When he worked as a gardener for Hackney Council, John Little was unhappy with his department’s unimaginative, cost-cutting approach to their work. He started chatting to residents about what they really wanted and discovered their passion for growing food, so he began to help them as best he could. Little now runs a community interest company that trains people in imaginative ecological gardening principles on brownfield sites. His is one of the many fascinating tales that populate Gardens that Can Save the World, a new book by Lottie Delamain.
If, like me, 35-degree heat in May made you rethink your approach to all things botanic, this is the book for you. Delamain treats us to a series of bite-sized vignettes about the various things that gardens can accomplish. Divided into the categories of Repair, Empower, Nourish, Heal and Reimagine, it offers a smorgasbord of inspiration for anyone even thinking of exercising their green thumb.
The handsome text (boasting over 350 photographs) draws inspiration from horticultural practices around the world. We visit aeroponics on Parisian rooftops and mushroom farms in that city’s underground spaces, xeriscaping in Chile, and office gardening in Tokyo. Guerilla and gangsta gardening movements also feature, as do a range of green spaces designed to promote health.
In her foreword to the book, Isabella Tree (of Wilding fame) notes that England’s 23 million domestic gardens cover four times as much space as all our National Nature Reserves combined. This is the perfect opportunity for what she calls ‘pocket rewilding’, but to get there, we need to ‘rewild ourselves’. This means thinking differently about gardening, which is what Delamain sets out to teach us.
For Delamain, “gardens are miniature worlds, places where we experiment, create and shape a vision of the world we long for”. Her volume is far more than coffee-table fodder for virtue-signallers (though it would serve that purpose well); it could well change how you live in the green space around you.
Gardens that Can Save the World by Lottie Delamain is published by Thames and Hudson. ISBN: 978-0-500-02874-2; RRP: £30.00.
