ABSTRACT
Gardening is often portrayed as an entirely innocent everyday activity, a retreat from the public world of work and politics. But as Hoyles (1991) points out, gardens convey important ideas about our relationships to our culture; politics, understood in the widest sense, permeates the history of modern English gardening. There are new interpretations, new uses and an emerging debate about the meaning of gardens in the age of increasing environmental risk. Why is there such popular interest in domestic gardening? Is it because we are collectively destroying nature, that we are trying as individuals to get closer to nature? What does the way that people think about the home and garden tell us about our relationship with nature? For those worried about the state of the planet, the garden becomes the 'nature' to be looked after and valued. By 'getting closer to nature' through the garden, could we reformulate our relationship with 'mother earth' and live more sustainably?
