Philosophical Speakers'Corner

Dear Group, 
I feel especially favoured as the philosophical question from Steve French to 
this group combines two major areas of interest. I am about to give up my Med 
garden after 35 years. It would have upset me in former times as I felt 
proprietal about it, and wanted to control the plantings and so on. However, 
over the years I notice that instead of me imposing my ideas on the garden, 
it has started to impose it's "ideas" on me, and native species, [and the 
more robust introduced ones] have, in places, taken over. As a result I think 
I enjoy it more in a simpler way, not now taking pride in what I have 
achieved.
I shall miss the privacy and tranquillity it has given me; a place to paint 
undisturbed, to observe the changing light throughout the seasons and times 
of day,to hear the birds sing, and inhale the wonderful scents, especially 
after rain. 
As to whether collecting is an Anglo Saxon trait, no. It seems to be fairly 
common world wide although the reasons may differ. The earliest garden 
recorded so far, in Mesopotamia, [carved in stone ] show collections of 
plants, and the Egyptians had their plant and zoological collections [booty 
from their conquests.] The Ottoman Empire was avid for bulbs especially 
tulips, and this affected the Dutch. The Romans had their collections of 
medicinal and culinary plants, this tradition continued in the monastic 
gardens of the middle ages and around 1600 of our era Clusius introduced the 
idea of plant collections for aesthetic reasons, the rest is History, as they 
say
In the Far East the interest was in symbolic plants bamboo, chrysanthemums 
and so on. I am sure others on the list are far more expert than I on this 
subject and I would love to know more. 
The energy which would have gone into my garden will now go into the local 
ecology group. And I hope to continue getting my "hands on" Mediterranean 
gardening vicariously, through these wonderful exchanges.
Thanks to all Jennifer
PS Speakers' Corner was a place in London where anyone could get up on a 
soapbox and address the public on any [lawful ]subject.
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