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Natural Selection: A Year in the Garden
"When it sings, a garden will have the power to transport and to lead you to a place that is magical. It is an oasis for creation, available to anyone with a little space and the compunction to get their hands dirty."
In Natural Selection, Dan Pearson draws on ten years of his Observer columns to explore the rhythms and pleasures of a year in the garden. Travelling between his city-bound plot in Peckham and twenty acres of rolling hillside in Somerset, he celebrates the beautiful skeletons of the winter garden, the joyous passage into spring, the heady smell of summer's bud break and the flaring of colour in autumn.
Pearson's irresistible enthusiasm and wealth of knowledge overflow in a book teeming with tips to inspire your own space, be it a city window box or country field. Bringing you a newfound appreciation of nature, both wild and tamed, reading Natural Selection is a deeply restorative experience.
In Natural Selection, Dan Pearson draws on ten years of his Observer columns to explore the rhythms and pleasures of a year in the garden. Travelling between his city-bound plot in Peckham and twenty acres of rolling hillside in Somerset, he celebrates the beautiful skeletons of the winter garden, the joyous passage into spring, the heady smell of summer's bud break and the flaring of colour in autumn.
Pearson's irresistible enthusiasm and wealth of knowledge overflow in a book teeming with tips to inspire your own space, be it a city window box or country field. Bringing you a newfound appreciation of nature, both wild and tamed, reading Natural Selection is a deeply restorative experience.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published May 2, 2017
35 people are currently reading
267 people want to read
About the author
Dan Pearson
19 books10 followersDan Pearson is an English landscape designer known for his pioneering work in naturalistic perennial planting. After early training at RHS Wisley, Kew Gardens, and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, he founded his own design practice in 1987. His work spans private gardens, public landscapes, and international commissions, including Tokachi Millennium Forest in Japan and the restoration of Althorp’s grounds. He has received multiple RHS Chelsea Flower Show gold medals, was named Royal Designer for Industry, and has collaborated with prominent architects and artists. Pearson is also a writer, broadcaster, and the author of several acclaimed books on gardening.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 21, 2021
4,5! Już sam początek mnie ujął, gdzie autor znany brytyjski ogrodnik (swoją drogą bardzo przystojny) zachęca by usiąść przy kominku z tą książką i rozkoszować się styczniem. Nie cierpię stycznia!Jestem początkująca w ogrodnictwie gdyż dopiero niedawno przypadł mi spory kawałek ziemi w spadku. Czytanie więc o roślinach, których w życiu nie widziałam jest trudne (brak zdjęć) ale wypisałam sobie sporo połączeń i zamierzam wypróbować. Dla kogoś takiego jak ja naprawdę fajne fragmenty to historie ogrodów i ludzi, odwiedziny na przykład u Oliwii żony zmarłego George Harrisona (tego od Beatlesów), u Włochów, którzy śpieszyli się bardzo z urządzaniem ogrodu gdyż wiekowi byli a jeszcze chcieli nacieszyć zmysły i przemiłe wspomnienia o sąsiadce Geraldine. Czyta się te momenty naprawdę dobrze, jak osobne opowiadania, a jednak forma książki to taki trochę dziennik. Pozakreślałam mój egzemplarz, zostaje ze mną.
May 21, 2017
(This piece originally appeared on WRITERS REVIEW: http://reviewsbywriters.blogspot.co.uk/)
Speaking at the Oxford Literary Festival in March, Dan Pearson said that his love of writing developed alongside his passion for gardening from an early age, and he illustrated his talk with some of the lists and stories, journals and notebooks he has kept from childhood. Now one of the most influential garden designers working today – his Chatsworth garden at Chelsea in 2015 won both a gold medal and Best in Show, and his design studio has worked on prestigious projects in Japan and Italy and many others including Maggie’s Centre in London and Lowther Castle – he somehow still makes time for writing alongside the many other demands of a busy career.
Until 2015 he wrote weekly pieces for the Observer magazine (where his page was the first I’d turn to, and still miss …) and his new book, Natural Selection, brings many of those articles together as a year-book companion, following the seasons’ progress. But while progressing through the months we move back and forth in time and through many different settings – his own plots in Peckham and now Somerset; his childhood home; deserts, forests and coasts he has studied on his travels; a visit to George Harrison's extraordinary Friar Park garden - while other sections compare the merits of various roses or magnolias or planting combinations, or simply look at the joys of a particular season or day: “The garden is a sanctuary of sorts and one that allows me to combine mindfulness with the purely physical.” Although there's a fair bit of dirt-under-the-fingernails detail on semi-ripe cuttings, seed harvesting and growing salads for succession, this isn’t a how-to gardening book so much as an appreciation of plants, landscapes, seasons and the effects of light and shade.
Dan Pearson credits both Christopher Lloyd and Vita Sackville-West as his writing mentors, and yes, his writing gives the sensuous pleasure he admires in theirs. This is a book to relish for the eloquence of its description as much as for the information it imparts. Here’s a camellia he saw in Japan: “… There it was in the gloom, a white, autumn-blooming Camellia sasanqua. Its delicate branches had formed a perfect dome four metres high and swept down to knee height to fan out as if it was doing a curtsy. Each leaf, a slim twist of the darkest, most lustrous green, reflected what light there was left in the afternoon, and along its branches was the peppering of flower. Pale and pure glistening white, the five-petalled blooms flared informally away from a golden boss of stamens.” Walking in Greece, he came across “a bowl-shaped valley giving way to oaks with juniper clinging to the cliff faces. The dark shadows at their base were lit by a surf of moon daisies, and a hush descended for a moment as my ears adjusted from the waves to a roar of bees feeding in a sea of Lavendula stoechas.” At home, on writing days, he brings a posy of flowers indoors, to notice “the way a flower is put together and how it sits on the stem … You can witness the passage of bud from opening to demise, see how the colour is infused and then diluted, or in some cases intensified by ageing. The seed and the berries and even the skeletons, come the winter, are of just as much interest.”
The hallmarks of Dan Pearson’s designs are the subtlety of his response to place and atmosphere and the inspiration he takes from wild landscapes. Beth Chatto was an early influence, from whom he began to learn the art of “achieving a delicate balance between steering nature and being part of it rather than trying to dominate,” and “gardening with wild plants rather than overworked cultivars”. He knows the importance of quiet moments of appreciation, whether in exotic locations or in his own garden. Of his planting for Maggie's Centre for cancer care and a friendship that developed with one of the patients, he writes: "I have always instinctively known that intimacy, sensuality and sanctuary in a garden are key to creating a sense of wellbeing, but it has been made so much more vivid seeing it through the eyes of someone who is seizing life with a new intensity."
Natural Selection is a beautiful object to hold, printed in dark green rather than black ink and with endpapers, cover design and an illustration for each month by Clare Melinsky. It’s a book to read twice at least: first to devour the lot in one go, as I’ve just done; then returning to each section in its own month. And I recommend keeping a plant encyclopaedia or i-phone handy as you read, as you’re sure to want to look up some of the plants and gardens mentioned and add to your wish-list.
To keep in touch with Dan Pearson’s journal, and the development of Hillside, his Somerset smallholding, you can follow his regular blog and newsletter, Dig Delve. There's also an interview there with artist Clare Melinsky.
Speaking at the Oxford Literary Festival in March, Dan Pearson said that his love of writing developed alongside his passion for gardening from an early age, and he illustrated his talk with some of the lists and stories, journals and notebooks he has kept from childhood. Now one of the most influential garden designers working today – his Chatsworth garden at Chelsea in 2015 won both a gold medal and Best in Show, and his design studio has worked on prestigious projects in Japan and Italy and many others including Maggie’s Centre in London and Lowther Castle – he somehow still makes time for writing alongside the many other demands of a busy career.
Until 2015 he wrote weekly pieces for the Observer magazine (where his page was the first I’d turn to, and still miss …) and his new book, Natural Selection, brings many of those articles together as a year-book companion, following the seasons’ progress. But while progressing through the months we move back and forth in time and through many different settings – his own plots in Peckham and now Somerset; his childhood home; deserts, forests and coasts he has studied on his travels; a visit to George Harrison's extraordinary Friar Park garden - while other sections compare the merits of various roses or magnolias or planting combinations, or simply look at the joys of a particular season or day: “The garden is a sanctuary of sorts and one that allows me to combine mindfulness with the purely physical.” Although there's a fair bit of dirt-under-the-fingernails detail on semi-ripe cuttings, seed harvesting and growing salads for succession, this isn’t a how-to gardening book so much as an appreciation of plants, landscapes, seasons and the effects of light and shade.
Dan Pearson credits both Christopher Lloyd and Vita Sackville-West as his writing mentors, and yes, his writing gives the sensuous pleasure he admires in theirs. This is a book to relish for the eloquence of its description as much as for the information it imparts. Here’s a camellia he saw in Japan: “… There it was in the gloom, a white, autumn-blooming Camellia sasanqua. Its delicate branches had formed a perfect dome four metres high and swept down to knee height to fan out as if it was doing a curtsy. Each leaf, a slim twist of the darkest, most lustrous green, reflected what light there was left in the afternoon, and along its branches was the peppering of flower. Pale and pure glistening white, the five-petalled blooms flared informally away from a golden boss of stamens.” Walking in Greece, he came across “a bowl-shaped valley giving way to oaks with juniper clinging to the cliff faces. The dark shadows at their base were lit by a surf of moon daisies, and a hush descended for a moment as my ears adjusted from the waves to a roar of bees feeding in a sea of Lavendula stoechas.” At home, on writing days, he brings a posy of flowers indoors, to notice “the way a flower is put together and how it sits on the stem … You can witness the passage of bud from opening to demise, see how the colour is infused and then diluted, or in some cases intensified by ageing. The seed and the berries and even the skeletons, come the winter, are of just as much interest.”
The hallmarks of Dan Pearson’s designs are the subtlety of his response to place and atmosphere and the inspiration he takes from wild landscapes. Beth Chatto was an early influence, from whom he began to learn the art of “achieving a delicate balance between steering nature and being part of it rather than trying to dominate,” and “gardening with wild plants rather than overworked cultivars”. He knows the importance of quiet moments of appreciation, whether in exotic locations or in his own garden. Of his planting for Maggie's Centre for cancer care and a friendship that developed with one of the patients, he writes: "I have always instinctively known that intimacy, sensuality and sanctuary in a garden are key to creating a sense of wellbeing, but it has been made so much more vivid seeing it through the eyes of someone who is seizing life with a new intensity."
Natural Selection is a beautiful object to hold, printed in dark green rather than black ink and with endpapers, cover design and an illustration for each month by Clare Melinsky. It’s a book to read twice at least: first to devour the lot in one go, as I’ve just done; then returning to each section in its own month. And I recommend keeping a plant encyclopaedia or i-phone handy as you read, as you’re sure to want to look up some of the plants and gardens mentioned and add to your wish-list.
To keep in touch with Dan Pearson’s journal, and the development of Hillside, his Somerset smallholding, you can follow his regular blog and newsletter, Dig Delve. There's also an interview there with artist Clare Melinsky.
April 14, 2023
This is really a four and a half star. Wonderful book. Love Dan Pearson but, not thinking to read a gardening book just for the story, I needed my sister in law to recommend. So glad I did.
Did get a bit muddled at one point, not knowing anything about his life, as I thought he had bought a new small holding when he already had a country place. Had pondered already how he kept up gardening in London and countryside plus travels. Then two countryside places. The penny dropped. He had been writing about both all the time. So although it starts in January ( a sort of logic really) it doesn’t really in life. These are newspaper posts he has written popped in in monthly order but, obviously, not moving house in late December just to please my befuddled mind.
Anyway lovely writing. Very interesting.
Did get a bit muddled at one point, not knowing anything about his life, as I thought he had bought a new small holding when he already had a country place. Had pondered already how he kept up gardening in London and countryside plus travels. Then two countryside places. The penny dropped. He had been writing about both all the time. So although it starts in January ( a sort of logic really) it doesn’t really in life. These are newspaper posts he has written popped in in monthly order but, obviously, not moving house in late December just to please my befuddled mind.
Anyway lovely writing. Very interesting.
December 26, 2019
I started this last January and it quickly became apparent that it wasn't what I had initially thought. This is much better suited to an actual gardener (what with all the scientific plant names and loads of - probably stellar - advice to green thumbs) than a casual observer with an interest in the outdoors. I enjoyed the writing and the overall vibe, but had expected more in the way of anecdotes and musings.
May 11, 2017
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Dan Pearson's love of the land and nature in general provide this book with an abundance of information on growing, loving, and appreciating plants. A journey through the seasons, from winter's seeming bareness to the summer's harvest.
Dan Pearson's love of the land and nature in general provide this book with an abundance of information on growing, loving, and appreciating plants. A journey through the seasons, from winter's seeming bareness to the summer's harvest.
October 21, 2022
Another English gardening book in an American library. Sadly so much of English gardening is not relevant to the diverse North American landscapes. Please librarians focus on gardening books that are relevant to your location!
December 28, 2023
This was a 'kitchen table' kind of book, one I usually turned to at breakfast. It was nice to read with the seasons, especially as one of the gardens he follows through the year is in Peckham. I especially appreciated his encouragement to not tidy too much...
May 22, 2020
It took me one year to read this book. I did it on purpose. I wanted to experience the nature month by month, exactly as described in the book. Excellent adventure it was!
August 23, 2021
Enjoyable and relaxing read
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December 27, 2023A fabulous collection of gardening columns to be enjoyed throughout the year, month by month.
August 20, 2025
Niestety polska wersja to jakaś porażka... A to taka piękna książka.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews