The Green Fuse: Essays in Making Sense of Gardens

Dig deep into our powerful connection with gardens across media and realms of human experience--from music to philosophy, painting to religion.

Why do interiors of houses mimic nature--the wallpapers and curtains, flowers in vases, a vaporizer in the bathroom? Why do we so often connect our childhoods with gardens? Why has the myth of a lost Eden been so ubiquitous and so formative? The Green Fuse: Essays in Making Sense of Gardens explores our deep-rooted impulses to create gardens, examining them through the lenses of history, religion, nostalgia, and myth. It connects gardens with the other arts--painting, music, literature, and theater--and contemplates their intellectual and philosophical significance. Blending lyrical reflections with research, The Green Fuse offers an unusually wide-ranging and thoughtful perspective on gardens and why we make them. It will be ideal for all readers interested in gardening and its cultural implications.

Peter Dale lives in Essex, United Kingdom. A longstanding contributor to Hortus, he has written extensively on literature, music, and gardens, and his previous books include The Irish Garden: A Cultural History and, with Brandon C. Yen, Versed in Living Nature: Wordsworth’s Trees, the latter also published by Reaktion Books.