Re: `Britain Meets the Bay'?

Dear Sean,

I had a lot to say about this subject in GARDENS OF THE SUN, and also 
during lecture tours to CA and Europe (France, Italy, Greece and 
Spain in '97) THE ENGLISH GARDEN STYLE is fine and dandy - (mostly) 
in England. (I'll concede some parts of BC, Oregon, France, Ireland, 
New Zealand and elsewhere come close.) But it is such a hard lesson 
to learn. Cultural relocation of ideas about what a garden must/ 
should look like is difficult to overcome, especially for most home 
gardeners who haven't enough money to splash about on new fangled 
ideas like water-wise landscapes or Mediterranean landscapes, and who 
can't afford to make 'mistakes' with the single most significant 
investment they will ever make in their lives. Safe and sure with 
garden fashions is always the way to go - ask your realtor/ bank 
manager/ investment consultant/ mother and father. 

For me the real problem is fighting the relentless march of glossy 
mags and TV shows and Garden Shows which endlessly flog the ENGLISH 
FLOWER GARDEN and the ENGLISH GARDEN WRITER and the ENGLISH GARDEN 
LECTURER and the ENGLISH GARDEN PERSONALITY and the ENGLISH GARDEN 
EXPERT and the ENGLSIH GARDEN DESIGNER and the ENGLISH GARDEN 
HISTORIAN and the ENGLISH GARDEN LANDSCAPER. It is my very strong 
belief that we must all rebel against this all pervasive 
commercialism. Yes they are all good (well mostly) at what they do, 
but above all they have the world's best publicity machine. And this 
we must resist with every critical faculty that we have.

In some ways I saw GARDENS OF THE SUN as a kind of manifesto; a 
statement that I hoped would encourage others - maybe it has - I 
don't get much feedback from my publisher or critics or readers. But 
I know we need to build more than just a hundred or so pages of 
words; we need to promote our own dry garden writers and designers 
and plantsmen and women, and the plants themselves, and the history 
of gardens appropriate to our conditions, and to move on with making 
and talking about and sketching out a new gardens in a new ethic. It 
is very exciting prospect to my way of thinking, and I'm very glad 
to be part of it. I expect progress will be slow but I'm intending to 
push on and make whatever contribution I can.

regards

trevor n
-----------------
Trevor Nottle
Garden Writer, Historian,     
Lecturer and Comsultant 
       
    'Walnut Hill'                          
     5 Walker St       
     Crafers SA 5152 
     AUSTRALIA

Phone: +618 83394210
Fax:   +618 83394210
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