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Monday, May 30, 2011

The Bad Tempered Gardener by Anne Wareham

Anne Wareham’s new book, The Bad Tempered Gardener, is irreverent, honest, funny, gossipy, and personally revealing. It's one of those books that practically reads itself. I didn't want to put it down.

Anne isn’t well known in the US, but in her home UK she has a reputation for stirring up quite a storm of controversy. She questions the status quo, the veneer of complacency that permeates the gardening world, the unspoken rule that one can say only polite things about gardens, never be critical or even honestly analytical. She annoys people—and many are important people in the British gardening firmament. Anne does have the manner of the elephant in the china shop, which she readily admits.

She also sees the gardening media as being complicit in all this. Not to say they are evil; they need to sell books, magazines, TV shows, and of course everyone wants to see pretty garden pictures; almost no one wants serious discussion or critical analysis; this is a sign of our times. Anne is one of the few, apparently, who is bothered greatly that gardening is relegated to an irrelevant place in our culture. She asks why that is. She apparently can’t stop herself from wildly gesticulating and pointing lewdly when she sees the Emperor walking naked in the street.

Anne Wareham takes “The Garden” seriously. She wants the garden to return to the important position it held in past times and cultures. I think she’s on to something:  the diminished importance of the garden as an artistic and moral work in our culture—now viewed as a hobby, like making model airplanes, or at the opposite extreme, as an expensive trophy of the wealthy—is a symptom of something out of kilter at a much deeper level. (I should admit my bias here; I’m on her side of this issue.)

A miscellany in the good sense, with a bit of biography, soul searching, garden history, media criticism, funny stories (“I hate gardening”), all presented as a series of generally chronological essays, varying widely in subject and tone, it’s just the kind of book you can dip into at any time of day or night; great for commuters. A collection of thematically related essays, generally covering the making of her garden, The Veddw, on the border of Wales, The Bad Tempered Gardener, to my  mind belongs with a group of fine, lesser known works, some classics. At the moment only a handful immediately come to mind, and they are all personal and idiosyncratic in some way—Eleanor Perenyi’s Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden, though you would probably have a hard time imagining two more different sensibilities, Mirabel Osler’s A Gentle Plea for Chaos, likewise a vastly different style and voice from Anne’s, G. F. Dutton’s Some Branch Against the Sky. They may disappear from sight for long periods, then be found again, bob to the surface on some metaphorical seashore, perhaps to be republished, or used copies will be ordered from Amazon or Ebay. They’re like messages in bottles, simply there in the mass of garden media “noise,” carrying messages that may be found by like minds in the future, perhaps to spark new ideas at a more propitious time.

As I was looking through the latest issue of Gardens Illustrated this week, I was wowed by the photos, but the text hardly registered as anything more than a neutral ground against which to display the photos. Even when I read an article, I was left thinking, ‘What’s the point of this?’ Perhaps someone designed, or had someone else design, a beautiful garden, but to what end? A few pleasant places to sit? Pretty vistas and plant pictures? Dramatic allees of hornbeams or pristine topiary? A  spectacular display of garden talent? Why is there no consistent concern with meaning, with aspiration for making something more than pretty gardens?

There’s no slickness in The Bad Tempered Gardener, no “garden porn,” though Charles Hawes' small garden photos give us helpful windows into The Veddw. I think of the glossy garden magazines, innumerable books displaying the gardens of the wealthy or famous—all surface glitter, stimulating unrealistic aspiration among the less well-to-do, giving The Garden a romantic glow but no meaning beyond the appreciation of a well designed stage set.

We need more books full of words about gardens. This one is funny, annoying, stimulating, and immensely sad. Please read it with an open mind and see if you don’t find much to think on.

16 comments:

  1. Really enjoyed your review, James. I'm sure you know this, but MIrabel Osler's A Gentle Plea For Chaos has just been republished by Bloomsbury to coincide with the publication of her memoir, The Rain Tree. I haven't reviewed The Rain Tree yet (too busy with the Chelsea Flower Show), but I wrote about it in my column last week - http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/victoria-summerley-chelseas-hardy-perennial-argument-2289551.html

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  2. I look forward to reading Anne Wareham, now you've given The Bad Tempered Gardener such an excellent outline, James. Like others who reflect on gardens, I see much more in them than is popularly presented.

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  3. Victoria, Thank you for letting me know about republication of a Gentle Plea for Chaos, and about The Rain Tree. I don't believe I was aware of either.

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  4. I think you'll find the book of interest, Faisal. You know Billy Martin, don't you? I can't remember whether I came into contact with Anne via Billy, or with Billy via Anne. It was around the time Billy gave his Vista lecture in London. (Though Gardens Illustrated has removed it from their podcasts, I downloaded a copy so still have it in, I believe, MP3 format.)

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  5. Yes, James, Billy's given me real help and inspiration. His garden is a knock-out ( I, too, downloaded his Vista lecture ). I'm interested to hear those who may be vexed by notions of garden design that limit its evolution and integrity.

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  6. A great review, thanks. I always like to read reviews after reading the book and it's good to find sympathy with much of what you say. I think it's important to understand, though, that gardening IS a hobby for many of us, and we wouldn't want it to be any other way. My unstructured and plant-rich borders and my wild mini-meadows give me as much artistic buzz as looking at any immaculately designed but plant-poor installation.

    'Grand manner' gardens of previous generations were the exclusive domain of the rich or the aristocratic, and to me, wandering round many of them is as boring as watching asphalt being laid. I get no artistic or emotional buzz from the turfed earthworks which are popping up here and there, even on ducal properties, or of ludicrously restored parterres. They're fine for some folk, and I respect that, but to me, they are not gardening.

    Perhaps, in a nutshell, there's a tendency to confuse Great Gardens with Great Gardening.

    Also, I don't think The garden as ART has declined or advanced. It just is.

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  7. Ha James..I think I maybe alerted you to the Pommy curmudgeons society..but who cares! Great review but i truly wonder whether those of us who regard gardens as all the stuff you write about is of any import... times have changed and so too the perceptions about garden worth. I don't buy any garden related books or magazines anymore and never have i felt the need to buy more than a handful of copies of the rather precious G.I....I have been thinking that the new garden related preoccupation is to navel gaze and moan about what is and what is not. I am well and truly over ALL of it..
    Cheers
    Billy

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  8. Thanks, Nigel, for making those points. I have to say writing that review set me on a little word expedition to discover the origin of the word "hobby," which is a long and strange one. It appears when Sterne pokes fun at Uncle Toby's "hobby horse" in Tristram Shandy (his almost obsessive building of small military fortifications and miniature reenactments of military engagements), we are reading one of the early uses of the term that became the modern word "hobby." I suppose that's the long way of getting to the point that I don't think there is anything wrong with gardening as a hobby. It's all a matter of context and options. Here in the good ole USA, we don't have your British gardening tradition. People tend to be confused, annoyed, even outraged by use of botanical names for plants. Most gardens are "front yards" uniformly boring, almost all grass maintained at great labor and cost. I only wish we had more people, like you, who love, as you say, "Great Gardening." And then there is humor in the garden--an entirely different subject--and one of which you are a master, certainly as revealed in your blog. Hey, I love plants too. I have five Lespediza thunbergii 'Gibralter' in my garden.

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  9. Billy, a voice crying in the wilderness, is that what I am? I admit a changing world sometimes seems to make gardening irrelevant. Of course, there are those who think "growing their own" will solve the food problem for the starving billions (what a foolish idea). But I figure among those billions, there will always be a few million gardeners, many different kinds of gardeners, or artists, or whatever. Of course there's lots of navel gazing, but that goes on everywhere, not just among gardeners and garden designers. I'm not sure what you mean, other than you're fed up with it all. But Wigandia will continue, won't it?

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  10. Hi James as Nigel put it " Also, I don't think The garden as ART has declined or advanced. It just is." is about right methinks! i think you need to open your garden to the public on set dates (do you?) to allow the gardening public to view your work and to pass on their thoughts and feelings 'in-situ'..no other form of 'critique' comes within a bulls roar of this..I have done it many times but have decided to quit because i no longer enjoy the process. The garden press is just another self serving medium to keep THEIR boat afloat and garden creators are mere fodder for that process. My garden I have decided is an anachronism in these 'decor' style times and perhaps i should allow it to be grazed by cattle or sheep or hire a earth moving machine for a day to have some fun. Perhaps i will invite Mr Tim Richardson to 'review' the devolution of a gardenscape and submit a story to gardens Illustrated..they sure need some fresh idea's!

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  11. Is anonymous an Aussie curmudgeon?

    I've read reviews of this book in both G I and Graham Rice's blog. I enjoyed yours.

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  12. Rob (ourfrenchgarden) said...
    Is anonymous an Aussie curmudgeon?
    Ah some defence of the realm...It may be but i am a scots/german with an overlay of antipodean irreverence!
    best
    anonymous

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  13. Rob,

    The anonymous one you refer to has created an extraordinary garden called Wigandia. Check out www.wigandia.com. He may be a curmudgeon, but some have called me that too.

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  14. Curmudgeon is good.

    I'm in the middle of reading The Bad Tempered Gardener and finding it as thought=provoking as you did. A good review.

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  15. Glad to hear some Americans are reading it.

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  16. Mmmm I do agree with you on
    "As I was looking through the latest issue of Gardens Illustrated this week, I was wowed by the photos, but the text hardly registered as anything more than a neutral ground against which to display the photos. Even when I read an article, I was left thinking, ‘What’s the point of this?’ Perhaps someone designed, or had someone else design, a beautiful garden, but to what end? A few pleasant places to sit? Pretty vistas and plant pictures? Dramatic allees of hornbeams or pristine topiary? A spectacular display of garden talent? Why is there no consistent concern with meaning, with aspiration for making something more than pretty gardens?

    There’s no slickness in The Bad Tempered Gardener, no “garden porn,” though Charles Hawes' small garden photos give us helpful windows into The Veddw. I think of the glossy garden magazines, innumerable books displaying the gardens of the wealthy or famous—all surface glitter, stimulating unrealistic aspiration among the less well-to-do, giving The Garden a romantic glow but no meaning beyond the appreciation of a well designed stage set."

    Over the last 10 years or so i have dealt with the whole gamut of the garden world media..from numerous TV outings and a plethra of print stuff from books to newspapers and by and large the producers and writers have little interest in anything beyond base information to sell the story and to fit the format for their target audience. This process more often than not dumbs down everything to keep the average punter happy. The majority of the gardening public are more interested in the craft of gardening and have little interest in anything deeper and so too the garden 'industry' is about selling 'gardening' product over and over and over.
    Good images of plants and gardens will always outsell wordy tomes but sadly all too often the 'type' of image chosen in these publications is as clichéd as the words.
    Substance and style rarely meet.

    william martin

    'wigandia'

    Australia

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