part of the garden, not “Over here we have the house and over here is the garden.”
I love this comment and your eloquence about what a great garden is. Query – would being shown round in a ‘tour’ undermine the effect, do you think?
When I walk into a garden that’s on tour, I want to be emotionally moved. I want to *feel* the essence of that garden….hopefully that it will be revealed to me not with a big bang but slowly as I move down the path. To me, a garden is personal and I saw nothing personal about the garden you toured. It was cold, detached from feelings, not lived in, not nurtured. Plants and trees were alive but didn’t mingle. Thank you for your comments, Anne, it was a great rant!
Well put, Ann, and thank you!
Many of the “open” gardens here in the United States were planted to impress by those who attained their fortunes in the business world. To me, they seem impersonal and a bit rigid. We don’t have the love or tradition of your wonderfully natural beds going all this way and that. I love that look and have planted to let go a little. I have never visited Great Dixter but from what I read and see of it in photos, the Great Dixter look would, perhaps, not appeal. So many differences between here and where you are – would make an interesting topic for further comment.
That would be great – some discussion of the differences. Would it take someone who knew both British and American gardens well? And what about all the other countries? Italian gardens are something else! – but may have been created by the rich, to impress. (Is that ubiquitous?)
Boring, lacking in interest. I’d be annoyed if I’d wasted an afternoon here. And so many replicas of Roman statues. Why? They’re offensive to taste.
Just like other works of art, I look forward to being offered something I don’t already know. Not beauty, necessarily, either. Thought. I want to see some thinking that led to action. I do not see this in the images you have presented.
Yep, James. And I am embarrassed to remember that I took you to an even more talked up garden once….
It’s bedtime here right now. I will be back to respond tomorrow. Thank you all.
Such a shame …beautiful land mishandled.
True.
Well, I love trees, I don’t mind statues inappropriately clad for the weather (they’re stone, they’re not going to get frostbite) and the borders are quite nice, but that slope with lonely plants in amongst the plastic piping… no thank you.
Naked statues – imitating ones which would have been cheerfully and wonderfully painted in bright colours in the originals – may not feel the cold. But they suggest the cold to an onlooker in a snowstorm….
In something of the same way that the plants look lonely, perhaps.
If I owned that property the first place I’d want to have a garden is around the house so that when I’d enter and leave I could smell the roses, the honeysuckle etc. It looks like they wanted to make some sort of visitor attraction instead.
Yep. We thought the house very stark and wished the garden had been allowed nearer.
Why oh why are there so many imitations? Gardens, like houses, should suit their site, their unique terrain, and above all their time and place. This is 2021. Why build a house that pretends to be Olde English or Tuscan or a misplaced chateau? And then to design a garden that doesn’t even agree with the architecture of the house! Among other things, I dislike the garden you visited because it is a collection without a theme. Thank you Anne for ranting and encouraging us to think. There is something to be learned from every garden, why does it appeal? Why not?
I think that particular house has been there many years, along with its trees. But you are therefore even more right about the inappropriate garden. I like the ‘collection without a theme’ – well said.
We may learn from every garden, and if we were allowed to review them seriously that learning could be universal and enlightening. But sometimes rather than learning we may wish we’d stayed at home and had a proper tea.
When I visit our gardens here in America, especially North Carolina, where I live, I want (1) dazzling rivers, pools, and eddies of color made by flowers. Lots of flowers. Gaudy? BRING IT. I want to see pollinators buzzing and floating around the flowers. And I want a big variety of flowers, too. (2) Greenery: I want to see layers of greenery with different textures and shades of leaves and seed pods and bark, and that’s where it would be nice to put some statuary. I’ve seen carved wood that is nice, and I’ve seen concrete that is nice, and even metal, but the shape and theme should complement the overall feel of the space and relate to it by shape or material color or theme. (3) LABELS. Everything labeled, please. Paint colors in an artist’s painting are inert materials. Plants are living beings. I want to know the names of those living beings so I can pursue the acquaintance in my own garden, perhaps, or at least learn more about them. Don’t invite me to a party and neglect to introduce me to friends. (4) If you’re doing a Japanese garden, for example, then tell me how it relates to your life. Like, you traveled there and loved those gardens or you designed it to remember a friend, etc.
That’s what I want.
That sounds great. But I won’t stick labels around my garden, even for you!
What do I need/hope when visiting a garden ? Emotion .
What do I reject/hate when visiting a garden ? Conformism . And owners who will hide the flowery part of the garden .
I am far from a garden specialist , a lot of famous ones I never visited , not the opportunity or missing time . And I am glad to see the word « boring » in some of the comments , as this is what I sometimes feel , in UK and also France (when I live).
I am bored by plant collections showed as a garden … I am bored by plants leaving bare soil between them (not speaking of watering systems parading as snake between the leaves ….) . About the garden you visited , Anne , what can be said about the planting around the pergola where Charles is sitting , apparently balancing between melancholy and irritation ? Nothing . Because it is nothing . And I will be good enough not to mention the house and its surroundings …
A lot of journalists in the gardening press will still enhance that kind of places because that’s what a lot of people look for and like , as you say , and those people buy that press, so never risk loosing a customer ….
I have felt emotions in gardens I did not really like but where plants I would never have in my own garden looked so happy and gorgeous , I have discovered new ways of pairing plants , I have learnt about lanes and perspective . That’s what visiting gardens is to me, discovering new places and , through the places , new people .
I looked at that photo of Charles thoughtfully myself, Nicole. Bleak,and I don’t mean Charles, though he was not happy.
And promoting and applauding gardens like this will not end in my lifetime or yours, true.
As the person who until recently organised the GMG visits: some gardens put themselves forward, but the majority were ones I approached because I wanted to see them and I thought Guild members would find them interesting and worthwhile. Of the 30 or so visits I arranged, there were very few duds (in my admittedly biased opinion) and many that were unexpectedly wonderful – Pareham comes to mind, along with Coton Manor, Wollerton and Ulting Wick. None of them obscure but few of our members had been. Of course most of the garden owners wants more publicity – who can blame them? It’s a tough old market out there.
I love that when we get a British comment it tells us about some more lovely gardens!
I’m not sure what point Constance is making here. I’m quite sure that the GMG are grateful for the work she put into organising garden visits. They should be. She acknowledges some “duds”, but I’d put money on none of those GMG members visiting the duds ever having published a critical comment about their visits to such venues. I’d love to hear if she considers this one of her duds. I don’t know what she means about it being a tough market for the gardens. This particular garden had hundreds of visitors when we went. Fed, in part, of course by GMG members singing it’s praises.
You asked how the gardens were chosen, I replied! And I want to make the point that there is nothing wrong with gardens seeking publicity from the media. Why shouldn’t they?
statuary and cute owl guidelines…
I or 2…ok…just….if you pass them off as presents from your mother-in-law with a rueful smile.
100 is a tourist attraction.
any number between 3 and 99 is socially suspect…I bet your nan lived in a council house and now you live in a better one, you bounder.
That works!
I take issue with grumpy gardeners. There is a way to be critical without being stinging and hurtful. But then you have the ace among curmudgeons in Britain. The wise Robin Lane Fox throws daggers right and left and y’all seem to love it! Y’all, I live in the Southern U.S. and I am a true blue Yankee by birth. ….which might not mean a thing to people of other lands. And that is my point. Where we have grown up and where we live informs our sensibility of what a good garden or home looks like. The more you study and become passionate about architecture or horticulture, the more your opinions form in ways that the general public may appreciate or may not! I appreciate hearing other opinions, but I do not appreciate grumpiness at the expense of others. Imagine if one of your readers had a long career in fashion, imagine they took a look at your outfit while in a grumpy frame of mind and ranted for all the world to read! How would that make you feel? How would it make us feel to hear their opinion at your expense? I wouldn’t like it. I don’t like the things that are being said about this garden. I am unhappy that someone made the effort and the cutting remarks must be hurtful. But then, I take some blame, because why am I reading a garden rant if I don’t like to read grumpy opinions? It is a rant in the true sense of the word. In the end, I try to find the humor.
Please note that this garden has not been identified. No-one is being hurt.
I’m not sure I agree with your general point – reviews should be honest. (but this is not a review.) If you read book reviews, theatre reviews, film reviews and so on, you will know that they need to be honest and may be hurtful to some people.
“No-one is being hurt”. Um… Actually, some people may be very hurt indeed. Do you really believe that by not naming such a garden its owners might not know about your rant, or others may not identify it? You cannot absolve yourself of responsibility when publicising your views in this way. If you wish to denigrate other people’s dreams and passions because their tastes do not match yours that is absolutely your prerogative, but don’t for one minute think that your actions are victimless. How is this article less troubling than the “ordinary” garden that so troubled you? You refute “taste” being an issue because it is convenient to do so, but actually is this not what lies at the heart of your complaints? Musicians are used to both wonderful and damning critiques of the very same performance from different reviewers, just as no doubt many will enjoy this garden which will instil in them very different emotions from yours. You accept you are being “hurtful to some people” and your forum relies on stirring the hornets’ nest – but in my experience this usually ends with someone being stung. And does this matter? Yes, it matters to me.
I also open my garden and have invited people to critique it. Yes, it does hurt if they hit the spot, but it is well worth it for the benefit that it then brings to the garden.
You can read more of my response to this issue here: https://veddw.com/general/gardens-need-critics-by-anne-wareham-for-the-garden-design-journal/
I hope you do and that you let me know your response?
I see that this was first published in 2002. Has nothing changed in nearly 20 years? And if nothing has changed, perhaps one should ask “why not?” Most gardens are an extension of their owners and we talk about how gardeners’ “visions” are made physical through landscape, plants and trees. Thus a criticism of a garden is a criticism of a person. Maybe it is ok to be derogatory about someone’s personality, or intelligence, or dress sense – social media certainly has enough of this. But there are many who have left social media (or suffered much worse) because of the severe challenges to their self esteem or mental health. Strong people will battle on, perhaps deflecting criticism with attacks of their own. But others will suffer, and all I am asking is a consideration for those for whom such criticism is deeply challenging rather than “invigorating” (and I should state here that I have never met nor do I know anyone associated with this garden). Of course I am not suggesting that all criticism should be banished. If your original piece had been more balanced, discussing those aspects you didn’t like alongside those you could see had merit, I would not be writing here. Instead your (few) appreciative comments are more grudging than truly complimentary – ie “if you love trees this garden will be a treat. There is many a long plod from tree to tree to be had” or “In places the plants have integrated and maybe those labels have vanished”, or “There is some pretty planting”. I am relieved that you have not named the garden – and please don’t do so now. However by not doing so you remove the opportunity for anyone reading your piece to search it out online where they would read quite different opinions to yours. Therefore all they see is your perspective, your take on a visit that on one particular day was clearly unsatisfactory to you. You remove the right to reply, and by muting the object of your rant what comes across to me is far more harmful than those aspects of a garden that you didn’t like.
I’m with you100%
You make me happy.
Well, since you asked,
as an American on holiday, with limited time, my garden visiting in the UK is pretty much confined to the “greatest hits” and I’m rarely disappointed visiting those well known gardens.
The gardens that have disappointed me were mostly created in the last 20 years, and usually in a once derelict walled garden. They feel like attempts at creating “an attraction” where none existed before, and consequently, vast amounts of space had to be filled, in short amounts of time and on limited budgets. Of course, there’s generally some lovely new perennial planting, but there’s also those enormous boredom-producing swaths where the designer is just trying to fill up space. Who cares if a drone photograph reveals that that cloud pruned hedge actually spells out a mathematical formula?
Speaking of the garden press, these gardens do create an initial stir, but I wonder how long that lasts once word gets around. Of course, they still make for a nice day out, if you are in the area, but most of them are not worth making an effort to see. That being said, they are light years from most American private gardens I’ve visited.
As an American abroad, I’m much more tolerant of those quirky privately owned gardens like the one you described visiting, especially if the entrance fee is reasonable. The combination of self-satisfaction, coziness, and just plain weirdness, to this American at least, is endearing, and if my visit helped pay for the new roof, so much the better. If I’m lucky, and I’ve stumbled on a few, I leave feeling like a character in an Agatha Christie novel.
‘cloud pruned hedge actually spells out a mathematical formula’ – well there’s a thing I’ve never come across! Very strange but at least not to be found in every open garden….We must be grateful for small mercies.
I love that the ‘combination of self-satisfaction, coziness, and just plain weirdness’ is endearing – brings a whole new dimension to my thoughts about garden visiting, as does having people leave feeling as if they are a character in an Agatha Christie novel. Though for that you should ideally be collected from the nearest railway station – by the butler?
It does sound though as if you might enjoy your trips more if someone somewhere would give you an honest idea of what gardens outside the inevitable are really worth visiting. An American tour guide once told me she puts Highgrove and the Laskett in her tours as those are what people want/expect to see, and then she can take them to the really good gardens afterwards.
No butler needed, my Agatha Christie character has a bicycle by the gate!
You are absolutely right, some disinterested advice would make for a more interesting experience though my trips to the UK don’t often coincide with the NGS calendar and I will protest that one has to visit the greatest hits, at least once….
Perhaps you can help us all out by providing Anne Wareham’s UK greatest hits list…….
As for not being “nice,” I’m a New Yorker, so I have no such qualms!
Ah! The bicycle – with a basket on the front!
My greatest hits list would be wonderfully small, but I travel less and less so may have missed some great things. But how would I know?!!
Come and see us next time you’re over!
No butler needed, my Agatha Christie character left a bicycle by the gate!
You are absolutely right, some disinterested advice would make for a more interesting experience though my trips to the UK don’t often coincide with the NGS calendar and I will protest that one still has to visit the greatest hits, at least once….
Perhaps you can help us all out by providing Anne Wareham’s UK greatest hits list…….
As for not being “nice,” I’m a New Yorker, so I have no such qualms!
Sorry for the length of the quote below. It is not intended as a complete response to Anne’s rant but it does put a different complexion on the motives of the owner of the garden. I thank Wybe Kuitert for directing me.
Zen priest Muso Kokushi (1275-1351) who understood the workings of the garden on various levels of appreciation, in his text in Muchū Mondō states:
“From olden times until now there have been many who loved to create little hillocks, place stones, plant trees, and devise a little brook in order to form garden scenery.
And although the fondness for doing this might be the same everywhere, personal ideas always differ. There are those who in their hearts have no particular liking for landscape but ornament their residences because they wish to be admired. And there are also people who collect and love rare treasures only because they cling covetously to a thousand things; since a fine garden is one of these, they seek and amass rare stones and remarkable trees. They do not love the beauty of a fine garden in itself, but only the “common dust” of the world.
Bai Juyi, on the other hand, dug out a little pond, planted bamboo at its edge, and loved it above all else. The bamboo is my best friend, he would say, because its heart is empty; and because water is by its nature pure, it is my master. People who love a garden like Bai Juyi possess a heart like him and do not mix with the “common dust”. There are some among them who, from the depth of their being, are simple and pure and do not prize the dust of the world; but, reciting poems and playing the flute, they nourish their hearts with a garden view. These one should consider to be the kind-hearted ones. They do not search after truth; their pure intentions will be the reason for their continuous Buddhist rebirth.
But there are also people for whom a garden scene dispels sleepiness, comforts loneliness, and sustains their search for truth. They differ in this from the love of gardens felt by the great majority. This must truly be called noble. Because if one draws a distinction between gardens and a search for truth, one cannot really be called a seeker after truth. Those who believe mountains, rivers, the great earth, grasses, trees, and stones to be as of their own being seem, once they love garden landscapes, to cling to the profane world. Yet, they take this worldly feeling springs, stones, grasses, and trees in their changing appearances following the four seasons as a means to search for truth. For the seeker after truth, this is the true way to love a garden.
Therefore there is nothing bad about loving a garden. Nor is it to be praised. There are no merits or demerits with respect to a garden. These are in the mind of men”
BTW The most disappointing garden I have visited in recent years has to be Dumfries House – millions spent and left me cold – thankfully I followed up that day with Chris Jenks’s Keswick House wonder.
A beautiful and thoughtful comment, brought back to earth delightfully by your addition. We are grateful for your warning. (and all such warnings..). Need more clues about Keswick House?
That picture of that house looks really stark – was it supposed to look so much like the one in the movie _Paperhouse_?
I think it predated movies…… but the echo you identify may fit!
What an interesting discussion! As an American who occasionally visits England and other parts of the UK, I do seek out gardens to visit there (and in other countries). I also visit gardens here in the US, though most often the ones that are closest to home. I visit different gardens for different reasons, but all of them offer tranquillity, a break from work and housework, a day spent outdoors enjoying nature and fresh air. I visit botanical gardens to learn more about plants and to see interesting combinations of plants, or just to walk through as a restful outing. I have gone on local garden tours out of curiosity, to see what other gardeners in my area are doing and what plants work here. Many of those are perfectly nice but quite generic — rich people’s gardens designed and tended by paid help. Some have been wonderful, like a cottage garden that fully surrounds a Craftsman bungalow, overflowing with native plants that some consider weeds, as well as heirloom varieties that are “pass-along plants”, mixed with weird folk art. I enjoy visiting gardens designed for children, as they seem to have more of the quirkiness and free spirit that liberates design. I live in the South, where there is a lot of quirky gardening. I love the trend of “urban food forests”. I guess I like gardens that have an actual purpose: to provide play space, to grow vegetables and other edibles, to preserve trees, to highlight art, to bring nature within reach of disabled people, to teach about specific types of plants, to emphasize a remarkable landscape, or just to entertain and offer respite to a homeowner who actually uses the garden. The garden you critique here doesn’t seem to have much of an actual purpose.
Thank you. It’s interesting to consider ‘purpose’. Those could be many, and various, all yours and more.
Though truly I’m not sure what the purpose of mine is. I needed it and the making was quite mad. So mad and exhausting that I don’t like to remember much of that.
I will continue to contemplate whether I can find it a purpose.
sorry Anne: Keswick House in Dumfries is the home of The Garden of Cosmic Speculation.
Ah – OK. Glad you liked it. I’ve heard it described as a theme park – not fair, then?
Perhaps the elephant in the room here is the UK’s National Gardens Scheme where people open their gardens for charity and so obviously such gardens must be ‘lovely’ as they are for good causes. It’s not about quality. I think this has probably brought down the standard of garden opening more widely.
Yes – I’ve been wondering if this is why Americans seem able to speak out freely here but there’s a strange absence of Brits. And why I have been abused in the past for being critical of gardens in the UK…..
The unlabeled fern is probably Polystichum setiferum ‘Smith’s Cruciate’ (syn. ‘Ray Smith’).