Gardens CAN save us!
It takes a very good book to make you question how you think.
Gardens That Can Save the World by Lottie Delamain is one of those books.
Beautifully produced and filled with stunning photography, it would be easy to mistake this for a visually stunning but ordinary gardening coffee table book. It is very much not that. It thoughtfully addresses how gardens are being used to tackle some of humanity's biggest challenges: biodiversity loss, food insecurity, poor mental health, disconnected communities, climate change, and simply the often unhealthy places we have built for ourselves.
What impressed me most was the breadth of ideas. From rooftop forests and wildlife-friendly architecture to school gardens, social enterprises and community food projects, every chapter informed, surprised or delighted me, often all three.
The common thread running through the book is that these people are not creating gardens because gardens are beautiful, although many of them are. They are creating gardens that solve a problem, or several.
Reading it, I found myself thinking about our own walled garden in Stamullen: the school visits, the community projects, and the conversations that begin when people get their hands into the soil. It reminded me that what sometimes initially feels like a local effort can ultimately be part of something much bigger, happening all over the world.
Lottie Delamain has produced a book that is optimistic without being naïve, practical without being preachy, and ambitious without losing sight of ordinary people.
If you have ever wondered whether a garden can be more than a collection of plants, this book makes a compelling case that it can.
It might even convince you that gardens really can help save us.
Gardens That Can Save the World is Lottie Delamain's first book. Delamain is an RHS Chelsea award-winning garden designer, a contributor to House & Garden magazine, and a trustee of the charity We Are Grow. It is an inspiring collection of 65 projects from around the world, showing how gardens can address everything from biodiversity loss and food insecurity to loneliness and community wellbeing. If you are interested in what gardens can become, I think you will enjoy it.
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