The Accidental Garden

One of Britain's greatest nature writers blends horticulture with philosophy in this intimate memoir about gardening, rewilding, and a path forward amid climate change.

What is a garden? Is it an arena for the display of human mastery or might it be something less determined, more generous? These are questions that Richard Mabey, arguably England's greatest nature writer, considers in his new book, The Accidental Garden. From the pressing surrounds of the inventive, half-wild garden that Mabey, an instinctive rewilder, and his partner Polly, a determined grower, have shared for two decades, Mabey weighs past hopes and visions against the environmental emergency of the present. In beeches and bush crickets he sees proof of adaptation and survival; in commons and meadows he finds natural processes still at work. A wise and witty stylist, Mabey locates in his small patch of the planet a place to test assumptions and to observe how myriad species establish common ground.