Monthly Archives: June 2026

Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition

When I interviewed for Master Gardeners back in October last year, one of the questions that Mayre Hammond, my interviewer, asked me was “Why did I want to be a Master Gardener?” This got us onto the topic of what is it about gardening that draws us in? I forget what my answer was, but I think it had to have something to do with interacting with the natural world, something that is real. Something that is not a “story” – a fiction as Yuval Harari defines it, invented and shared by humans. My garden is something that will live on after I’m gone that I can leave to my family, or failing that, whoever buys the house after us.

I’ve been reading the book “Gardens: An Essay on the Human Condition” by Robert Pogue Harrison. It was in the pop-up gift shop at the Boston MFA for the “Framing Nature: Gardens and Imagination” exhibit when we visited last month. The book is quite a mind opener. In the first chapter alone, Pogue explores garden myths including Eden (from Genesis), Calypso’s island of Ogygia (from Homers Odyssey), and the Garden of the Gods (in Gilgamesh). Pogue makes the point that none of these gardens satisfy their human visitors; they lack the thing that mankind wants: to have something to work and care for. It is Eve who realizing that she is unfulfilled precipitates the expulsion from the garden. A garden that you don’t have a hand in can be admired (or critiqued), but does not have the depth that comes from having cultivated it yourself. Christopher Lloyd, the owner and creator of the gardens at Great Dixter, distrusted rigid, “paint-by-numbers” landscapes. To him, hiring a landscaper to design a garden meant sacrificing the authentic, messy joy of gardening for oneself.

Pogue addresses the question of where did gardens come from? Was it for pleasure or for beauty? The conventional wisdom is that gardening for food came first, but Pogue suggests the opposite, that mankind cultivated gardens for the sheer aesthetic pleasure that they give us. He notes that the relationship of the observer to them is always changing: the vistas it presents, the seasons, time of day, weather, light, wind, and the frame of mind of the observers themselves. He distinguishes gardens from the creative arts, recognizing that although some gardens may last more than a lifetime, they are not forever. I think this may explain why gardeners are always wanting to give away plants.

Although I enjoyed the book, I felt a little let down, when in chapter five, titled “Mon Jardin à Moi” Pogue admits that he doesn’t actually tend a garden of his own. He writes that what he calls his garden is a figure of speech for his reflections. From this point on, the book goes hard into philosophy, starting with the Greek academies of Socrates, Plato, and Epicurus. He describes how cultural ideas, as well as garden design, changed over time. We learn about Dante’s Divine Comedy and how the earthly Garden of Eden sits atop Mount Purgatory preparing the soul to ascend to the celestial sphere of Paradise. He has nothing good to say about the gardens at Versailles, noting that they demonstrate huma/nity’s urge to dominate nature. I was hoping that from there he would have something insightful to say about ecofriendly gardens and the native plant movement, but he doesn’t. Because he’s not really a gardener, is he?

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Email to John Taylor

John, thanks for the e-mail. I always thought that France would be a good place to settle down in. I have wonderful memories of the season I worked the vendage in a little hilly village, Servian, near Béziers. Along with my scouse buddies that I’d met in Amsterdam we would collect snails in the vineyard and give them to the old-time communist gentleman, Louis, collecting the grapes from our baskets. I also have a cousin who moved many years ago to tend a small potager with her husband in Pleuville. She keeps us up to date with her frequent Instagram posts. Maureen and I have visited the UK only a few times–both my parents are long gone, and my brother passed over 10 years ago. My sister and her family still live in Dunmow and we keep in touch.

My memories of the UK are firmly stuck in the past, before Farage and the ugly right wing became what it is today. I remember the skinheads and the National Front of course. One of my schoolfriends from Bryanston, Ivo Mosley, was the grandson of Sir Oswald; he was at New College the same time as us.  I see that Britain’s modern-day fascists are now being cheered on by the likes of Elon Musk and JD Vance. I had hoped that the MAGA fever in the US would break long before, but it shows no signs of doing so.

Thank the gods that there are still things that can unite us, such as Arsenal’s recent league title. My fandom began with Charlie George. Soccer, as it’s called in the US, is increasingly popular, but ‘Merican football, baseball, and basketball still reign supreme. I was never much of an athlete, but I had a hand in starting the Hughes Hall boat club in Cambridge and I rowed for them in the May Bumps during my year there.

Love to you and Judy

Bob

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Email to Bill Evans

Bill, thanks for the emails and for forwarding mine to others. It’s been almost 47 years since I arrived in NYC, on my 28th birthday, for a summer job as a camp counselor, courtesy of BUNAC. To put those years in perspective, 47 years before that date gets us to 1932 when amongst other things, World War I veterans marched on Washington, in the midst of the depression, to demand redemption of their World War One service bonus certificates. Neil Stephenson, one of my favorite authors, covers the event in his book “Polostan.” The story features, amongst others, a young Dick Feynman, which brings us back to our days at Jesus reading Physics.

As we age, we do tend to live in the past, enjoying memories of our adventures and regretting opportunities that we passed over. When I’m not laid up, my passion these days is gardening. Particularly in these weird times when we are governed by soulless oligarchs that have no empathy for the natural world and its inhabitants, I take great pleasure in cultivating veggies, shrubs, trees, and flowers in my own backyard. It’s not Eden, and I’m not sure that I’d even like Eden, but it’s ours and keeps us grounded.

I enjoyed the singing in the video you sent of the Youth Eisteddfod. Although I don’t understand a word, the music itself has great power. I came across a quote of Aristotle the other day: “How is it that rhythms and melodies, although only sound, resemble states of the soul?”

Love to you and Anna

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Day 24: Friday, June 5th

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Yesterday evening I sat in on a Zoom call for Master Gardener Helpline training. These calls are more engaging than the earlier lecture series as we get to go into breakout sessions to discuss and critique responses from actual helpline calls. I was in a group with John, from my “Grow-It-All” pod and David from another group. It was refreshing to talk to folks with common interests. I sat up in my wheelchair and used my laptop. I do miss my office setup though – having two screens makes it easier to stay in the meeting without having to cycle the single screen between video and browser.

I took an oxycodone around 10 pm, and another when I woke up a little after 2 am. I think I got a better night’s sleep even though Fitbit said I only got a 73.

Today I had an appointment at MGH Waltham for more tests. An EKG, blood tests, and an MSRA swab. Also did the hepatitis-B titer to check immunity following the series of vaccinations I had for Garden Therapy volunteering at Emerson. Results aren’t all in yet, but everything is looking normal, except the white blood cell count has spiked to 15.84 K/UL (thousands per microliter), above the normal range. It was 9.8 back on May 8th. (I’m guessing it’s the effect of healing from the fracture.)

Got emails from Bill, John, and Katy.

Bob,

As well as forwarding your email to our fellow Jesus physicists, I took the liberty of sending it to Robert McGowan, whose wife Janis (Kay) was in our year and did physics at St Hugh’s.  As I’ve mentioned in the past, Janis had MS and died from its effects a few years ago.  In his reply to me, Robert mentioned that you had fixed Janis’ record player while at Oxford, and that he recalled seeing you at a party in St Albans held by John (Taylor) some time later.  He sends his best wishes and knows that Janis would do the same if she could do so.

I mention Robert because Anna and I kept in touch with Janis and her family over the years.  They had three boys, one of whom lives in Manchester while the other two are married with their own families and live in Auckland, New Zealand.  In fact, Robert and the Mancunian son visited us here in Cardiff the weekend before last.  Luckily the weather was good and we went to some local attractions and had a barbeque on the Sunday.

Here’s a link to a YouTube video of some children singing, which might cheer you up: 1af – Ysgol Pen y Garth – Cor Bl.6 ac iau – Eisteddfod yr Urdd 2026 .  These kids won the primary school choir competition at the national youth eisteddfod last week.  The choir includes my great nephew Rhys. Rhys is in his last year at primary school.  His main interest is cricket and I was surprised to see him in a choir!

Best wishes,

Bill

Hi Bob,

Judy and I were so sorry to read your message that Bill forwarded last night. Just last week, Judy and I were staying with Gail and Nick in their rambling house in the far south of France – an old olive mill near the coast between Marseille and Toulon – and chatting about old friends such as our assorted bunch of so-called physicists at Jesus and St Hugh’s. It’s far too long since we last saw you (except on a Zoom screen), and I was really looking forward to catching up with you at the gaudy. Let’s hope that might still be possible, even though it sounds as if you’re a doubtful starter for the fixture at this point.

Talking of fixtures, are you still an Arsenal fan? We all are now, especially Arthur and (slightly less fanatically) his younger brother Nick, whose wife Eleanor saw him through a pretty drastic course of treatment for bowel cancer about 3 years ago, and last September miraculously produced our first grandchild Iris. Arthur himself was diagnosed a year ago with a condition you’re all too familiar with – in his case, a fast-growing mediastinal lymphoma – which was very promptly treated at University College Hospital with an intensive course of chemo and immunotherapy, and now seems to have disappeared without trace, as (we hope) has yours.

Equally miraculously, Arthur’s name came up on the ballot for a ticket to the Champions League final in Budapest, which turned out to be a massive Gooners’ festival that everyone enjoyed, even though they weren’t too thrilled with the penalty shootout. Unfortunately he couldn’t be back here in time for the Premier League victory parade on Sunday afternoon, which turned out to be possibly the biggest-ever event of its kind in the UK, with more than half a million turning the whole area from Finsbury Park to Islington into a sea of red. Apparently, half of Africa had also celebrated Man City’s draw at Bournemouth, which handed Arsenal the title: I hadn’t realised how much Arsène Wenger had done in his time to bring top African players to England, and how much of a hero that had made him in Senegal, Nigeria, etc. Sunday’s victory parade was a joyful spectacle of multiculturalism that actually made us proud to be Londoners, no matter how much bilge the far-right wingnuts spew out about our city on social media.

Apart from the small matter of your two legs and the impending operations, I hope you, Maureen and Miranda are all doing well, and that there’s a glimmer of hope that we might yet see you in Oxford in September.

Very best wishes from us all,

John

Oh dear, sorry to hear all this but as you say, it will be a great opportunity to catch up on all the books you have been meaning to read and all the music you can now catch up on.

Our news is that we have just come back from Spain with all the fam. Grandchild no 2 is due in October. Bonnie is a constant ray of sunshine, chatters away and loves stories, singing and getting any passing adult to draw cats for her. She learned to say hola and gracias to the Spanish waiters which endeared her to them as you can imagine.

I think I mentioned that Chris and I are going to Cousin Bea’s wedding at the end of the month so will try and get you

Some pictures of that. It will be good to see Lucy and Hattie as I’ve not seen them since Hattie’s daughter, Roisin’s wedding which must be 5 years ago. We saw Stephany last year in France but she shared with us that she had a falling out with Bea some years ago so she won’t be coming . All sounds very sad. Also she is having treatment for breast cancer which of course she is having to tackle alone.

The wedding is in Chorley, Lancashire so we will take the motorhome up and do a tour of the north which will be spectacular at the end of June. We plan on driving down to Switzerland in September where I haven’t been since we were children and then back in the uk for the new baby.

Would really love to come to the USA but just feel we can’t at present as I’m sure you understand.

Do you like Gorillaz? Give their new album a listen, I think you might like. We are seeing them in a couple of weeks at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in London. As a massive Blur fan, anything that Damon Albarn is involved in, I am there for.

That’s it for now. I will endeavour to be a better correspondent from now on.

Love Katy x

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Health Status: Thursday, June 4

Hello, World! I want to give you all an update on my health. Leading up to a fall last month when I broke my leg, I was already seeing a specialist for an issue of leg pain. We finally have a diagnosis and a treatment plan for the underlying issue. It turns out, after multiple tests, that both legs and knees have significant bone and cartilage lesions that must be removed. I will be going in for my first arthroplasty surgery on June 11th at MGH. I don’t know when the second surgery will be, but probably as soon as the first surgery has healed sufficiently. Needless to say, all this is going to take a while, but hopefully I’ll be back on my feet sometime in September. In the meantime, I am currently at home being well looked after by my wife, Maureen, supported by our good friends and neighbors in Stow. I’ve also been talking every other day with our daughter Miranda in Sacramento. The next few months are going to be rough for all of us. I have plenty of books to read, games to play, movies to watch, and music to listen to. Many of you will know that I was diagnosed with lymphoma back in 2005 and was laid up for months. I came out of that OK. My spirits are good, and I am confident that with the great doctors in Boston we’ll get through this as well. Drop me a line if you want to chat.

Maureen’s contact info is: [email protected] | 978-793-0970