Oxford professor, poet, writer, and gardener, James Fenton introduces the premise of the book by saying “Of course, you may say it is only a game, and indeed it is a game: a game of lists...It is a game of choice, but it could be more than a game. At the very least, it could be a way of thinking afresh about how to put a garden together and with what purpose in mind” (3-4).
The Introduction: The Modern Garden
Fenton accuses the gardening media of pressing us into a common garden: one that starts on a piece of paper with a design that starts with bones and builds up to plants and is bought and created almost instantaneously (while leaving a huge hole in the wallet).
The Introduction: An Essential Flower Garden
Fenton acknowledges that there is wisdom to planning a garden the ‘modern’ way. However, he suggests that there are many different ways to garden and he proposes that it would be a good experiment to treat the flowerbed in the way that people who rent a garden allotment in Britain plan for vegetables. They ask themselves a simple question: “What do I want to grow?”
Fenton states the obvious fact that for someone who is gardening on an allotment, design is not a consideration. When they begin planning the garden in January, they compile lists based on desire. What do they want to eat? What kind of challenge interests them? What plant has made them curious?
He goes on to define a flower garden and various logistical and practical issues of growing a flower garden. He makes suggestions and gives helpful hints about starting a basic flower garden. Finally, at the end of the introduction, he writes his thesis: “This is not a book about huge projects. It is about thinking your way towards an essential flower garden, by the most traditional of routes: planting some seeds and seeing how they grow.” (12)
Chapters of Seeds
Following his introduction, Fenton begins his list. He starts his list with a chapter on Flowers and Their Colors. He continues with chapters devoted to plants according to size, self-seeding plants, wandering plants, cutting flowers and so on. His list is a whimsical compilation based on his experiences and personal gardening style. If you enjoy reading lists that contain color commentary, you will enjoy the rest of this book.
Consider this bit of color. “Of the many seeds spread by birds, not all are welcome, but some get left for amusement’s sake. There are one or two bird-sown asparagus plants allowed to grow in the rose garden, on the grounds that, if asparagus fern looks right in a bridegroom’s buttonhole, the thing itself can hardly look wrong among rosebushes. But I wouldn’t defend this reasoning to the death.” (101)
A Book to Renew Freedom in the Garden
However, if you aren’t a list person, it is still worth borrowing this book from the library simply to read the introduction. The introduction is a delightful treatise on flower gardens that will inspire you to rethink the act of gardening.
Don’t worry about the result, gardening is an activity; one that should please the gardener on the most basic level. Some gardeners are planners but many are doers and Fenton’s book appeals to those who see a flower they like and want to do something about it. They don’t want to sit down with a sketchbook to plan its location and worry about where the newly desired flower will fit, they simply want to grow it.
Fenton, James. A Garden from a Hundred Packets of Seed. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001.
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