The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common Paradise

Olivia Laing chronicles the restoration of a walled garden in Suffolk, originally designed by Mark Rumary, during the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic. She uses the physical labor of planting and weeding to examine the history of formal gardens as sites of exclusion and privilege. The narrative connects the 18th-century enclosure acts and the wealth generated by the slave trade to the creation of private idylls. Laing integrates the radical escapism of William Morris, the creative resilience of Derek Jarman, and John Milton’s botanical imagery to question whether a paradise can exist without walls.

Gardeners and environmental historians read this book to understand the tension between private ownership and the natural world. It attracts readers interested in how physical landscapes reflect political ideologies and social hierarchies. The text provides a framework for viewing horticulture as a form of social imagination rather than a hobby. Readers finish the book with a perspective on how the cultivation of soil serves as both a literal refuge and a metaphor for building a more equitable communal future.