Of a cold and frosty evening, we’ve been relishing dipping in and thumbing through ‘Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life: The Plants and Places That Inspired the Classic Children's Tales’ by Marta McDowell and published by Timber Press (2013).
The book is generously illustrated with photographs, past of Beatrix’s life and present of her legacy. We are especially awed by her generous and purposeful donation of some 4,000 acres of lake district countryside and 14 farms to the National Trust, for which we are beyond grateful.
Amongst the vivid watercolours interleaved between the sketches and illustrations by her hand is a botanical illustration of a mushroom, Agaricus sylvaticus. We weren't aware before reading the book that Beatrix was initially preoccupied with botany, particularly the study of fungi and lichens encouraged by her discussions and collaborations with the naturalist Charles McIntosh whom she fist met in his capacity as a postman. Beatrix pursued this interest as far as cultivating spores, observing them under a microscope and writing up her findings in the form of an academic paper. Sadly, predictably, it seems her precocious talents in observation and inquiry were given a cool reception by the chauvinist botanical establishments of the time and her career as botanist ended.
Following the course of friendships, partnerships, landscapes and gardens Beatrix forged whilst creating her "little books" this biography leads to a dreamy, zoetropic, armchair ramble around Lake District gardens through time and changing seasons. Within the “little books” and her design and handiwork of Hill Top Farm garden is her saturated wardian-cased world of the quintessential English walled cottage garden; an every-countrywoman’s bailey keeping a treasury of pretty old-fashioned flowers as preserved, observed, interpreted and championed by Beatrix.
Part two, ‘The year in Beatrix Potter’s Gardens’, has made us linger and relish Winter's hoar frosts, yet long for the quickening of Spring (piqued further by a sprinkle of snowdrops outside our back door). The evocative illustrations of Jeremy Fisher, Squirrel Nutkin, Jemima Puddleduck, Peter Rabbit and the Flopsy Bunnies that punctuate the book are chinks breached by scintillating, motley Summer that stitches memories of our childhood dreams whilst leaning over the little pages with present, future plans – may 2015 be floriferous.
We’ve been musing over McDowell’s gardening insights and her comprehensive list of plants that Beatrix grew in her garden or included in her illustrations is proving inspirational - we’ve added saxifrage 'London Pride', peonies and candelabra primrose to our ‘Must Grow’ list.
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