The Wild Garden: Expanded Edition

by William Robinson, Rick Darke (Photographer)

First published in 1870, The Wild Garden challenged the prevailing garden style of the day and advocated a naturalistic style, in which hardy plants, both native and exotic, are arranged in groupings that mimic wild landscapes. Thanks to Robinson’s passionate advocacy, the naturalistic style triumphed, and Robinson's urgent message continues to resonate today. For this newly designed edition, Rick Darke has written an introductory essay that not only underscores Robinson’s importance in the evolution of garden design and ecology, but also explains his relevance for today’s gardeners, designers, and landscape professionals. The book contains over 100 stunning photographs taken by Darke, including images of Gravetye and of modern “wild” gardens. 

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Plants, Nature, Ecology, Horticulture

356 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1880

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. This is William^^Robinson

William Robinson was an Irish practical gardener and journalist whose ideas about wild gardening spurred the movement that evolved into the natural garden, a parallel to the search for honest simplicity and vernacular style of the British Arts and Crafts movement.
He emigrated from Ireland at a young age and was rapidly welcomed into the top echelons of British horticulture and botany. By 1866 he was a Fellow in the Linnean Society, sponsored by his friend Charles Darwin. Already an expert on the flora of the British Isles, Robinson travelled the breadth of North America by train in 1870, observing regional habitats and forging lasting connections with Charles Sargeant, Asa Gray, Frederick Law Olmsted, and others of their stature. Robinson was just thirty-two when he first published The Wild Garden, which has proved to be the most insightful, influential, and enduring of his many books and journals. Robinson's brilliance and enormous personal energy enabled him to become one of the most accomplished gardeners, editors and publishers of his era, and he is often referred to as the Father of the English Flower Garden.

Reviews

[romney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Must have been groundbreaking at the time and there are plenty of gardens that still disregard the useful advice therein about right plant, right place and avoiding unnecessary busy work in the garden by better choice of plants and garden design. In some ways it's only a curiosity piece for the expert gardener as there is also some terrible advice to plant things that would take over completely. Plant names have changed a lot too. (I read a much earlier edition. This later one may have modern names and the terrible advice edited somewhat). Still, it contains surprisingly modern attitudes for a historic artifact and the advice is generally good. It's a great read to set the scene for more recent writers like Vita Sackville West.

[Trish Remley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Several editions of The Wild garden by William Robinson were published in the late 1880's into the early 1900's. His property was in England. Traveled around the world taking note of plants. Many of his ideas are the "new ideas" of sustainable landscapes being promoted today. Keep the ground covered. Match plant type to the soil type. Leave the leaves to nourish the ground. Use natives. .... He also promotes non natives that will grow in your similar conditions. The only part probably not thought out and really couldn't be known at the time - only use non natives that are not invasive. Enjoyed the original etchings as well. This edition (The Wild Garden Expanded Edition) includes some additional chapters, photos, and commentary about the gardens and practices at Gravetye Manor and Gardens by current day plantsperson Rick Darke. How did we get so off track?

[Tibby]

Sort of a mixed bag for me. We are finally getting around to working in our back yard and we can't do lawn and I don't want to do lawn. But what to do instead? I know I want to incorporate native plants, but they are hard to find and what does the landscaping actually look like if we don't do some vast expanse of lawn?

Robinson is making the case in this book that we don't need tidy high maintenance gardens around our houses. Of course he's talking about vast estates, but the principles and ideas here can be used in suburban yards as well. He talks about a variety of areas that you might have in your yard that can be landscaped, from shaded/wooded areas to wet soggy areas. Certainly if you follow his advice your yard will look a lot more natural (although not unkempt) than if you did a very formal style of landscaping. He also has extensive lists of plants you can use in a variety of areas.

I think for what I want to do the book was useful for thinking about the various places in my yard that I want to plant out and what that might look like with broad strokes without using lawn or flower beds that need to be replanted every season. The lists of plants were more or less useful. I found a couple plants I would like to use and I think he makes a good case for using non-natives if they are going to accomplish what you want and work with your climate. That's also the rub though, the plants he lists work well for the English countryside, but many of them won't work where I live (too hot or not cold enough, too dry).

I do think the book helped me wrap my head around looking at my yard differently, but there's still a lot of research I need to do before I can really figure out what will actually get planted in my own yard.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Get Lost.

🖊 Fascinating and informative book on garden flora. The original illustrations are marvelous as viewed and studied in the Project Gutenberg e-book version. The reader can get lost in reading this book.

📕Published in 1883.
🎨Illustrated.

જ⁀🟢The e-book version is on Project Gutenberg.
༺ ༅ ✬ ༅ ༻ ༺ ༅ ✬ ༅ ༻

My ratings for this work:
Content: ★★★★★
Grammar: ★★★★★
Writing style: ★★★★★
Ease of reading: ★★★★★
My recommendation: ★★★★★
My total rating for this work: ★★★★★ (5.0)
🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹

[Grace Davies]

The first part of the book written and photographed by Rick Darke is excellent for an American gardener wish to create a more naturalistic garden. His analysis of William Robinson’s groundbreaking 1870 work is fascinating and helpful. I also enjoyed reading Robinson’s book which followed. However, Robinson was writing for a British audience, and probably at the time problems with exotic invasive plants were not as well-documented. Robinson freely recommended plants like bamboo, loosestrife and many others that now plague American landscapes.

[Etcipiente · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ma quanto era avanti!
Pubblicato originariamente nel 1880 e rivisitato varie volte dell'autore, "the wild garden" è una pietra miliare nella storia del giardinaggio moderno. Il pensiero, lo stile e la scelta delle piante utilizzate, lo rendono il capostipite della scuola con un approccio più spontaneo, ecologico, scientifico. Nei lavori Gilles Clement o Piet Oudolf, ora, ci vedo il pensiero di quest'uomo.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely illustrations

[Elisabeth Rose]

I read this book for second time this year, as it is very inspiring and helpful for making my own natural garden. A lovely, inspiring reading.

[Jess Brey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Humorous and timeless. I wonder if Robinson meant to be funny....

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sleeper hit, excellent engravings

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

William Robinson virtually invented the idea of the wild-ish English garden, in contrast with more regular, formal, classically French gardens of the day (think Versailles) -- his day being the late Victorian era. Robinson traveled the world, but came back to Sussex and a property called Gravetye Manor, a thousand acres of rolling hills, lakes, and hayfields, where he lived for fifty years and thoroughly practiced his ideas of the wild garden. His ideas seem surprisingly and mostly modern to us today -- minimal tilling, use of local wild flora as much as possible, basically letting nature take its course in all sorts of ways, with the human hand (and labor) being involved as minimally as possible. He did favor plants from all over the world, but in all other ways his ecological approach to gardening is very up t0 date, even including the idea of eschewing mulch in favor of plants that naturally provide cover with their dropped leaves to keep the weeds down and the weeding labor to a minimum.

The book itself is beautiful, and a compendium of lore and lists of plants that will do well in various settings, and to solve various challenges. Subsequent editions have added examples from around the world, a lot of color photography, and forwards by various modern experts. Robinson's knowledge of plants and how they grow was encyclopedic, and this book reflects both the expertise and the love that lay behind it.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Someone who thought about "right plant, right place" in the Victorian era. How about that? This book has wonderful ideas on perennial, low maintenance, and best fit for the environment plantings. Rather than expending tons of energy, time and money on annuals or wrong fit plants, Robinson suggests working with nature rather than against her and then having time to really enjoy the garden in its lush wildness. I really enjoyed this book -- both the original text by Robinson and the lovely current photos by Rick Darke. I want to come back to this book again when I finally have a home and yard of my own to transform into a wild garden.

[PennsyLady (Bev) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Wild Garden was originally published in 1870 and proceeded through a series of editions and reprints through the author's lifetime. (1838-1935)
Ther fifth edition in 2009 contains new chapters and photography by Rick Darke.

Contents:

An introduction to William Robinson and the expanded edition
Reading The Wild Garden
The wild garden in the 21st century

You'll find a large section of selection of plants for naturalization in a variety of settings and a large bibliography for further study.
You'll find sketches, explanations and photography.

Lovely coffee table style book, rich with ideas for a naturalistic approach to gardening.

[LandscapeArchitect Books]

Recommended by Peter Monro of Portland Maine as one of the best books in landscape architecture in 1998. Thanks to the Landscape Information Hub UK. http://www.lih.gre.ac.uk/histhe/books...