Noel Kingsbury on “Girly Gardens – or not?”
“I’ve had a look at the Ann Pearce garden, and for I’m afraid me it sums up so much of what I really hate about modern garden design – subjectively I found it sterile and unfeeling; objectively unsustainable and wildlife-unfriendly. Sorry, I hate saying this about people’s work, but we are meant to be engaged in a debate here, and I am just going to say what I think. Give me a girly garden full of flowers. Or for that matter an old guy with loads of petunias and French marigolds at 330mm intervals. Or a load of weeds…”
Bridget Rosewell responds to comments on “Girly Gardens – or not?”
“When I was a resident of West Oxfordshire – flat Thames plain – I became very interested in the hortus conclusus perhaps as an escape and contrast to that boring agricultural landscape in which Didcot Power Station is visible from practically everywhere. And I wanted detail, planted order and planted cornucopia to give me variety. Now I live in London and Monmouthshire amid very different landscapes…”
Anne Beswick on “Girly Gardens – or not?”
“I first saw Ann Pearce’s garden in The Times of Jan 06 and thought it was great. I took the article in to an evening class I was doing in garden design. They had learnt to look at things other than bright flower colour and were now happy with ideas of balance and proportion in the garden. But they didn’t like Ann’s garden. ‘It’s all right, but not for me’ was the general consensus. Leading people out of their comfort zone is difficult.
I confess that I was a bit disappointed.”
Ann Pearce on “Girly Gardens – or not?”
“I would like to begin my reply to Bridget’s response by quoting Stendhal …….. ‘what we find beautiful is the promise of happiness’. As we all know, the pursuit of happiness is not only a deeply personal one but also highly elusive and ever changing due to the complex world we live in. Therefore there are as many styles of beauty (or gorgeousness!!) as there are visions of happiness.”
Andrew Wilson responds to “Gender and the Garden World” by Anne Wareham
Andrew Wilson responds to Anne Wareham’s article on gender and the garden world.
Jo Eliot responds to “Gender and the Garden World” by Anne Wareham
Jo Eliot comments on Anne Wareham’s article on gender and the garden world.
Benedict Vanheems on “Girly Gardens – or not?”
“In response to Bridget Rosewell’s comments on the need for a balance between structure and the looser floral elements of a garden, I think she has made a very important point. Balancing the two will bring harmony to any garden…”
Girly Gardens – or not?
by Bridget Rosewell.
“I am not interested in girly – give me gorgeous though. I would describe the Ann Pearce garden as ‘impressive’ and ‘striking’ but not ‘gorgeous’. Gorgeous implies something more?”
Gender and the Garden World
by Anne Wareham.
“Carol Klein: ‘Many viewers assumed that I’d turned down the job but in fact I was never offered it. Had I been asked, I would have loved to have done it.’”
A more flexible approach to Garden Design?
by Peter Thomas.
“…Within the field of garden design this concept is expressed through the use of a limited palette of materials and colours, and an emphasis on the functional — a format that is still prevalent today.”
Gardens as pills…or not
by Tim Richardson.
“….In such a view, gardening is innocent, guileless and healthy, while garden design is cynical, unncessary and corrupted by too much knowledge and thought.”
“Is gardening an art form?” by Roger Phillips
by Roger Phillips.
“It is a sculpture in which you can walk, sit, drink or sing. In other words it encourages the visitor to play an active role. He or she becomes a part of the garden…”
Light, time and tradition
by Bridget Rosewell.
A response to Peter Osbourne’s series of articles adressing some of the problematic aspects of reviewing/criticising gardens.
“I love gardens in winter (not winter gardens). When the palette is muted and the bones show, and it is not wise to sit for too long, the good garden gives a frisson all of its own.”
A Joy Forever?
The third of three articles by Peter Osbourne.
“…But most people would, I think, recognize some different basic levels of value. A parallel in art would be to agree not to replace a Leonardo on the National Gallery wall with your 2-year old’s latest, that the average amateur artist is not up to Cotman, nor he up to Leonardo.”
Pretty as a Picture
The second of three articles by Peter Osbourne.
“…This formal vocabulary, together with garden-specific terms in any good glossary, is sufficiently objective and well-established to provide an analytical basis for garden criticism, but is not an evaluative language.”
