Our sentimental garden — Edition Insights

A Garden of Contrasts

The Castles are acutely aware of class and scale. At a garden party near London, the Lady of Villino Loki studies a 'Honeysuckle screen' that had become 'a solid wall of blossom' and resolves to buy fifty plants for her own garden. Yet the narrative never lets the reader forget the 'unlovely mean streets' and tram-lines that border such idyllic scenes. The authors admire the 'placid English fairness' of a flat country with 'lake and timber,' but they also note the 'pathos in its very beauty'—a sense that development will soon sweep it away. This double vision gives the gardening advice a melancholy undertone: the pursuit of beauty is urgent because the world that sustains it is fragile.

Politics Among the Petunias

The book repeatedly veers from horticulture into sharp social commentary. In one passage, the authors recount a conversation with a 'young Liberal M.P.' who argues against religious education in schools. The Castles respond by invoking the Ten Commandments, only to be met with a 'pitying smile' from a man who considers himself 'infinitely above' such ancient laws. The tone is wry, even exasperated. Elsewhere, they mock 'new theories' that would abolish private property, and they describe a Sunday entertainment lineup that includes 'the Cinema—the Crippen case, dear children; the Houndsditch Burglary and the Train Smash.' These digressions are not random; they reflect a worldview in which gardening is an act of resistance against a society that has lost its moral and aesthetic bearings.

Practical Notes from a Sentimental Eye

Amid the social critique, the Castles offer specific, actionable garden observations. They note that 'blue flowers are all too rare' and single out Nemesia 'Heavenly Blue' as 'the one annual our souls long for,' praising its 'exquisite turquoise blue colourings' and 'splendid efflorescence.' They study the management of herbaceous borders where 'three or four large pillars of Rambler Roses alternate with mauve and silver-leaved Japanese Maples.' They discover that 'dwarf bright yellow Evening Primroses' look well grouped together. The book is full of such concrete details—plant names, color combinations, structural ideas—that any gardener could apply. But these notes are always filtered through a personal, sentimental lens: the garden is not just a plot of land but a repository of 'tender memories' and 'dreams.'

Readers should approach Our Sentimental Garden not as a systematic manual but as a conversation with two witty, opinionated gardeners who happen to be writing on the eve of a world war. The book rewards those who enjoy digressions on politics, religion, and the absurdities of modern life as much as practical tips on honeysuckle hedges and herbaceous borders. The Castles' voice is distinctive—arch, affectionate, and unafraid to mock both the rich and the reformer. Let the garden details guide you, but let the asides surprise you.

Those gardening pages, fretting over delphiniums while Europe gathered its storm, remind me of another patient voice—one that watched clouds for forty years before trusting a word. Both knew how weather and hope mislead us, yet kept their careful notes. The Shepherd of Banbury's Rules to Judge of the Changes of the Weather, Grounded on Forty Years' Experience — Background and Themes shares that same quiet faith in what the sky insists on teaching us.