Has someone ever presented you with an opinion that you found immediately, viscerally challenging, but the self-reflection it caused was incredibly valuable? I thought I’d share one such moment from my gardening life. It would be fascinating to hear your reaction.
About five years ago, I was admiring one of my favourite conceptual gardens at the Hampton Court flower show. Among a collection of avant garde horticultural installations was a design inspired by the issues facing displaced peoples around the world. In the 10 minutes I stood there, before being dragged away with work, I overheard at least half a dozen visitors decrying it, not for its planting, hardscape design, or use or colour or form, but because of the perceived importance of “keeping politics out of gardening”.
My instant reaction was that, whatever your politics, would anyone have ever made a statement like that in an art gallery? After stepping out of the theatre or a film screening? Going to a concert? While I absolutely understand that in a world of increasingly polarised and angry politics, plants might seem like an essential escape, why it is that gardening is not considered to be like any of the other art forms that are shaped by, and also shape, the political world around us?
The only logical conclusion is that if you believe gardening should be a politics-free zone, you don’t consider it a form of art on a par with music, sculpture or cinema, but instead just a sort of frivolous pursuit of decoration. This is a perspective that I feel not only underestimates the intention and skill of horticulturists, but ruins your appreciation and enjoyment of their work.
All aspects of horticulture are based on political ideas. The reason why British-style gardens have been replicated around the planet – recreating the green lawns of Surrey in the deserts of Arizona, or introducing UK wildlife in places as far flung as Australia in order to mould entire landscapes into a “Beatrix Potter” ideal – is because of political beliefs. At flower shows, “tropical” gardens aren’t considered simply to be those using plants from a climate zone, but rather a distinctive style of gardening, usually set with colonial maps and explorers’ pith helmets. This may not seem political to many visitors, but they are, of course, deeply political statements.
That “native” or “heritage” are often used as a byword for “better” in UK gardening, even if the plants given this accolade aren’t actually either, reflects and reinforces inescapably political ideology. In fact, the very idea that politics should be kept out of gardening is itself a resoundingly political statement, as it dismisses the status quo as apolitical, objective reality and anything challenging it as inapposite “activism”.
You may think I am bang on the money. You may read this with a massive eye-roll. I’d be happy with either reaction. Gardening, like all art, is made richer, more interesting and dynamic by the flowering of different ideas.
Follow James on Twitter @Botanygeek