The Grove: A Nature Odyssey in 19 ½ Front Gardens

by Ben Dark

There is a renewed interest in the nature on our doorsteps, as can be seen in the work of amateur botanists identifying wildflowers and chalking the names on the pavements.

But beyond the garden wall lies a wealth of cultivated plants, each with a unique tale to tell. In The Grove, writer and head gardener Ben Dark reveals the remarkable secrets of twenty commonly found species - including the rose, wisteria, buddleja, box and the tulip - encountered in the front gardens of one London street over the course of year.

As Ben writes, in those small front gardens 'are stories of ambition, envy, hope and failure' and The Grove is about so much more than a single street, or indeed the plants found in its 19 ½ front gardens. It's a beguiling blend of horticultural history and personal narrative and a lyrical exploration of why gardens and gardening matter.

Genres: Nonfiction, Gardening, Nature, Plants, British Literature

320 pages, Hardcover

Published July 5, 2022

Reviews

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am one of those nosy buggers that will always check out a garden if there are lots of bright colours, most of the time I don’t know what I’m looking at but living in a housing estate I always appreciate the rare front garden that is AstroTurf free or not paved over. This book has one of the most interesting subtitles ever, 19 1/2 gardens how does that work then? Has he destroyed half a garden in the making of this book? Ben Dark has a brilliant sense of humour and is a super-nerd for a garden, there are many plants included in this book that a lot of people would ignore, London Pride and Box being two that tend to disappear behind something bright and beautiful and it was fantastic to get an insight into these plants. Dark also covers some of the more well-known plants, Tulips and Roses and Camelias get a chapter too. This book is not just about how to care for the plant or what it looks like, Dark goes much deeper, he looks at its origins and about those who it has affected, he covers how it fits into a garden and the important role it can have.

My two favourite chapters were Hollyhock and Lawn. I have heard of hollyhock but show me a picture and I wouldn’t be able to identify it. I have found that it’s an awesome flower that has had a very interesting history…and you can make cute little dolls from its flowers, the next time I get a bit of space in my garden then I’ll be looking to put in a hollyhock. But the big eye opener of the book was Lawn, for me this is always something that is just there that I mow now and then but reading Dark’s words I have realised just how special it is, no other plant can handle the brutality we inflict onto it.

I couldn’t possibly review this book without including a photo of my front garden, over the last few years we have just left it to do what it wants, it starts off green and then explodes with a load of blue from love in the mist and with the massive lavender we get a lot of butterflies and bees, we also get a fair few people checking it out…whether cos of it being pretty or a mess I don’t know. This book has really made me appreciate what I’ve got and I’m glad I’ve not joined those who remove all life from the front of their house.

Blog review and photos: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2022...

[Penny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm pretty stingy with my 5 star reviews but this lovely book definitely deserves its 5 stars. It's probably the best book I have read so far this year.
Ben Dark is a head gardener but he doesn't live in a pretty tied cottage. Instead he and his young family live in a flat in Camberwell. This book is about The Grove, or more precisely the front gardens of this suburban street.
Over a year Dark observes these gardens, sometimes as he pushes his fretful or sleeping new born son in his pram. Each chapter concentrates on a plant he sees - but this is often a starting point for a mix of science, botany, history and personal memoir.
He writes beautifully. Here's his absolutely spot on description of a clematis growing in central London -
"it looks as if a champagne meteor has fizzed along the railings, leaving sprigs of bright, rosé-tinged bubbles in its wake".
Recommended.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have a garden and a library you have everything you need – Marcus Tullius Cicero

If you are a regular visitor to this blog then you probably know that I like books. Whilst the house is not quite a library, it isn’t too far short, Sarah has a thing about gardens so we have a lot of plants around the place. I don’t know exactly how many plants she has in the front garden but the size of the bed is about 10m x 5m. Based on the words of Cicero, I think we’re sorted.

Even though he is a head gardener, Ben Dark does not have his own garden. He lives in a flat with his wife and son and when walking in the neighbourhood came across this street called The Grove with these rich and varied front gardens. It reminded him of the day, years ago, just after he had started horticultural college. He realised that he actually recognised a plant in someone’s garden Not only did he recognise it, but he knew its Latin name and could remember what he had recently learnt about it. From that moment on he was hooked on plants.

Each of the gardens was very different but they all had a particular thing in there that piqued his interest and for each chapter, he has chosen one plant to write about. Beginning with Wisteria, each chapter is on an utterly different plant, from Box to magnolia, Tulips to London Planes and roses to a plant that we have a lot of in our garden, Verbena. It gives him an opportunity to explore the origins of each plant and why we have them in London. It is endlessly fascinating, as we root around in the undergrowth with him, learning about each of them and what they bring to our gardens.

I had never heard of Ben Dark before coming across this book. But I can see why he is highly rated based on what I have just read. I did like the way that he uses a different plant for each chapter to explore the gardens of The Grove. The mix of culture, horticulture and history along with his own personal stories and anecdotes is just about right. He knows his green subjects too, drawing on all his experience as a gardener and he does that without me feeling that I was being lectured to as some of the gardeners can do.

[Terri (BooklyMatters) · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rapturous read, filled with human stories, memories, hopes, dreams and imaginings, and as in the plants so wondrously carried within, this is a book we gardeners (botanists, plant and nature-lovers) must all agree on. A treasure, “glossy and its flowers abundant”, - this book is pure goodness for the soul.

“The sight of a flower on a window-sill imparts a gleam of hope and of respect. You feel that however hard the toil and poor the sustenance of the cultivator, the higher faculties of enjoyment and taste have not been ground away. “ (Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward)

Reading this book on a gorgeous autumn day cannot help but make this reader yearn for spring, or summer - a day to sink one’s hands into the earth, and feast with one’s eyes on the beauty that is a garden in full bloom. Any garden. Including each of the luscious and lovely front yards explored in this gorgeous and evocative gardening missive - a homage to all that is a garden, and “the ghosts of plants (we all) have loved, killed and longed for”.

As the author, a professional gardener - explores “one suburban British road, (Grove Park) over the course of a single year, its plants and its people”, he focuses his lens on nineteen specific plants and gardens - observed, remembered, studied, but mostly, experienced in the moment - bringing to life an infinitely richer, fuller, more entrancing view of these plants (for this reader, many of which, in a less-informed way, are already familiar and much-loved.). Amidst an unmistakable kinship and connection, shared and understood, this book is a heart-felt treasure, seeking out all of us (newbies and professionals) who feel the call to garden and to dream.

“We gardeners are eternal platespinners and literal mole-whackers, always struggling to keep this little piece of crust synced with notions of prettiness, forever tidying away nature.”

Told in a highly-engaging conversational, anecdotal style, this book is a veritable gold-mine of plant history, cultivation, literature and botanist legends, design tips and nuggets, but mostly, vivid and achingly beautiful observations and descriptions that will surely resonate with every reader who has the good fortune to pick this book up.

“In the bruised-blue shade, flowers and herbs are recast as fronds on a forest floor.”

“The almost-metallic brightness of its tiny flowers brings out the soft, dew-dipped nature of a pink floribunda rose.”

“As long as there was space to plant, there was room to feed the soul.”

Without a doubt, the loveliest gardening memoir, diary or “odyssey” this reader has encountered in a very long time.

This is a book that will surely sit on my night-table, dog-eared and bookmarked, re-read and enjoyed, - head filled with visions of the hazy splendor of the “jeweled veil”, (a five-foot cloud of gossamer verbena) or the “nectar bribe” of a buddlejia - offering the perfect pathway to a night of dreams, the scent of honey, and the promise of, (to the reader or the butterfly), a night of the “sweetest succor”.

A great big thank you to the author and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.

[James Michelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely book celebrating the excitement of looking at other peoples gardens, supplemented by some great literary anecdotes.

[Ginni · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book - so much more than a ‘gardening book’, beautifully written and cleverly constructed. It is not a ‘How to garden’ book, although you can find many ideas for plants and planting schemes - nor is it just overly ‘flowery’ descriptions of plants and gardens. There is local history, personal anecdotes, social history - and quite a lot about Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson, which made me wish I lived near enough to visit Sissinghurst again.
I reserved it at the library, partly because of a rave review in a newspaper, partly because I went to the Mary Datchelor Grammar School just up the road in Camberwell. I’m hoping it comes out soon in paperback, so I can buy it for my niece, also an alumni of MDGS, and a keen gardener.
I shall look out for Ben Dark and any further books with keen interest. Oh - and he has a great sense of humour...not always the case in gardening books!

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️
This is such a lovely relaxing and informative read! I’ve been a keen but very amateur gardener for about the years, so even though I rarely read on-fiction I was eager to read this one. I’m so glad I did because it was a real delight.

Ben Dark is clearly passionate about both gardens and history. In this book he explores the origins of a wide variety of plants he finds growing in the gardens of one residential London street.

The evocative descriptions of the many plants he discusses are matched only by the fascinating story of the plants, as well as the area of Camberwell that they now inhabit.

The book is obviously incredibly well researched and comes across as a real love letter to those common plants we may all be familiar with but which play such an important part of the gardens around us, if not our very own patch. I found myself beaming in delight every time there was a fond description of something I know grows in my own garden.

I really loved the way the history of place, plant species, and human fashions and tastes for gardens is delicately interweaved, like a beautifully imagined planting scheme. There are fascinating insights into how and why certain plants found themselves growing on a London street when their ancestors lived half way around the world and why some have stayed in vogue and while others have become old hat.

This is a book you can easily dip in and out of. I read it over the course of a month which worked really well, as the few chapters I would read each week gave me the same lovely gentle inspiration that I get watching Gardeners World. This isn’t a how-to or instruction book but I’d definitely recommended for anyone with even the mildest interest in what grows in the gardens around them.

[Mind the Book · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We pruned the orchard in January..."

Gav den här Londonboken i våras till vänner med barnvagn, så att säga, (och kolonilott i Croydon) men lite senare skaffade jag ett eget exemplar. Läste inte kapitlen i ordning utan valde lite efter säsong; magnolia, flowering cherry, wisteria etc. En fantastisk följeslagare, året runt. Författaren återkommer flera ggr till Derek Jarman, Vita Sackville-West och Great Dixter.

Tänker nu att jag även är redo för Olivia Laings trädgårdbok.

[Ami · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice mix of botany, history, sociology, etc. around some of the plants the author, a horticulturalist, spied in his neighborhood as he walked through it with his young son over the span of a year. I read this book with my phone in my hand so I could look up the plants he was describing (and do a little Google Earth ogling of his neighborhood).

[Debbie Handslip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this. A good dipping into book for plant lovers. Witty, fun and informative.

[Greenreadsbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book, both to look at and read. A mixture of history, horticulture and memoir, Dark skillfully weaves his knowledge and insight into evocative prose. It's a book you can read in one go or dip in and out of. Dark talks about his route into horticulture, looking after his baby son and juggling work and childcare. The main content is about plants and gardens and leads you to think about those things in a new light. Each chapter features a focus on a particular species, what's special about them, their history and how they change with seasons and passing years. The last chapter describes Dark's dream front Garden. It's a lovely book and great for gaining a new perspective on the plants around us. Ideal for gardeners or anyone with an interest in the natural world.

[Hannah Powell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book heroes 20 commonly found plants growing in the front gardens of one road in London. Ben’s observations in Grove Park – such as hollyhocks growing at number 92 being ‘serotonin for the summer soul’ – are insightful and full of joy. Ben takes us with him as he walks up and down the street in all weathers and seasons, often with his baby in tow.

The book is much more than the sum of the 20 plants and the front gardens they call home. He cleverly uses the front gardens as a vehicle to share both local and botanical history. The Grove is packed full of fascinating facts and quotes from relevant poems, books and journals. It’s very carefully researched, and in each chapter, whilst Ben starts with a single plant, he takes us to a much bigger world that unfurls like a beautiful flower as you turn the pages.

His career as a gardener enables him to give a wider perspective. In the chapter about the rose, he observes, “The need to do causes more damage in gardens than benign neglect ever has.” He shares snippets of his experiences gardening for others, including the very wealthy.

I lived in London for a decade, in two flats, two maisonettes and in a small townhouse. My routes to and from work would always take the most botanical route possible. The seasonal highlights shone out like beacons in a world of concrete and tarmac. Spring was astounding. The parks decorated with cherry blossoms and houses draped in wisteria were a much-needed balm. Thank you, Ben, for taking me back there and reminding me of the joy plants brought to my life as I walked around the city and overcame physical and mental health challenges. Having grown up living next to a garden centre, London was a shock to the system. The plants were a connection to home, colours and scents dialled up as they nestled against their grey, urban backdrop.

I was given a free copy of the book in return for an honest review by Random Things Tours.

[Abbie Toria · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Grove is a charming read. A warm-hug of a book, perfect for Sunday afternoons. It includes delightful plant sketches by Skevoulla Gordon.

Come take a stroll with Head Gardener Ben Dark through the front gardens of Grove Park, London. Through 19 1/2 gardens, 19 plants and his personal and professional reminisces, we explore the plants that have shaped British gardens. Our journey takes us through the seasons and the life cycles of plants, as we explore plant history and fashions in flora and gardening in different decades, all through the passionate horticulturist's eyes.

Don't worry, you don't need to know a lot about plants or gardening to enjoy The Grove, (I certainly don't!) but you will, perhaps, get a little more out of it.

I found Dark's enthusiasm and admiration infectious. I marvelled with him as he discussed the wonders of particular flowers and trees. I enjoyed his gentle sense of humour. He has a real talent; I found it both amusing when he said that "Gardeners are quick to gnarl," and yet he also made me reconsider the way we view the world as he went on to question how we appreciate age and character in plants and other things, and yet not in ourselves. Why is this?

I loved how he calculated wages in "tulips an hour" and conjured a different reckoning of wealth, because, if we are better off now, why don't we plant more tulips? What is wealth?

I enjoyed his different perspectives on the world and how thought-provoking I found his ideas. I heartily agreed when he pointed out how, "Universe-wide grass is far more scarce than diamonds or uranium...Metal can be got from any solar system, a blade of grass is near miraculous." It really emphasised to me how often we under appreciate nature. How have we come to decide what is valued, and what is not?

*Thank you to Random Things Tours, Ben Dark and Octopus Books for the gifted review copy.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a nice book. It was obvious it wasn't going to be one of those grand quest affairs. I wondered if it might be rather pedestrian, but it is in only a usefully literal way and I loved the gentle framing of his pram walks with baby Sol, as well as the plant titled and focussed chapters. I don't know when the 'research' was done... there's an appeal here for keen students of lockdown times but those who can't bear to read another word about the pandemic have nothing to fear. The inverted commas around research should not be taken to mean that this book is not underpinned by botanical and historical knowledge and investigation. Some serious seated time has been put in as well as pavement strolling. Lovers of words are likely to encounter many juicy new ones here.

It's beautifully written - funny, intriguing (his wealthy but unnamed day job employers past and present and their gardens) and unsnobby. He is absolutely right in the acknowledgements about the contribution of illustrator Skevoulla Gordon.

[Hannah Symonds · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not wait to get my hands on this book and start reading it. I absolutely love being in my garden and feeling at one with nature. I love tending to the plants that I have in my garden and seeing them grow but I also love looking at other people's front gardens to get ideas and to see what they are growing. The book is divided up into a different plant for each chapter and what I love also are the illustrations that just seem to bring the book to life. It is such a charming and beautiful read, I really felt as though I learnt some new things about some of the different plants that Ben writes about. It is such a lovely and inspiring book to make you get out into your garden and smell the roses.

[Annabel · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a lovely book for gardeners, whether of the active or armchair variety. Head gardener Dark has a favourite road in South London where he peeks into many front gardens. He picks one typical front garden plant per chapter and looks at it through a mixture of horticultural expertise, history of botany, personal anecdote, and literary references. From the magnolia tree to cheerful tulips, the lawn to the much-maligned buddleja and red valerian, this is a lovely mix to enjoy. Read my fuller review at my blog: https://annabookbel.net/the-grove-a-n...

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was hooked from the first page! Beautifully written by Ben Dark and stunning illustrations by Skevoulla Gordon. I was drawn to this book as I have a personal passion for our environment and gardening, especially planting and trying to keep my own garden a wildlife friendly place. When this book was offered for review I felt that this would be a bit of me. I was so pleasantly surprised with this book, it is much more than a “gardening book”. I liked that the chapters are named after various plants and each chapter contains a mix of information on that plant, historical information, quotes and Bens own memoirs. I honestly fell in love with this book, it flows so well and I connected with Ben and his passion.

Thank you to the author Ben Dark and Anne at Random Things Tour for the opportunity to read and review this book.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful, philosophical tour of an ordinary street in England full of ordinary plants. I gained a new love for each of these plants, gardens, and the magic of nature. I loved the way he intertwined the first year of his son's life, the changes for him and his family, with what he observed each day on their walk down this street.

[Sophy H · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very average and middle of the road "nature" writing.

I feel like too many of these have been churned out of late, no matter what the standard. Write about nature cos you know covid fucked us all up and made us want to see nature n shit!

Er no!

[Shawna Hynes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A joy to read. Happened across it at the library but I’ll be ordering a copy of my own. Certainly one of the best gardening books I’ve yet read - leaps and bounds above any of the heavily marketed books about gardening published in recent years.

[Jan Soloway · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a delightful book, well written, very knowledgeable about plants and their history, but also a lyrical exploration of a small part of London seen through its gardens.

[CJ Mason The Fallen Librarian Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an outstanding read, my review is on my blog https://thefallenlibrarian.wordpress....📚😄

[Rory Tregaskis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very welcome escapism.

[Alison Thirkeld · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written. If you enjoy history or gardens or both, you will love this book.

[Hanneke]

loved it

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is lovely. I listened to it rather than read it. I haven’t got round to walking the routes myself, but I will. For anyone who likes to find peace in nature, this is for you.