Lady Gardeners

The Lady Gardeners to whom the chapters of this book are devoted are those women who, from the eighteenth century to the present day, have been working in a garden, from imagining and creating it, to sowing, planting, pruning, painting and photographing plants, and moving from garden design to more urgent themes such as landscape conservation and environmental issues.

However, and this is the reason why this collection differs from other excellent models that deal with women and gardens, the essays also dwell on the personal lives and experiences of women who have lived in gardens, and enjoyed landscape, jotting simple notes in their diaries or working as landscape architects, describing it in stories for children, portraying strange exotic plants in their paintings, assembling bunches of flowers to decorate their home, and defending such spaces with their strong commitment to preservation. From England, and its long well-documented garden history, they have moved to Africa, the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, the Far East: the chapters in this book thus also confirm the vocation of the English garden that can enlarge its boundaries, transform and adapt itself to modern times and distant climates without foregoing its old roots.