Can professional designers really hope to emulate those for whom a garden is a life’s work?
These are high achievements for professional designers to aim towards….
“You Should Have Been Here Last Week” by Tim Richardson reviewed by Bridget Rosewell
This is one of those (few) books every thinkingardener wants to have to read in the bath. And this is another re-issue. Anne Wareham, editor. ‘You Should Have Been Here Last Week – Sharp Cuttings from a Garden Writer’ Bridget Rosewell: Did you know that John Denham...
Peer review by Bunny Guinness
Bunny Guinness recently wrote this piece for the Telegraph and it was published in the newspaper. It has not yet appeared online though, so I asked (and received) her permission to use it here. Many thinkingardens readers will already be familiar with this topic and...
The New English Garden by Tim Richardson reviewed by Bridget Rosewell
Here is a review of the winner of a Garden Media Guild Awards ‘Inspirational Book of the Year.’ I know it was the winner because Marianne Majerus and I judged them. O, and for certain characters who asked about the inclusions elsewhere – Veddw is in...
Conspicuous Design by Tim Richardson
I am very grateful for the generosity of Tim Richardson and the editor, Sarah Giles, of the Garden Design Journal for permitting me to use this piece, which I think raises an issue, as Tim says, of special importance to designers of small gardens. (as opposed to small...
Tim Richardson challenges ‘real gardeners’ over garden design
“The anti-design agenda of some parts of the horticultural world is in part based on a shires-gentry brand of anti-intellectualism which sees design, and talk of design, as essentially vulgar.The country-garden conceit is that you just throw it all together and then, as a result of genetics or feudalism or something, it happens to look good…”
Did you say the “G” word? Wash your mouth out with soap
by Tim Richardson.
” – the idea of gardens and gardening comes freighted with apparently unassailable connotations of bourgeois mediocrity and convention, accompanied by visions of elderliness and amateurism.”
Avant Gardeners: 50 visionaries of the Contemporary Landscape by Tim Richardson
Reviewed by Bridget Rosewell.
“…..Moreover, it is not obvious how these ideas relate to conceptual gardens, though they would certainly give apoplexy to those who believe that gardens are about nice plants.”
Little Sparta by Tim Richardson
by Tim Richardson.
“….we are reminded of Finlay’s dictum: “Embark on a garden with a vision but never with a plan….”
Should we trust anyone’s opinion on a garden except our own?
by Tim Richardson.
“Beth Chatto’s garden was never going to be ‘my thing’, exactly, but I found it all rather underwhelming….”
Considerations for garden visitors by Anne Wareham
by Anne Wareham.
“Try some adjectives: – risk taking, banal, complacent, incomprehensible, exciting, disturbing? – to help you focus on just what you feel about it.”
With responses from Mike Gerrard, Antony Woodward, Tim Richardson, Jenny Woods, Clive Nichols, Chris Young, Yue Zhuang and Rebecca Wells.
The Garden of Cosmic Speculation reviewed by Tim Richardson
“…The Garden of Cosmic Speculation is no longer a dialogue with the universe, it is a monologue about the universe. It is becoming The Garden of Comic Extrapolation, and someone needs to say it.”
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.”
Introduction from “Vista – The Culture and Politics of Gardens”
by Noel Kingsbury and Tim Richardson.
“The reason we feel Vista is necessary now is because there seems to be a gulf between academic writing on gardens which tends to be about history and commercial writing on gardens, which focuses either on practical horticulture and plantsman-ship, or on descriptions of individual gardens.”
Recent Posts from: Veddw
I’ve fallen in love with these.
I love my garden, I do. It’s at the heart of my life. But just recently I’ve been drawn back and back to a windowsill with some sweet dwarf pelargoniums.
Favour the Ferns
Many years ago The Financial Times sent me to do a feature on the RHS ‘Flower Show’ at Tatton Park . I was totally naïve and had no idea what I was supposed to do or to write about. So my excitement was tempered by acute anxiety. The term ‘imposter syndrome’ could have been invented for me. […]
Snowdrop mania is coming…
In the UK, right now, the horticultural world is about to drive us all mad with snowdrops. Pictures of. Articles about. Gardens with them. Anything people can think of to bash us over the head with snowdrops.
Brilliant Brecon
Recently we made a visit to Brecon. This is not far from us, in case anyone was getting over excited about the possibility that I might have been travelling again. It’s in Wales, in the Brecon Beacons, recently re-christened Bannau Brycheiniog.
You should have been here Next Year
Charles made a complaint recently when we were walking in the garden.
When I complained about him complaining he told me that it was good for me to have complaints about the planting.
