Seeking Nature’s Permission

Abstract

In this chapter, Alan Holland discusses the reclamation of the ‘lost’ gardens of Heligan in Cornwall (UK), hailed by the London Times as “the garden restoration of the century”. Holland shows that this description poses something of a conservation conundrum. For exactly those processes that constituted the ‘loss’ – the encroaching bramble, the self-set trees and so forth – can be seen from another perspective to constitute the ‘self-restoration’ of nature. The appearance of conflict is defused by reflecting that both the original garden, and its restoration, have been conducted in a certain way – a way that can be said to involve the ‘seeking of nature’s permission’. This reflection is generalized to make the case that gardening in a way that involves active and attentive engagement – call this ‘Old World engagement’ – is as respectful of nature as ‘letting nature be’ – call this ‘New World disengagement’. Holland argues that although many gardening practices involve human manipulation they can still be conducted in a way that is wholly natural, as distinct from unnatural.

The kiss of the sun for pardon

The song of the birds for mirth

One is nearer God’s heart in a garden

Than anywhere else on earth

(From God’s Garden, by Dorothy Frances Gurney)