The outskirt of the garden in which Tess found herself had been left uncultivated for some years, and was now damp and rank with juicy grass which sent up mists of pollen at a touch; and with tall blooming weeds emitting offensive smells – weeds whose red and yellow and purple hues formed a polychrome as dazzling as that of cultivated flowers. She went stealthily as a cat through the profusion of growth, gathering cuckoo-spittle on her skirts, cracking snails that were underfoot, staining her hands with thistle-milk and slug-slime, and rubbing off upon her naked arms sticky blights which, though snow-white on the apple-tree trunks, made madder stains on her skin. Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles
The floating pollen seemed to be his notes made visible, and the dampness of the garden the weeping of the garden’s sensibility. Though near nightfall, the rank-smelling weed-flowers glowed as if they would not close for intentness, and the waves of colour mixed with the waves of sound. ibid.
Thomas in garden: You see that line there? That’s the edge of heaven. The border between Birmingham and paradise. Peaky Blinders s3e5, BBC 2016
The villas and the gardens that lay below Vesuvius were frozen in time. The Gardens of Pompeii, Sky Arts 2016
‘Gardens help you think’, wrote Cicero ... Fountains of beautiful water displays, statues and nyphaeums, the Romans cultivated their souls and intellect by walking, reading and meditating in the gardens of Otium. ibid.
This man is protecting a birds’ nest, one he has been filming for four weeks. And he is not alone. From country lawns to urban back-yards there is now a growing number of amateur Attenboroughs. This dedicated band of enthusiasts are spending hundreds of hours and thousands of pounds filming the hidden lives of the wildlife in their gardens. Modern Times: The Great British Garden Watch, BBC 2015
For the past 100 years America has led the world in so many ways: it has an extraordinary diversity of landscape and peoples unmatched anywhere in the world. And it has influenced every single aspect of modern culture. But is that true of its garden? Is there such a thing as an American garden? Monty Don’s American Gardens I, BBC 2020
I’m exploring gardens in the north-east of the country. But I’m starting here in the prairie. The prairie is the original American flowering wilderness. Most of it has disappeared under the plough, but the influence of the prairie on modern American gardens is still strong. ibid.
A roof garden: the hard structure of the garden is generous and strong, and rooted in Chicago’s history … The stream that runs underneath these paths is a reminder of the floods that plagued this city. ibid.
On the east coast just outside Philadelphia is this 85-acre wildflower meadow. And while it may look like open countryside it is in fact just one part of a much larger garden … The conservatory alone is over half an acre in size, and eventually, the conservatory reached over four acres under glass. Inside is an eclectic mix of flowers and plants from all over the world. ibid.
Dupont was completely fascinated with the technology of moving water around … The main fountain garden opened in 2017 … This all-singing all-dancing theatrical extravaganza now performs day and night to huge audiences. This is truly gardening showbiz. ibid.
A core of generous serenity. Especially the parkland inspired by British landscaping. ibid.
The New York version of a veg path: I’m heading to Brooklyn to visit a self-styled urban farm, and being New York, it all takes place three storeys up on a warehouse roof. ibid.
One of New York’s historic landmark: every visitor comes here to Central Park. ibid.
I’ve come here to the Bronx to visit a community garden … run by the New York Restoration Project. ibid.
Robert Dash: Influenced by European gardens and definitely British gardens: an artist’s garden, not a designer’s garden. ibid.
Philadelphia: a long a proud history … Noted for the number and quality of its gardens. ibid.
Chanticleer was built in 1912 as a country retreat … transformed what had been fields and country into the current extraordinary garden. ibid.
Stockton, New Jersey: an imagined prairie … Federal Twist is less than two acres in size … I found Federal Twist tremendously exciting. ibid.
Washington DC at the residence of the British ambassador … One of the grandest ambassadorial residences in the world … Monty Don’s American Gardens II
Thomas Jefferson: This is Monticello, Jefferson’s estate near Charlottesville … A thousand-foot vegetable garden cut into the hillside … There is a much more complex history to the garden that the trials and tribulations of growing fine vegetables: the majority of the colossal work carving the garden out of the hillside was done by slaves. ibid.
This is the Virginian home of Rachel Mellon, who is known as Bunny. ibid.
Charleston: Middleton Place: The oldest landscape garden in America … established in the mid-seventeenth century … [Middleton] One of the biggest landowners in the state with 800 slaves working across some 60,000 acres. ibid.
But of all the many magnificent trees there is one that is extra special: this is the Middleton Oak. ibid.
I don’t think I’ve seen more beautiful trees than these anywhere in the world. ibid.
Miami Beach: a tribute to 16th-century Renaissance Italy … An Italian palace that’s 12 acres of elaborate formal gardens. ibid.
The Kampong was the private home of a plant collector called David Fairchild. ibid.
New timezone, new landscape, new gardens, I’m going to New Orleans … There are street after street with wonderfully quirky houses, magnificent trees, and really good front gardens. ibid.
The dramatic gardens and landscape of the West. I’m beginning my final trip here in the desert in Arizona … The desert is full of fascinating plants, and had been the inspiration for some wonderful gardens. Monty Don’s American Gardens III
A private garden in Scottsdale … The Palo-Christie garden began 20 years ago. ibid.
Air conditioning has probably had a huge influence on gardens. ibid.
Barry Manilow’s old house … The house and garden dominated by the pool represent Californian life as a kind of perpetual holiday … One of the most iconic images of 1960s America. ibid.
A side street in Beverley Hills to visit a garden that promises to take me back to Hollywood’s heyday: when the designer Tony Duquette and his wife Elizabeth bought this house in 1949 it was a thirty-by-thirty-foot doll’s house of a building … The setting for a series of flamboyant parties … This is a theatrical set. ibid.
The Sheats-Goldstein residence … LA has the capacity to surprise. ibid.
I’ve come just outside LA to visit a school, because they have a garden and they grow food and cook it and eat it, all as part of the curriculum. The Odyssey Charter School has converted a section of its playing fields to a plot with a raised bed for vegetables and lots of fruit trees. ibid.
Lotus Land is a garden that in many ways captures the essence of California. ibid.
Henry Cowell Redwoods Park, just outside San Jose, California, and I’ve come to immerse myself in these redwoods … about 1,500 years old. ibid.
Chihuly garden of glass … The plantings and sculptures are completely integrated. ibid.
For fifty years BBC has been making programmes about British homes. It’s gone mad with makeovers, it’s finessed our food, it’s directed our leisure time, and it’s planted ideas in our back gardens. The Home that 2 Built s1e1: The Sixties, BBC 2020
It was a decade of such extreme and rapid change … [BBC2] began with a range of how-to programmes that were reassuringly old-fashioned. ibid.
The basics of life: growing things, eating things, and having somewhere nice to live. ibid.
Gardening Club with Percy Thrower, filmed in a fake studio shed, was watched by up to five million people. ibid.
In 1968 BBC2 got in on the garden boom with a new series: Gardeners’ World … Sadly, for vintage anoraks, only a handful of Gardeners’ World survives. ibid.
‘Gardening was suddenly regarded as sexy.’ The Home that 2 Built s1e3: Eighties, Alan Titchmarsh of fellow gardener Charlie
Arthur Negus Enjoys … Gardener’s World: still going strong today … ibid.