Book Review: The Future of Gardens by Mark Lane

Regular readers will know that I love a new gardening book, there is something really exciting about a good new book on gardening and in particular one that will make me pause and think.  When I was asked if I wanted to review this new book from Mark Lane 'The Future of Gardens', I knew it sounded like just the sort of book I enjoy.

I have not been paid to write this review and I did not pay for this book.  My words and opinions are my own and not edited by anyone else.

This book is an essay rather than a glossy-photographed filled 'how to' book.  There are no pictures in this book, it is a thought-piece and that is why I enjoyed it so much.  Mark has written this book from the perspective of change: that change happens whether we want it or not and whether we expect it or not.  Mark roots his book in his own experiences following a serious car accident and about the changes to his life, his career and what he works towards in his approach to gardening and garden design.

But we do not start here, we start with Mark discussing AI and very quickly references the Terminator films; I was immediately hooked: "you had me at Terminator" as the saying should go....  Mark talks about the cons and the pros of AI.  What needs to be looked out for and the opportunities it can bring if used mindfully and ethically.  

A key theme throughout this book is resilience: in how we look after ourselves and how gardening/nature works with our mental health and our physical health.  This resilience is also in how we garden: about climate change and how we garden with it not in spite of it.  Mark talks about adapting to work with the conditions that we have and that we have to consider our water usage and soil health.  This is a holistic approach seeing gardening as part of the picture and not an activity that sits outside the environments where we live.  I found the chapter on land scarcity very interesting.

We start with Terminator and we end up on Mars - this book takes us out into the universe and looking at the work that is being done now and what could be done to take us into interstellar gardening.   Mark then makes sure we are grounded at the end of the book.  He makes of think of 'big' future and then brings it back home to here and now and closer personal futures.  

I truly loved this book, it made me think and that is the point of the book.  Some of the things mentioned may well come to nothing yet some will become real.  Mark ends by saying that he knows that gardens and gardening will continue in some form and I believe he is right.  If you want to read something that makes you think about what you think about the future of gardening, what the future could be and what role you can have now in shaping that future, this book is for you.  

The Future of Gardens by Mark Lane is part of the Futures Series published by Melville House.  

Take care and be kind.

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