‘These trees shall be my books’ proclaims Orlando to Rosalind in Act III of Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’ and reading was a theme at the Chelsea Flower show this year, with the Woodland Trust’s ‘Forgotten Forests Garden’ by Ashleigh Aylett even being decorated by statues of stacks of books and trees whose branches were adorned with quotations.
With this in mind, it feels highly appropriate for us to celebrate this year’s Chelsea Flower Show by providing you with some reading recommendations that reflect the breadth of the gardening delights which were on offer! Our first recommendation is our beautifully illustrated copy of ‘Shakespeare’s Stories’ by Leon Garfield. The highlight of this book is the depiction of another forgotten forest garden, that of the forest surrounding Athens in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ (see illustration below).
The winner of this year’s show was of course Sarah Eberle’s stunning garden featuring an enormous statue of the goddess of the earth, Gaia, which was hand cut using a chain saw (see the cover photo of this blog). Gaia has been a contentious literary figure for a number of years, particularly following the use of her vengeful persona in James Lovelock’s ground-breaking 1970s work, ‘The Gaia Hypothesis’, which was amongst the first books to address the impact of human behaviour on the planet’s climate. Eberle’s Gaia, on the other hand, is a gently sleeping figure. For an extensive examination of Greek myths and their relationship to the rest of the world’s mythology, the best book to read is Andrew Lang’s ‘Custom and Myth’, pictured below.
Sarah Eberle’s garden was not the only one to feature a sculptural work this year. Of smaller proportions is the Barbara Hepworth that formed part of Tom Stuart Smith’s show garden (see my photo above). This garden will soon occupy a larger space, as it is being built at the front of Tate Britain in the heart of London. It is therefore appropriate that it should contain a work by one of Britain’s greatest and most boundary pushing sculptors. For more information about Barbara Hepworth and her life, we would recommend the Tate’s own extensive book about her work, from which the image of her below is taken.
It wasn’t only the show gardens that caught the eye this year. The displays of indoor plants were particularly decadent, especially ‘The Hanging Gardens of Botanica’ by the Botanica Studio (see above). For those encouraged to try their hand at this technique, a good place to start would be the Reader’s Digest copy of ‘Success with Houseplants’.
Another show stopper was this vegetable stand by Sea Spring Seeds:
The vegetables on display were enough to make my mouth water. If you’re suffering from something similar, perhaps you need to buy ‘New Food for a Vegetarian Family’ by Simon Hope.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Chelsea Flower Show reading list if we didn’t include one book about practical gardening. Our recommendation is the classic by A Forbes Sieveking, as Chelsea Flower Show has indeed made it feel like ‘The Praise of Gardens’ is a thing worth celebrating.
