Gardening
War Gardens
Lalage Snow (Quercus, £20)
since 2016, the national garden scheme has championed the connection between gardens and people’s health and well-being. War Gardens puts this into poignant perspective, chronicling the succour drawn from gardens by a cast of people living in some of today’s most hellish war zones.
Usually, the gardens included in the books i review are there because of their quality. in War Gardens, they are places of refuge, where horticultural or design quality is irrelevant. From Kabul to helmand, the West Bank, gaza, israel and Ukraine, lalage snow has captured a series of endearing, sometimes tragic, personal stories that revolve around the restorative powers of ordinary people’s ordinary—often very basic or war-damaged—gardens.
all are uplifted by the simple ability to sow seeds and nurture new plants, to experience the tranquillity and security that being in a garden can evoke. The book’s engaging pen-portraits throw up similar comments from people such as Kabir, an old man in Kabul who says: ‘i feel like i’m in paradise when i garden’, abu Faisal, a young lab technician in gaza: ‘When i’m gardening, i forget everything and all the problems we have’ and, in Donetsk, famous as ‘the city of a million roses’, Katerina: ‘Working with plants gives you spirit… You couldn’t get anything more perfect than Donetsk roses.’
The author has spent many years as a photographer, reporter and filmmaker in various conflict zones and her text has the war reporter’s combination of sharp observation and wry world-weariness that provides an incisive narrative linking the seemingly unconnected chapters.
The real thread, and what makes War Gardens the most illuminating garden book to be published this year, is the realisation that people’s gardens are the antidotes to the horrors of their surroundings—and, often, the sole reason that they do not flee.
as she writes of one gardener in gaza: ‘Jihadth is silhouetted and i am certain he is close to tears. i understand now that this tree is why he will never leave his land.’