The passionate gardener

     I'm reading some very elegant fiction just now, and alongside that some equally beautifully written non-fiction. But regarding the latter, while there's no doubt that Monty Don is a wordsmith, what is every bit as obvious is his absolute passion for his subject: for making and tending and re-making and living in and with a garden.

     The Ivington Diaries is his record of creating his own garden from a two-acre field. Using diary entries spanning the years from the early days up to the present he recounts every step and stage, every pleasure, pain and preoccupation associated with having a garden. This is not a manual, a how-to book or a set of seasonal reminders - though the reader will learn much - more than all those things, it's one man's acccount of his relationship with the soil and what grows from it, and above all with his own 'place'. He is very clear on that, saying "... it is not an idea or technique or any particular plant combination that makes a garden lovely but that sense of place - the indefinable quality that makes you want to be here - which the gardener falls in love with. And this book, above anything else, is a love story."

    It certainly is that, and as intimate and personal as any love story is. As a lover does, he notices things - not just the obvious, but the details such as the play of frosty moonlight on topiary yews or the simple beauty in a hazel hurdle. As much an idealist as a realist, he is very honest about his own shortcomings and about showing things as they are, so many of the book's photographs (all his own, too) reveal the working side of the garden, the business end, the way things get done. But there's passion on every page, whether he is discussing the efficacy of a mulch of mushroom compost, or describing "the full curve of hip and buttock with the tuck of waist" on tulips: "decorously beautiful while being outrageously sexy", you can sense the quickening of the pulse. Isn't that what writing is all about?

    

Comments

[Karen]

I am an avid reader of garden books, despite (or perhaps because of) living in a 16th-floor apartment with no access to any outdoor living space, and I very much enjoyed one of his previous books, The Jewel Garden. Now you have me salivating over this one!

[Cornflower]

Yes, I loved The Jewel Garden, too, Karen, and went to hear Monty and Sarah Don talk about it at the Book Festival a few years ago. Nothing to do with gardening but if I remember correctly, he is always called Montagu at home and only gets 'Monty' when his wife is cross with him!

[Mary McCartney]

I loved 'The Jewel Garden' too and also 'My Roots', a collection of his articles from The Observer. I read it over and over again and still cry every time at the death of one of his dogs.

[Cornflower]

I must get 'My Roots', Mary. Thankyou!

[Dark Puss]

Love the description of tulips (or was it of Lady M?). I'm not a wordsmith and I fear most of my passions are becoming dulled with advancing years, however I hope I can still recognise my pulse racing a little.

As always a truly splended summary.

[christine]

Oh, this sounds absolutely wonderful. I have come to love gardening in recent years. I am going to have to keep an eye out for this book! Wonderful review!

[susievereker.blogspot.com]

That's interesting. I love Monty Don and was so sorry he had to leave Gardeners' World.

[BonsaiBetty]

My mother introduced me to gardening and I can't get enough. I live in NYC so for the winter months I garden inside with my hydroponic set up and get excellent results.