A History of Gardening in 50 Objects

by George Drower

The earliest record of an enclosed space around a homestead come from 10,000 BC and since then gardens of varying types and ambition have been popular throughout the ages. Whether ornamental patches surrounding wild cottages, container gardens blooming over unforgiving concrete or those turned over for growing produce, gardens exist in all shapes and sizes, in all manner of styles. Today we benefit from centuries of development, be it in the cultivation of desirable blossom or larger fruits, in the technology to keep weeds and lawn at bay or even in the visionaries who tore up rulebooks and cultivated pure creativity in their green spaces. George Drower takes fifty objects that have helped create the gardening scene we know today and explores the history outside spaces in a truly unique fashion. With stunning botanical and archive images, this lavish volume is essential for garden lovers.

Genres: Nonfiction, Gardening

256 pages, Hardcover

Published July 4, 2019

Reviews

[Imogen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't think a book like this could be written now (or at least I hope not) - somehow managing to sideline any non-European people in the story of gardening is quite the feat, not to mention the casual misogyny throughout!

[Kara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite the ~10,000 year history of humans gardening around the world, this book is very Euro-centric, mostly about the inventions/developments of Europeans in 18th and 19th centuries, and the outright stealing from other places and countries Europeans did in the 16th and 17th centuries.

We don't hear about much about how a plant was cultivated or tool was developed in in India or Peru or Haiti, etc. but rather which European strode in and brought it back to Europe and stamped his name on it.

Also, I don't know if it was budget or licencing issues, but the book only has illustrations from one early guide to plants done in pretty 19th century watercolors, and no actual illustrations of the people he talks about, no maps of where things came from and migrated, and almost no pictures of the plants and tools each section is actually talking about.

And I think it would have been better organized chronologically, rather than the loose structure here by subject area.