The Green Fuse

Essays in Making Sense of Gardens

Peter Dale

$49.99

Hardback

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English

Reaktion Books
01 September 2025

Applied ecology; Gardening; The Earth: natural history general

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 vaporiser 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 theatre

and contemplates their intellectual and philosophical significance. Blending lyrical reflections with research, it o ers 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.

By: Peter Dale
Imprint: Reaktion Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781836390282
ISBN 10: 1836390289
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 01 September 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

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 (2018) and, with Brandon C. Yen, Versed in Living Nature: Wordsworth's Trees (Reaktion, 2022).

Reviews for The Green Fuse: Essays in Making Sense of Gardens

""Imagine being taken by an old friend on a series of garden walks: an extended and endlessly fascinating conversation about nature, literature, music, art, religion; about history, power, and money; about the world as it is and as we would like it to be. Dale brings to the conversation a lifetime of accumulated wisdom and knowledge--it is erudite, witty, earthy, original, and exacting.""--Laurie Bristow, president of Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge ""In The Green Fuse, Dale poses the question of what gardens mean to us, then answers that question in brilliant and engaging ways. Organized around themes such as mazes and labyrinths, garden follies and music in the garden, with a series of remarkable interludes that transport the reader to gardens the author has visited and loved, this book offers a wealth of insight from an experienced gardener and gifted student of the literature of gardens from ancient times to the present day. Richly illustrated from an array of sources, including the author's own photo archive, this book will delight both practical gardeners and readers curious about the history, culture and aesthetics of the garden.""--Judith W. Page, professor emerita at the University of Florida and coeditor of ""Women and the Collaborative Art of Gardens from Antiquity to the Present""