The Garden is a Work of Art?

What am I going to write about this month with my mind full of horrible scenarios? I tell myself there is life beyond 1080 running into our water catchment area. And something inside me answers back, "You hope"

I have taken the photos to accompany this article. This always calms me down and puts hope into my thoughts. The garden is my friend and always comforts me. I return to the house, picking up the mail from the letter box. Ah! The August edition of "The Garden", the journal of the Royal Horticulture Society, I will take a few moments to flick through the magazine instead of adding it to the pile 'to be read when I have some spare time' on a table in the sitting room at 'Kibbenjelok'. That may jolt me out of my author's block.

Hallelujah! In the section 'Viewpoint' there is an article by Anne Wareham entitled "An artist's plot". I will paraphrase the article as best I can.

In her first paragraph she forwards the suggestion that gardening as an art form is 'sloppy' thinking and asks the question "Should they be given the same critical treatment as a painting or a novel?". As proof of this she declares the garden visitors certainly do not believe this. To prove her own theory she transfers the garden visitor into an art gallery and suggests that the viewers would be examine the paints [which would be covered with name tags] and then the visitor would rush to the nearest art shop to buy that shade of paint.

I think this is a ridiculous supposition. From experience and entry into our 'Visitors Book' after an open day, the remarks we have received go something like this - "Your gardens are so peaceful", "Just lovely", "So romantic", "I will come back" and one of my favourite "I just loved your garden, especially the Rhododendrums [sic]"

M/s Wareham goes on to remark that there is always a distinction between 'private gardens and those open to the public'. Here I must quote directly from the article, and she is speaking of the gardens in England and Wales 'A garden is a private concern, but, once a garden is open to the public, expectations should rise. Unfortunately, these are often hampered by the burden of having to be open for charity, a problem which invariably leads to an amateurish approach'. She goes on to write that visiting gardens is a charitable exercise. She suggests that garden owners would not open their gardens if they were open to critical remarks and to get back to her first question she states that writers, artists or musicians all welcome critical reviews that prove they are being taken seriously. Hmmm

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