Plants in the Garden: Winter 2013

The biggest problem of gardening in this way is that in a certain context it is a selfish activity, unless the garden can be made to pay its way and inspire others to develop a similar interest in the plants. It often strikes me as ironic that gardens are viewed as 'art' within a photographic image in so many books and magazines, whilst the processes of gardening are lost to view as mundane and untalented activities - and this must be because a garden has no value that can be put on it compared with something that can be exchanged like a painting, or even a pile of bricks in the Tate Gallery. So the value of a garden is personal, and as has been said before, philosophical - it teaches you about plants in ways out of all proportion to its size and design.