Radical Gardening: Politics, Idealism and Rebellion in the Garden [Paperback]

If you've been labouring under the delusion that gardening is a staid suburban pastime, this is the book that will change your mind.

From Borneville to seed bomb: a lightness of touch and a sprinkling of plant puns make inspiring cultural gallop through an alternative history of green in the city.

A bravura account of the power of flowers ... a truly important book that fills a gap between the overt political action of immediate protest and the slow cultural protest, both ecological and environmental, that might bring about the deep structural change in society envisioned by many small steps that begin with the planting of a tree or the laying out of a park on wasteland.

A stimulating and enjoyable read.

A lovely and evocative family story covering a cycle of one moon to the next. The finely stylised illustrations of Shirin Adl are a perfect match.

This is a highly original history of the harnessing of horticulture in counter-cultural political activism… As one might expect from the professor of cultural studies at Salford University, it is a determinedly Left-wing, peppered with political assumptions and class prejudice. But don't let that put you off. The meat of this book is compelling, and benefits greatly from the eye of someone from 'outside' the gardens world... Much food for thought here.

This is an exciting and thought-provoking book that cajoles us to understand the context in which gardens are created… It's tone is always approachable and its organisation good. My copy is already sticky-noted, underlined, and dog-eared for future reference and mmore in-depth pursuit.

Fascinating alternative history.

A challenging read exploring new ways of looking at gardening.

Uncomfortable in places but hugely thought-provoking.

A fascinating and erudite history that made me want to go and cultivate my garden.

A fascinating exploration of the many ways in which gardening, land use, environmental conservation,, methods of cultivation etc are shot through with politics.

Parts of this book may make your blood boil. Good! Other parts will make you laugh or move you to tears.

Immensely interesting, thought provoking and stimulating.

War is the natural occupation of man … war-and gardening.

Winston Churchill to Siegfried Sassoon, 1918

In the common public perception, contemporary gardening is understood as suburban, as leisure activity, as television makeover opportunity. Its origins are seen as religious or spiritual (Garden of Eden), military (the clipped lawn, the ha-ha and defensive ditches), aristocratic or monarchical (the stately home, the Royal Horticultural Society). Radical Gardening travels an alternative route, through history and across landscape, linking propagation with propaganda. For everyday garden life is not only patio, barbecue, white picket fence, topiary, herbaceous border.… From window box to veggie box, from political plot to flower power, this book uncovers and celebrates moments, movements, gestures, of a people's approach to gardens and gardening. It weaves together garden history with the counterculture, stories of individual plants with discussion of government policy, the social history of campaign groups with the pleasure and dirt of hands in the earth, as well as original interviews alongside media, pop and art references, to offer an informing and inspiring new take on an old subject.