Penelope Hobhouse on Gardening

Rating:
Summary: Lush and beautiful photographs....
Review: For over 20 years, Penelope Hobhouse has been building a garden at Tintinhull in England. Hobhouse's philosophy is that one never exhausts the possibilities. Each site has infinite strengths and weaknesses, and those can change and be changed. In addition, plants have their own natures which react differently in different settings. She says a plant in a garden on the Isle of Oronsay, an oasis in the midst of a vast landscape swept by salt-laden winds has a very different experience from one grown in a garden in Michigan or her own garden at Tintinhull.

In her book ON GARDENING, Hobhouse gives you the gardener's tour. You are able to see both the artist's views and the artist at work behind the scenes (Hobhouse in dungarees). The reader is provided an overview of the grounds at Tintinhull in a map, and then each part of the grounds is explored separately: the Fountain Garden, the Middle Garden, the Pool Garden (no, not a swimming pool), the Kitchen Garden, the Cedar Court and the Eagle Court.

For example in the section on the Eagle Court (so named because it contains a nice weathered statue of an eagle with lichens growing on his shoulders), the reader is shown composite pictures of the groups of plants one might view on entering the garden. For example one photo shows mauve and lavender Aubitilons, blue Ceanothus, Euphorbias and Clematis. Next, Hobhouse provides the layout for the plants in the Court--the center is grass and it is bounded all the way around by borders. A lovely colored chart has been drawn around the edges of two pages and samples of the plants in the Court are provided in photos inset in the center. This lovely layout allows the reader to following the design and view the elements of the design and one fell swoop.

In other sections of the book, Hobhouse repeats her approach, showing the composite shots and then the designs and plant specimins. The photos of the invidual plants are drop-dead gorgeous. Probably the most stunning example is one shot taken of the old Cedar of Lebanon which dominates the grounds. Probably the nicest aspects of the book is the sight of Penelope Hobhouse in garden togs including wellies and padded jacket working in the garden, propagating plants (barehanded), sorting seeds, and pruning roses. She seems to thoroughly enjoy the hard work, and although she maintains some staff to help her, she is a real hands-on gardener.