Just like the King, garden owners can express themselves though their patch of ground, says Tom Hodgkinson

News reaches us that King Charles has now finished redesigning the garden at Sandringham in Norfolk. He has apparently rebuilt the topiary area and has provided “spaces for reflection”. The gardens are open to the public. Maybe the paying visitors will catch a glimpse of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor reflecting there; he is reportedly going to be exiled soon to a cottage at Sandringham.

Or maybe we’d do best to concentrate on our own back yard. Do you remember that in the pandemic, silly newspaper columnists said that the average British person would not know how to cope with all the free time they now had on their hands, and would watch porn all day or get up to no good? “The devil finds work for idle hands to do,” as Morrissey famously sang. (The original version of this Puritanical aphorism is found in Proverbs, and literally translates as: “A worthless man devises mischief”.)

This turned out to be iron-plated nonsense. All across the nation, priorities were shifted and people loved that they had the time to spend with their inner artist and inner philosopher, rather like our king. They grew their gardens.

This was proved by the massive increase in trips to garden centres. Garden-owners seemed to be saying: This is great, I’m going to have the time and energy to work on my garden, which is my own inviolable patch of paradise, my free space, untouched by state or corporation. I can make my garden look how I want, and I can do what I like in it. It can be a source of food which frees me from total dependence on supermarkets. It can be a zone of experimentation. It’s an artwork. It is beautiful and good. I can express my politics through it (look at Richard Mabey’s garden). I can use it as my meditation app. In my garden I can silently observe the buzzing of the bees and the flittering of the little birds. The money I spend on my garden supports small and creative businesses. In my own garden I am king.

A garden is anarchy in action, it is autonomy.

The 18th century saw an explosion of creativity in the gardens of the aristocrats, many of which are still open to us now. Our own Art Flâneur Tim Richardson has studied these gardens and has produced a witty and learned book on the subject. The gardens may have had gigantic budgets but we small gardeners can still learn from them and get inspired.

Tim also presents our new online course, “The History of the English Garden”, which takes in a wide range of gardens, from the grand show-off parks of the 18th century to William Morris-inspired simple gardens to community and activist gardens.

Tell me, how does your garden grow? Idle gardeners, send me your tips.

Live well,

Tom

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