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A Gentle Plea for Chaos
In this book the author describes the way her garden evolved and how, without meaning to do so, she let it take over her life. She suggests moving away from planning, regimentation and gardening with the mentality of a stamp-collector. Frequently funny and always stimulating, she writes of the alchemy of gardens, of the 19th-century plant-collectors and plant illustrators and of the gardening philosophers, all fertilizing great thoughts along with their hollyhocks. She won the 1988 Sinclair Consumer Press Garden Writer of the Year Award.
191 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 19, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
March 9, 2019
“At the heart of gardening there is a belief in the miraculous.”- Mirabel Osler
My garden is thirty years old now and has changed a great bit from when we first started it. It was an acre of tall weeds, ivy and dead trees and is now a flourishing and certified wildlife habitat. I know that author, Mirabel Osler, had something to do with opening my eyes to what a garden can truly be and provide for both people and animals. The author writes “ To be able to sit under the branches of a tree you just planted is really to feel you have arrived with your garden.”
I consider this lovely book a must-have classic for all gardeners and nature lovers. It gave me permission to plant the way I like my gardens to look (natural cottage, native, loose and unstructured to some degree) She made me re-think what a “proper” garden looks like. She writes: “Surely ruminating and lolling, squandering slivers of time as you ponder on this or that plant; perching about the place on seats chosen for their essential and individual quality, are other whole aspects of being a gardener. Why shouldn't we? We sit in other people's gardens, why not in our own.” Her words sunk in and I started realizing I needed to sit and enjoy more, observe more and just putter to be truly happy as the keeper of my garden. It wasn't just hard work, dirty boots and weed pulling, it was noticing what you have around you and delighting in it.
She does not dismiss having the good bones of a garden but rather gives the reader the idea that everything in a garden does not have to be in “perfect neat straight rows” which is the way I viewed the tidy gardens where I grew up. Mirabelle was a English writer and garden designer and sadly the book was published the same year she lost her dear husband Michael, in 1989. She passed in 2016 and I so appreciate her books
“There is no "End" to be written, neither can you, like an architect, engrave in stone the day the garden was finished. A painter can frame his picture, a composer can notate his coda, but a garden is always on the move” she writes. She gave us a book that is unique, thought provoking and very original. Five green stars.
My garden is thirty years old now and has changed a great bit from when we first started it. It was an acre of tall weeds, ivy and dead trees and is now a flourishing and certified wildlife habitat. I know that author, Mirabel Osler, had something to do with opening my eyes to what a garden can truly be and provide for both people and animals. The author writes “ To be able to sit under the branches of a tree you just planted is really to feel you have arrived with your garden.”
I consider this lovely book a must-have classic for all gardeners and nature lovers. It gave me permission to plant the way I like my gardens to look (natural cottage, native, loose and unstructured to some degree) She made me re-think what a “proper” garden looks like. She writes: “Surely ruminating and lolling, squandering slivers of time as you ponder on this or that plant; perching about the place on seats chosen for their essential and individual quality, are other whole aspects of being a gardener. Why shouldn't we? We sit in other people's gardens, why not in our own.” Her words sunk in and I started realizing I needed to sit and enjoy more, observe more and just putter to be truly happy as the keeper of my garden. It wasn't just hard work, dirty boots and weed pulling, it was noticing what you have around you and delighting in it.
She does not dismiss having the good bones of a garden but rather gives the reader the idea that everything in a garden does not have to be in “perfect neat straight rows” which is the way I viewed the tidy gardens where I grew up. Mirabelle was a English writer and garden designer and sadly the book was published the same year she lost her dear husband Michael, in 1989. She passed in 2016 and I so appreciate her books
“There is no "End" to be written, neither can you, like an architect, engrave in stone the day the garden was finished. A painter can frame his picture, a composer can notate his coda, but a garden is always on the move” she writes. She gave us a book that is unique, thought provoking and very original. Five green stars.
March 27, 2013
For gardeners, or more appropriately attemptors at gardening, A Gentle Plea will be a godsend. Mirabel Osler, a discerning, clever and gentle English writer, basically tells us to cool it and not get so frantic about playing in the dirt. Enjoy it more. Sort of smell the roses and don't be too upset if the deer got most of them. It's a lovely, lovely book written by a lovely, lovely writer. Just the pick-me-up one needs after a hard day's grubbing about trying to foil the forces of nature.
January 18, 2020
The prose in this book is as decadent and rich as the first few flowers of spring. It transported me from the dull grays of winter into the gardens of summer. I loved every second of reading it.
June 25, 2020
Första trädgårdsboken jag läst från pärm till pärm, ord för ord. I själva verket är den som en brittisk Walden. Väldigt fin.
August 2, 2010
Osler describes the process of creating her own garden and how it turned her and her husband into gardeners - not full of specific plant advice, illustrations, or pictures; rather reflections on aspects of gardening, and as the title says, a plea for less tidiness and more disorder in the garden. A pleasant book, though perhaps not as good as A Breath from Elsewhere, which I enjoyed more for some reason that I can't pin down.
January 3, 2015
I just loved her flow, and her husband Michael added interest, with all their observations, and pairings of roses and clematis that worked well together, it just captured my imagination, and led me right to my nursery catalogs.
December 1, 2024
Enjoyable and filled with gardening tips and history and other thoughts from the author. Fun read with a book group.
August 8, 2021
An opinionated & discursive authorial voice, Osler apparently made quite a stir back in the day. To the modern reader, it may not seem so surprising that wild & naturalistic planting can be something to strive for.
Overall, it was a quick read, though I don't think I'll remember much from it, to be honest. I did enjoy that she was willing to talk about her failures. But, without a creek and a large area to reforest myself, it seems as much a fantasy to me as those winter garden plans she talks about. (the "imaginary gardening" and "lists of plants" struck a chord!).
Overall, it was a quick read, though I don't think I'll remember much from it, to be honest. I did enjoy that she was willing to talk about her failures. But, without a creek and a large area to reforest myself, it seems as much a fantasy to me as those winter garden plans she talks about. (the "imaginary gardening" and "lists of plants" struck a chord!).
Read
August 8, 2018Lovely book
January 31, 2013
I have read Michael Pollan's comment that when this book was first published in 1989, it blew fresh air into the stuffy precincts of English garden writing. (The re-issuance was apparently timed to coincide with the 2011 publication of Osler's memoirs, The Rain Tree, which I hope to read). For an American gardener reading two decades later, much of that original context simply doesn't translate, but the book does offer points of interest. It's probably helpful to understand A Gentle Plea as a set of casual meditations, each a few pages long, without attaching any significance to the chapters into which they are grouped. Passages that particularly struck me included:
* a speculation on what American gardens might be like (93- 97; Olser and her husband had lived and traveled all over the world, but never in America).
* a short history of botanical illustration (112-122).
* a description of three of Olser's favorite gardens(162 - 174).
Overall, to the extent that the book has an overarching message - beyond sharing the deep pleasure Olser and her husband took in planting and tending trees, shrubs, and roses together - it is a recommendation to relax and let the garden grow, even become a bit unruly. The book ends with blunt sorrow: a short sentence notes the death of Osler's husband Michael in the spring of 1989, between the time she finished writing the work and its publication. For me at least, that final sentence turns the book's insouciance on its head, rendering it impossible to read with the spirit in which it was written, and making her frequent affectionate references to her husband throughout the work poignant rather than blithe.
* a speculation on what American gardens might be like (93- 97; Olser and her husband had lived and traveled all over the world, but never in America).
* a short history of botanical illustration (112-122).
* a description of three of Olser's favorite gardens(162 - 174).
Overall, to the extent that the book has an overarching message - beyond sharing the deep pleasure Olser and her husband took in planting and tending trees, shrubs, and roses together - it is a recommendation to relax and let the garden grow, even become a bit unruly. The book ends with blunt sorrow: a short sentence notes the death of Osler's husband Michael in the spring of 1989, between the time she finished writing the work and its publication. For me at least, that final sentence turns the book's insouciance on its head, rendering it impossible to read with the spirit in which it was written, and making her frequent affectionate references to her husband throughout the work poignant rather than blithe.
November 6, 2009
Regarded in some gardening circles as a "must read."
A truly inspirational book.
The author and her husband create a garden on a scale that makes my own efforts seem miniature by comparison.
It is an adventure reminiscent of The Twelve Tasks of Hercules.
And it ends on a sad note when her husband passes on.
Funny, sad, wise, and more all rolled into one.
I want to read many more books like this.
A truly inspirational book.
The author and her husband create a garden on a scale that makes my own efforts seem miniature by comparison.
It is an adventure reminiscent of The Twelve Tasks of Hercules.
And it ends on a sad note when her husband passes on.
Funny, sad, wise, and more all rolled into one.
I want to read many more books like this.
October 19, 2013
A rambling book like her roses. Often nicely constructed prose, but I just didn't see the point of the book. She's very opinionated and just a little smug leading to my not really expecting to like her, which lowers the tolerance level.
Katherine Swift's books of a similar genre have a better structure and enticed me to get to see her garden. Although Mirabel's garden is in the same county as I live, I don't think I'd bother.
Katherine Swift's books of a similar genre have a better structure and enticed me to get to see her garden. Although Mirabel's garden is in the same county as I live, I don't think I'd bother.
Read
April 26, 2021Felt a bit like tagging along on a UK garden tour with a chaperone. Most of the plant varieties and colorful vocabulary went over my head, the writing itself is chaotic, but in the many digressions I recognized enough universal gardening struggles to want to revisit this some day.
November 22, 2022
Just didn’t do it for me.
November 11, 2020
“Reading books about gardens is a potent pastime; books nourish a gardener's mind in the same way as manure nourishes plants.”
― Mirabel Osler, A Gentle Plea for Chaos
What a delightful meandering through a garden and life! Fantastic vocabulary combined with a poetic description of plants is such a strong appeal for me. This little book reminds so much of the discussions with my Irish Aunts and the reminiscing on gardens. A few of her British imperial views thud on the pavement for the current reader, but I it’s fair it place things in context...even her love of roses. Her tossing about of botanical names might be off putting to those who aren’t as enamored with plants, but I don’t know if it would interfere with the overall pleasures from the book to just skip that aspect. Anyhow, a delightful stroll and richly speckled with interesting botanical combinations and a fine ruminating on gardening folks and clever interludes, including a piece on the proper number of wheelbarrows. Fans of Dr. Doug Tallamy’s work can relate to her pleas to let plants go to seed, meander, and create their own harmony, and to let the plants be the mulch. However, she is not at all a devotee of the North American ideas of using native plants. She does begin her garden with trees, which is a nice reminder. Another sweet note, “starting a garden is a series of mistakes”. She sniffs at the more modern trends of gardens that effort to recreate some miniature, contrived version of a country estate while clipping away all the country bits.
Note: some versions have illustrations of the gardens and others merely have a few block prints.
― Mirabel Osler, A Gentle Plea for Chaos
What a delightful meandering through a garden and life! Fantastic vocabulary combined with a poetic description of plants is such a strong appeal for me. This little book reminds so much of the discussions with my Irish Aunts and the reminiscing on gardens. A few of her British imperial views thud on the pavement for the current reader, but I it’s fair it place things in context...even her love of roses. Her tossing about of botanical names might be off putting to those who aren’t as enamored with plants, but I don’t know if it would interfere with the overall pleasures from the book to just skip that aspect. Anyhow, a delightful stroll and richly speckled with interesting botanical combinations and a fine ruminating on gardening folks and clever interludes, including a piece on the proper number of wheelbarrows. Fans of Dr. Doug Tallamy’s work can relate to her pleas to let plants go to seed, meander, and create their own harmony, and to let the plants be the mulch. However, she is not at all a devotee of the North American ideas of using native plants. She does begin her garden with trees, which is a nice reminder. Another sweet note, “starting a garden is a series of mistakes”. She sniffs at the more modern trends of gardens that effort to recreate some miniature, contrived version of a country estate while clipping away all the country bits.
Note: some versions have illustrations of the gardens and others merely have a few block prints.
October 1, 2022
Mirabel Osler was an English writer, journalist, garden designer (1925-2016) who traveled widely and lived in Asia and the Mediterranean until settling in Shropshire, England. In 1989, she published the best known of her books on gardens titled “The Gentle Plea for Chaos”. This book is referred to as a classic, indispensable book for gardeners. The book basically is a meditation on the appeal of an informal, casual garden design that still is a form of the “English” garden. Many readers have mentioned that this book gives them permission to deviate from a formal garden designed and constructed by hard-and-fast rules.
Osler’s writing is as organic as she recommends that gardens are. Although there are basically five major chapters of the book: 1) Trees, 2) Water, 3) Stones, Walls & Climbers, 4) the Rose, and 5) Bulbs, Corms, etc., but her writing wanders through the book dropping references in one section to the others. She used names heavily throughout and I must admit that when she started listing them, I was inclined to skip over the lists and some of the writing in those sections. Another negative for me was that there were no photographs, drawings or diagrams except for black-and-white etchings at the beginning of each chapter. I am not sure if I would ever want to read this one again or to read any other of her books. Similar works include “Cultivating Chaos”, “Sowing Beauty”, “Wintering: Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times”, and ”The Anthropocene Reviewed.”
Osler’s writing is as organic as she recommends that gardens are. Although there are basically five major chapters of the book: 1) Trees, 2) Water, 3) Stones, Walls & Climbers, 4) the Rose, and 5) Bulbs, Corms, etc., but her writing wanders through the book dropping references in one section to the others. She used names heavily throughout and I must admit that when she started listing them, I was inclined to skip over the lists and some of the writing in those sections. Another negative for me was that there were no photographs, drawings or diagrams except for black-and-white etchings at the beginning of each chapter. I am not sure if I would ever want to read this one again or to read any other of her books. Similar works include “Cultivating Chaos”, “Sowing Beauty”, “Wintering: Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times”, and ”The Anthropocene Reviewed.”
October 26, 2022
Mirabel Osler's attitude to gardening reflects my own, plant trees, don't be precious about "lawn" and what's with overly trimmed and manicured bedding borders?!
Our garden is a natural, overgrown yet diverse sanctuary for creatures galore- hedgehogs, slow worms, pheasants that have escaped the gun, neighbourhood cats!
I love how Mirabel has such a relaxed approach to gardening. She understands that winter is not a time to be out there working like a nutter, she plants things willy nilly in the hope that they will "take", she can't be bothered pesticide treating anything because of the destruction. She is my type of gardener.
Her writing is similarly relaxed, casual yet informative and interesting.
A refreshing gardening read if like me, you're a fair weathered green-hander.
Our garden is a natural, overgrown yet diverse sanctuary for creatures galore- hedgehogs, slow worms, pheasants that have escaped the gun, neighbourhood cats!
I love how Mirabel has such a relaxed approach to gardening. She understands that winter is not a time to be out there working like a nutter, she plants things willy nilly in the hope that they will "take", she can't be bothered pesticide treating anything because of the destruction. She is my type of gardener.
Her writing is similarly relaxed, casual yet informative and interesting.
A refreshing gardening read if like me, you're a fair weathered green-hander.
August 22, 2022
This is a lovely gentle gardening memoir, very personal in nature, with fascinating digressions into the history of gardens or of plants such as the rose. It can be dipped into and picked up again later, and Osler's obvious passion for gardening without the know-it-all detail is wonderfully cheering for a novice.
January 4, 2024
A gentle guide against prefectionism in gardening. Great for those already famliar with gardening and plants though possibly a bit alienating for those with very little plant knowledge beforehand as the book uses a lot of variation plant names.
Lovely to pikc up now and then when out int he garden and read a few pages and then get back to gardening.
Lovely to pikc up now and then when out int he garden and read a few pages and then get back to gardening.
August 10, 2024
8/10/24 Previously I read Mirabel Osler's "A Breath From Elsewhere" and "In the Eye of the Garden" and enjoyed both of these titles. Based on those two books, I purchased "A Gentle Plea for Chaos" and find this title disappointing. There are brief nuggets of enjoyable reflection on why we garden and why we love our gardens, but in general the flow of the text is haphazard. I am currently reading this book and about halfway thru it.
March 8, 2025
I loved this so so so much.
Charming, beautiful, funny.
So descriptive reading each pages feels like a leisurely stroll through an English garden.
However if you are not familiar with plants you will probably not enjoy this. Although there are beautiful colored photographs in the book to ease you along!
Charming, beautiful, funny.
So descriptive reading each pages feels like a leisurely stroll through an English garden.
However if you are not familiar with plants you will probably not enjoy this. Although there are beautiful colored photographs in the book to ease you along!
May 27, 2024
Beautifully written ode to gardens and gardeners
Mirabel oslear has written a book to make the soul sing. Her thoughts are quirky but strike a good balance between a plead for nature but also understanding all gardeners. A true pleasure and a great read on a cold winters night
Mirabel oslear has written a book to make the soul sing. Her thoughts are quirky but strike a good balance between a plead for nature but also understanding all gardeners. A true pleasure and a great read on a cold winters night
June 13, 2025
A stream of consciousness work in which order does emerge from the chaos. The work does suffer from a welter of botanical names (which can, however, be glossed over without too much detriment to enjoyment) , so keep Dr. Google handy.
August 29, 2020
Charmingly British, although when the author discusses American gardens she acts envious over "all that available labour in other centuries." Yep, she's talking about slavery. Smh.
April 10, 2021
Charming - though she does have quite the bossy tone! Felt like I was having a chat with my 81 year old mother who still wields a spade around the garden!
Want to read
January 2, 2022Mentioned in the, ‘Bedside Companion for Gardeners’ edited by Jane McMorland Hunter
January 8, 2016
(#38 in my Year of Reading Women)
Mirabel Osler is probably my favourite garden writer - but be sure that she is a "garden" writer, she's not in any way a "gardening" writer. Her pages are full of the sense of being in a garden and creating it and becoming part of it. In these pages you'll never learn how to prune your hydrangeas, but you'll gather some of the feeling of planting a forest and watching it grow.
I only have a couple of quibbles with her, firstly she is a bit of a snob and anything that doesn't fit her idea of what's beautiful in a garden gets short shrift and a little disdain, secondly she makes gardening seem like such hellishly hard work: at one point she says that she's thankful for winter, because it means that she can finally look up, rather than working all the time.
Her follow up book, about the next garden she created in a smaller house after her husband died is also excellent (A Breath From Elsewhere).
Mirabel Osler is probably my favourite garden writer - but be sure that she is a "garden" writer, she's not in any way a "gardening" writer. Her pages are full of the sense of being in a garden and creating it and becoming part of it. In these pages you'll never learn how to prune your hydrangeas, but you'll gather some of the feeling of planting a forest and watching it grow.
I only have a couple of quibbles with her, firstly she is a bit of a snob and anything that doesn't fit her idea of what's beautiful in a garden gets short shrift and a little disdain, secondly she makes gardening seem like such hellishly hard work: at one point she says that she's thankful for winter, because it means that she can finally look up, rather than working all the time.
Her follow up book, about the next garden she created in a smaller house after her husband died is also excellent (A Breath From Elsewhere).
January 25, 2023
This was a beautiful read, both as far as the written word and the photographs of the author's garden.
One of the comments Osler made that really hit home was her wistful dreaming about what American gardens were really like. She said that she loves to read about them, but doubts that she'll ever get to visit any. Here in the U.S., it seems like most of the gardeners I know dream about English country gardens and wish their garden was more like the gardens of England. It was a refreshing thought to understand that some gardeners in other countries might envy us and our gardening opportunities!
One of the comments Osler made that really hit home was her wistful dreaming about what American gardens were really like. She said that she loves to read about them, but doubts that she'll ever get to visit any. Here in the U.S., it seems like most of the gardeners I know dream about English country gardens and wish their garden was more like the gardens of England. It was a refreshing thought to understand that some gardeners in other countries might envy us and our gardening opportunities!
February 8, 2012
You truly have to be a gardener to enjoy this book which I am. Though wordy there are some remarkable insights and passages. Part memoir part history lesson there are moments where I glazed over. The water chapter was certainly chaos covering water, lawn mowing, grasses and then plant hunters. Stick with it and you will be pleased with an overall decent read. " there is no end to be written....a garden in always on the move. ".
May 29, 2014
The plea really is gentle in every good sense of the word. Far from being didactic, really just a straightforward account of building and more importantly loving a garden. Ultimately a little psalm to beauty.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews