Gardens in Books

At the weekend we visited Acorn Bank. We absolutely love the garden and can spend many happy hours mooching amongst the apple trees, the herb garden and the gorgeous flowers and plants. Each time we go we see something different and we love marking the seasonal changes.

On the visit I was thinking about the importance of gardens in books, and some of my favourite fictional gardens

Amongst my favourite books featuring fictional gardens are Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and The Wonderful Garden by Edith Nesbit.

In all of these books the garden is so important that it almost acts as a separate character. The garden is a place of magic and discovery, where special friendships are forged and where healing acts occur.

There are many other children's authors who understand the important nature of the garden as a space where their characters are both safe and challenged, at the same time. Beatrix Potter is definitely a writer who loved her gardens and incorporated them into her storytelling.

As we wandered around the garden at Acorn Bank I was thinking about these childhood favourites, as well as the garden in adult fiction. Susan Hill’s The Magic Apple Tree is a really good example of the contemporary novel and the garden, as well as novels like E M Forster’s Howard’s End and  Elizabeth Von Arnim’s Elizabeth and Her German Garden. 

The garden can be prominent in poetry, too. Andrew Marvell’s poems are good examples of this, as is John Milton’s Paradise Lost. I love this excerpt from Marvell's The Garden:

How well the skillful gard’ner drew
Of flow’rs and herbs this dial new,
Where from above the milder sun
Does through a fragrant zodiac run;
And as it works, th’ industrious bee
Computes its time as well as we.
How could such sweet and wholesome hours
Be reckon’d but with herbs and flow’rs!

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at Acorn Bank amongst the burgeoning apple trees, the roses and the herbs, and I loved the literary connections it inspired.