Crumbling Wall at Blaise Castle Estate, Bristol
“The natural features defended as our inalienable British heritage are almost always Victorian- the Highlabd deer-scapes of Landseer, the stone-walled crofts of the Wool Boom, the hedges and fields of the Encosure Acts, grouse moors canalized rivers, even mature forestry plantations.”- Isabella Tree, Wilding, p.299
I see the aftershock of the Victorians in almost ever gardening job I have done. The cultivation and primness of lawns of grass, a pointless and over-abundant crop… The disfiguring of trees and shrubs to make aesthetic, geometrically shaped hedges. The treatment of weeds, moss and bramble as placeless, plants with no sanctioned existence despite their various merits and niches. The fuss over ‘waste’- fallen leaves, fruits, branches, blossoms and other decompostable material. As a gardener, I offset my desire to be close to nature and in the outdoors with he mutilation I am required to mete out to it in order to receive a wage.
Clearing all of the soft, golden leaves from underneath an oak tree feels like shaving a bear in the height of winter; at the onslaught of a stressful season we remove the trees detritus, which would blanket the soil encasing the roots, break down into said soil providing nutrients to the tree and the flora and fauna of the soil that aid the tree such as worms and mychorrizae. We remove the leaves because they look ‘messy’. Clients don’t realize when their trees die, that they could have lived for millennia if not for the pruning and fussing being attended to it.
In schools and other sites, the neatness of Victorian nature and gardening has been coded into health and safety legislation; while vital, it can sometimes be overboard. (In the case of pathways being blocked etc. there should be no argument against; if I, an able bodied person am allowed to move freely then so should anyone be, no matter their disability.) there aren’t allowed to be slip hazards on concrete, no low branches, no toxic plants; minimized risk means maximised monoculture.
We are absorbed by the aesthetic to the point we forget about the lives we manipulate to create it; this comes to head with the current market for astroturfed domestic lawns. It’s a plastic weave that eventually comes apart and sheds, absorbs no water; and must one day be replaced despite being non-recyclable. But you can have a barbecue on it, look out your window and see green. We have convinced ourselves a prototype, an imprint, a mould, is better than the real thing. (I’m eating my own tail here- I earlier argued against lawns, but they’re better than plastic! That being said it would be much better if you let your grass grow wild, or swap it for something that feeds you or nature.)
‘Lazy’ and ‘wild’ gardening, especially for crops, is becoming more popular, and to good measure- as all eras must be born anew from the previous, there must also be meditation on lessons best learnt from the past. A deconstruction of what was once known for the building of what we now know.
