Why make a garden?

Press, 27 July 1985, Page 20

Why make a garden?

Classic Garden Design. By Rosemary Verey. Penguin/Viking, 1985. 156 pp. Illustrations, index. $35. (Reviewed by Thelma Strongman) Rosemary Verey, who is known for her co-editorship of “The Englishwoman’s Garden” and “The Englishman's Garden,” and for her acclaimed book “The Scented Garden,” has produced another important book concerned with design, fashion and the furtherance of a personal taste in the garden. In “Classic Garden Design” she discusses aspects of garden history and its application to modern ideas. The book is well-illustrated and it is refreshing to find emphasis placed on the philosophies and traditions on which the design of gardens is based, together with an examination of traditional structural components. Rosemary Verey’s book clearly demonstrates that gardens are not just places where plants are grown, and that she is more concerned with garden art than with aspects of horticulture. Other aspects of modern and historical design include discussions on paths, alleys and walks, on beds and borders, rock gardens, water gardens, and garden ornaments. These chapters demonstrate that although gardens are partly the result of individual creativity, they also have a wider part to play in a continuing social history of artistic taste and fashion. Why do we make a garden? One

answer that this book provides is that a garden represents to its creator a world different from that of the real world. A garden also offers an opportunity for man to regulate at least one aspect of his life, to control his environment, and to show himself as he wishes to be. Much of Rosemary Verey’s personal ideal seems to lean towards a formality of design within the garden. There are chapters on the waxing and waning fashion for topiary and knot gardens; her own highly decorative and beautiful kitchen garden and herb garden are laid out in interesting geometric patterns with oldfashioned edgings of lavender and box. An interesting recent revival in Britain, influenced by the need for conservation, is also included in Rosemary Verey’s book. This is the natural, or more specifically, the meadow garden. Here, Mrs Verey acknowledges a lack of experience in the area and includes an item written by Chris Baines who demonstrated his ideas in a display garden at this year’s Chelsea Show. This idea might be taken up locally in Canterbury. Would we continue to emulate English gardens by replanting our lawns with English wild flowers, or would we adapt the idea and make a tussock grassland or a mountain herbfield with our own native plants? There are many interesting possibilities.