Issue #1 – Introduction

Hey,

In this first letter I will layout: what we will talk about, why I am writing this, and what to expect. 

Welcome to my blog. 

What is this about? 

I am interested in the literary and artistic history of garden spaces – real and imagined. Part of this is because of how ephemeral they are. Even when historical parks and gardens have been preserved (say, Kew Gardens in West London, Claremont Gardens in Surrey, or the palace gardens at Hampton Court), they are preserved through regrowing. Nothing is really the same as it was – but the garden is still there. Maintenance and change means continuation. 

To get away from the philosophical a little, I also enjoy gardens because of how secret they can be. Since ancient times, gardens were the private space where gods could frolic, and mortals play, away from (or so they thought) prying eyes. The secret garden space obviously pops up in the bible (hint: The Garden of Eden), where it is figured as a total paradise. Being kicked out of this garden, which mankind will never get access to whilst on earth, is a fairly big deal. 

There are infinite strands to look at the garden space through in literary and artistic spheres, from Edmund Spenser’s flowery delights in The Faerie Queene, to 20th century children’s fiction (The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett being a good place to start here). There are love poems, loss poems, erotic poems, and nonsense poems all focussed on gardens and parks. The Earl of Rochester features a bawdy St James’ Park in his repertoire. 

These are only the Western canon. Across the world, gardens are even more important. We have ancient lost gardens in Babylon, the decorated gardens of 16th century China, haikus which transport us to tranquil Japanese green spaces, and the massive recent developments at Aburi Botanical Gardens in Ghana. 

Why am I writing this?

There are a few reasons

1. Selfish reasons

To state the more self-centered reasons, I want to improve my writing style. I tend to write elaborate, overly convoluted, and complex sentences, filled with millions of subclauses, a tendency to hyperbolise, and random! use of grammar which doesn’t really make sense, as well as this I often forget that a full stop is quite important….[oops]. 

So I want a space to practice smartening up my writing. 

Selfish reason 2 is personal fun: I like writing, and I want other people to listen to my ideas. 

2. I really do love the historic sense of gardens, parks, and green spaces

That title says it all really. I have always been a lover of parks and gardens, specifically ones to be found on a sunny day in and around London. I want to continue this passion even though it is absent from my professional life. 

3. AI and ChatGPT

To be honest, I am a little depressed by the ubiquity of ChatGPT generated writing. I might touch more on this later, but suffice to say I think that using AI for creative activities is bad (and I normally, genuinely, love nuance). This blog will never use ChatGPT – that’s a promise. There are two caveats to this: 1. If I read other people’s articles and information, their research might have been done with AI. I will do my best to weed (🌱) out any dodgy looking papers, but I can’t guarantee I will never quote something that picked up some AI along the way.  2. If I’m using AI to illustrate a point, I will of course use AI. In that case I will disclaim it loudly. 

The point of the blog then, is to be a miniscule voice against the avalanche of AI slop. Here you have normal human nonsense, nothing auto-generated about this waffle!

What to expect

This is a bit of an unknown for me. I sort of want to see where I go. However, my initial aim is to get out one funny and intriguing article every week, or every two weeks when I’m busy. 

Adverts and sponsorships – this is somewhat wishful thinking, but should these ever arise I will make it 100% clear. I’m also a bit of an old fogey anyway, so I like to keep that sort of thing away from my passion projects. 

Part of the process will also be listening to reader’s responses and listening to what you want. 

This whole project, however, is ultimately selfish. It is learning about the things I want to learn about them, and writing about them in a way which suits me. 

C. Shrubs