The Accidental Garden: Gardens, Wilderness, and the Space In Between

by Richard Mabey

An erudite but intimate work of horticultural memoir and philosophy by one of Britain’s greatest living nature writers, who sees his garden as a sort of microcosm of the wider planet—a planet we desperately need to learn how to live on without causing further harm. The Accidental Garden helps show us the way.

What is a garden? Must it be an arena for the display of human mastery or might it be something less determined, more generous, a handshake with nature rather than a clenched fist? These are questions that Richard Mabey, arguably England’s greatest nature writer, asks and considers in his new book, part memoir, part treatise.

From the pressing surrounds of the inventive, half-wild garden that Mabey, an instinctive rewilder, and his partner Polly, a determined grower, have shared for two decades, Mabey weighs past hopes and visions against the environmental emergency of the present. In beeches and bush crickets he sees proof of adaptation and survival; in commons and meadows he finds natural processes at work yet.

A wise and witty stylist, under no illusions but attuned to delight, Mabey locates in his small patch of planet a place to test assumptions, to inhabit other species’ sensoriums, to observe how myriad species establish common ground. “Be interpreters, scribes, witnesses, neighbors,” urges Mabey, “the welcomers at the gate.”

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction, Gardening, Natural History, Memoir

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2024

About the author

Richard Mabey is one of England's greatest nature writers. He is author of some thirty books including Nature Cure which was shortlisted for the Whitbread, Ondaatje and Ackerley Awards.

A regular commentator on the radio and in the national press, he is also a Director of the arts and conservation charity Common Ground and Vice-President of the Open Spaces Society. He lives in Norfolk.

Reviews

[Stephen the Bookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating and thought provoking read. Richard Mabey has written a gardening book unlike the usual and challenges the reader / gardener to view themselves as equals to plants and the natural world instead of the controlling force.

Over twenty years he has “ created “ a garden in Norfolk where he has observed the changes that have occurred where the plant world, seed dispersal and non human forces have created a unique space..

This is also a book that questions what climate change will do to gardens and landscapes in the future - adaptation and survival of familiar and new plants.

A few photographs showing the changes in the garden over the years would have added a further depth to a great read

[Sophy H · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm reviewing the hardback edition (which I can't find on GR), NOT the kindle edition.

Although I love me a bit of Mabey and his nature writing, I found this one not up to his usual standards. I felt like everything written here was rehashed and pasted from earlier books with a bit of narrative joinery thrown in. I kept thinking, hmm this sounds familiar, I'm sure I've read about this before in another book of his. Thankfully it was a short book and a library loan so no great loss here but yeah, felt like a bit of a "cashing in" exercise if I'm honest.

2.5 stars.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this small, but powerful book, Mabey stands back and looks at the decisions made over their two acre garden in Norfolk for the last twenty years.

Amongst the many comments about his back aching and his eye sight fading, we find closely observed changes to his garden brought about by nature but also with a helping hand from he and his wife and sometimes completely created by him as in the mediterranean bed. Not a lot native in that area of the garden.

The title is interesting because I think his garden is anything but accidental. To me, accidental has the connotations of it all happening without thought or decision making and that is definitely not the case. A LOT of thought went into who and how the garden develped and whilst it might have been a partnership between the Mabeys and nature, there are definite ideas about how it would happen.

We can play other roles beyond the planning and planting and pruning, roles that are also special to our human identity. Be interpreters, scribes, witnesses, neighbours. The welcomers at the gate.
p156

The subtitle is more accurate: Gardens, Wilderness and the space in between.

A daily perambulation around your garden is a wonderful way of seeing all those small changes including the creatures that move in to help with that change. The secret is to allow these changes to occur. No, a large branch falling off a tree is not planned, but the decision to leave it where it fell and observe what happens is. It was at this point that Mabey realised he didn't have the native oak tree but the Turkey oak which leads into a discussion about native trees and plant introductions. He talks about the red valerian which has settled into a patch of gravel near his boiler outlet, its many names suggesting a history of establishing itself wherever it lands because the big question is where does a plant properly belong?

Beyond their transportation by humans, plants have always been autonomous wanderers, carried by ocean currents and migrating birds, their ranges pushed this way and that by changes in the climate. But underneath this slow nomadic drift there is a compelling sense of the kind of environment into which an individual species 'fits'. This is not just an ecological fit (type of soil, shade, humidity, etc) but a cultural one, based on long associations. Plants aren't passive objects in a landscape; they help comprise and shape landscapes, and our experience of place.
p98

Because the book looks back over twenty years, Mabey is able to see changes in this thinking and this is powerful.

In a time of great environmental instability, maybe we need to adopt a more generous and inclusive idea of nativeness, a more welcoming attitude to newcomers. Our long-term inhabitants are being shifted by climate change and sometimes destroyed by the diseases proliferating in its wake. Unless we allow - even enable - new colonists in old places we could end up with impoverished ecosystems and landscapes. They are, at the very least, an insurance policy.
p106

A wonderful book, a memoir through the eyes of a garden, that is going on the gardening book club list.

[Samantha Blears · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in my need to read about gardens and England prompted by my love of Derek Jarman and his garden at Dungeness. I simply loved it. It is a gentle read with a powerful message but not in the slightest preachy. And reminded me that we all share this planet and ‘our’ gardens are occupied too by myriads of other organisms, all with their own lives to lead. This book left me with a feeling of wonder.

Bought in Hatchards with CR in July 24

[Ginni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like many reviewers here, I’ve been reading Richard Mabey for a long, long time, starting rather surprisingly with his 1972 Pelican publication entitled ‘Children in Primary School’ - which was on my reading list at library school when studying school librarianship. Then a relative gave me ‘Food for Free’, and I’ve been enjoying his books ever since.
‘The Accidental Garden’ reminded me just what a good writer he is, referencing all sorts of literary sources in a quiet way, using his personal experience and observations to extrapolate on wider issues, with glints of humour and just excellent prose. There was an elegiac tone to the book, and as someone eight years Mabey’s junior observing the ‘nature crisis’ I can appreciate this.
Frequent passages leap out as relevant and timely; here is one, made very topical by the recent change of U.K. government:
‘We are all having to come to terms with the uncomfortable fact that the provision of sustainable energy and affordable housing are themselves the causes of damaging habitat loss and pollution.’ Discuss, with reference to the article in today’s paper about pylons in East Anglia, and housebuilding just about everywhere...
I hope the rather subdued cover does not put off prospective readers; it is well worth reading.

[Ivan Monckton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve grown old along with Richard Mabey. I read his first book “Food for Free” just after I left home and moved to Wales and have been reading them and enjoying them, as they are published, ever since. There’s a gentleness and humility to everything he writes, that frankly, knocks spots off the ‘new’ and fashionable nature writers (though I enjoy many of their books too!)
This is his latest book, about his 2 acre ‘garden’ in Norfolk, and what he has done with it and why. Rewilding in the gentlest way possible..it filled me with hope and joy and love!
For all those of you that have ‘Food for Free’ and/or Flora Brittanica, but none of Mabey’s others, give this lovely book a try.

[Louise Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

This felt like a ramble in the garden with my Grandad, stories, lore, and education all wrapped up in a gorgeous scented, colourful prose.

I'll definitely be keeping this book on my read to lift my mood shelf.

[Ray Hamblett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I agree with Isabella tree who says it's 'absolutely enchanting'

[Alex Boon · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I keep in mind the frankly absurd privilege of owning a patch of planet Earth and try to pay my dues."

As always a joy to read Mabey.

[Tania]

This reading thing is like Sudoku keeping me guessing on what is going to be on the next page. Devoured this book.

[Simon Pressinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best writers and thinkers on the natural world.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, however I did find the author went on a bit of a tangent at times which lost me. I am, however a huge advocate for wild gardens and verge sides, allowing nature to survive in a world so devoid of it.

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not a gardener, but I enjoy visiting them, both small local operations and world-famous grand estates. I don't know the names of plants or flowers or birds, but I enjoy the colors, smells, landscape views, and so on. I have family members who are excellent gardeners, so I have some feel for the effort undertaken to shape a plot of land and see through a set of ideas for years and years.

SO that's my background for this wonderful book. I thought I'd get a few comments on the making of a British garden and maybe some ideas about gardens to see if I'm lucky enough to make a visit. But this book is so much more. It's one of the smartest, most perceptive books I've read on any subject, any. I kept shaking my head at the ideas that Richard Mabey presented and the eloquence with which he wrote.

I think Mabey is a renowned gardener-horticulturist-nature lover. He references books and documentaries he's worked on. This book, perhaps, is a culmination of his knowledge because it's coming near the end of his career and maybe his life. And he concludes that some of his prior ideas were wrong, that he didn't appreciate a "natural" garden and landscape quite enough, even though he was far more appreciative of it than his famous gardening peers. He quotes himself ashamedly a couple of times, saying that he had fallen into the trap that a garden needs to be a carefully tended space with eye-pleasing contrasts of light and dark, closed and open, etc. In this book, he tells us of a change in attitude and practice, as he and his wife cultivate a 2-acre plot for 20 years and look at the littlest aspects with joy and wonder.

Mabey believes in gardening with a light touch. Let nature take its course, especially allowing some plants overwhelming others in a continuous give-and-take that is the natural world. He says that a garden isn't a state of being, a look at a certain date, but rather a process that is always undergoing change. Man should not try to hold that change at bay, but instead let it happen and marvel at the adaptability that is demonstrated. In his case, he finds both long-lost native plants sprouting from seeds buried for decades and also non-natives that have encroached because the climate where he lives is drier and hotter than before, and because our world of travel brings all types of seeds and bacteria everywhere, whether we intend to do it or not. So his wife has a small part of their plot carefully tended with flowers and vegetables, but he has the rest to grow in a general plan that allows for the unexpected to happen. I can't do justice to his descriptions, so I'll just say read the book.

I can't eloquently sum up his philosophy, either. But he makes a series of fascinating observations. He starts with the well-known concept that through the Middle Ages, nature (forests especially) were feared. Man wanted to avoid or control them. Gardens were a taming device, and that's why they were so artificial in their geometric arrangements of limited types of foliage. At some point, like in the 18th century, people began to like the view of the natural world, as they realized urbanization was starting to ruin it. Landscape painters pushed this idea forward, and eventually gardens began to copy the idealized looks of paintings. So there were then two models: formal gardens somewhat considered out of date, and natural gardens. But he points out those natural gardens were anything but, and that misconception has remained to this day. In fact, those gardens were at least as modified by man as the other type. In his garden, Mabey sets out to avoid this, and he just lets things be and watches them.

He also makes the point -- sort of the opposite of above -- that there really isn't a divided between "natural" and "man-made". Every breath we take is an interaction with nature, he points out, a gathering of oxygen that has been processed by a plant and an exhalation of CO2 that the plant will take up. We are never far from the natural world, even if we don't realize it. His mission is to make us realize.

In addition to these "big" thoughts, he gives us amazing descriptions of sections of his garden and fascinating historical tidbits about hedges, roses, and other plants. There's so much to chew on in this book, it's remarkable. I'd love to walk his garden with the book in hand, or better yet, with him as my guide. He has a brief section on visits from his step-grandchildren and gathering berries for juice and warming dough over a fire. I wish I was invited to that party.

[Wilson Tryon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am caught between a 3 and 4 for this book. I wish I could give it 3.5 but alas, nothing doing there.

I checked this out from the library a long time ago, and a major detractor in reading the book for me is how impossible it was for the book to really snatch my attention. I enjoy the book organization of distinct chapters with a guiding underlying principle (a la Braiding Sweetgrass), but it is not as conducive (for me) to an enthralling read.

I love the subject matter, and Mabey did a great job in making a place completely unknown to me relatable and beautiful.

This is the first book by Mabey I’ve ever touched. I like the way he writes, but the books organization makes it hard for me to enjoy the book as fully as one with a stronger guiding story. 3.5

[Karen Mace · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable read, as the author shared his thoughts on gardening and how gardens have changed over the years. He speaks from his experience of being a gardener himself and how he has watched over his own gardens, and the emotions and conclusions he's come to over many years.

I loved how he accepted nature doing its' own thing at times in his garden, instead of him trying to be too controlled and how there is no right and wrong way of gardening if you're enjoying it! A good read for all gardeners

[David Lamp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marvelous metaphor of how our life as a human species is more like the nature we live in than we often consider. We may seek to have control and spend much effort is order, design and dominion yet we are but members of a community that is unpredictable and adaptive. I especially appreciated this eminent botanist spending such loving attention on his rural garden that continues to surprise and delight him by its in predictable and yet glorious diversity.

[L.C. Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite an interesting read. A bit rambling at times but aren't we all when we are talking about something that is a passion and important to us. Not my usual book but I do occasionally like a change. A very nice book that kept me occupied while North Essex was frozen and constantly misty from the hovering minus temperatures.

[Jack Bryant · Rating 3 out of 5]

As beautifully written he describes the natural world, I just don’t see the point for this book. It just feels like a book for the sake of churning out a book. It’s only 150 pages with large text, so it’s a very short read, I’m glad I borrowed from the library rather than pay for it. Some quite random tangents and lots of referring back to his previous books.

[Sheena · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 A pleasant ramble among the author's wilderness garden and his ideas for letting nature have control of it's own destiny. I have known of and wanted to read this author for decades and this is the first one I have picked up. I fell across it 'accidentally' in between books funnily enough and the cover sold it to me.













and wanted to read him

[Liz Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this little book, it's interesting and well expressed. It would make a lovely gift for anyone interested in conservation or gardening.

[Stan Bland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely little book. Yes, much of this is ground covered by the author in his other books. Does not it make any less relevant today.

[Jack Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

With ecology and biodyversity at its heart. This is a wonderfly poetic and life affirming telling of a garden and its cycles.

[Jools · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, well researched and lyrical exploration of how gardens can be whatever we like, and are the better for it - particularly for the wildlife around us. Read this book, it's wonderful

[Jacquie Blijkers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this a joy to read and we should all endeavour to be the welcomers at the gate.