From the spectacular Tarot Garden Niki de Saint Phalle built in Tuscany to Barbara Hepworth’s sculpture oasis in St Ives, artists’ green spaces are about so much more than plants and pruning
. “I dream I’m in a house, and discover a door I didn’t know was there. It opens into an unexpected garden, and for a weightless moment I find myself inhabiting new territory, flush with potential … What might grow here, what rare roses will I find?”
Reading this at the inception of spring, when plants are bursting out of their winter cocoons, reminded me of the artists who sought out gardens: as places of refuge, as places to exhibit their work, or, as Laing writes, to “obliterate the border between cultivated and wild”. I love visiting artists’ gardens. It’s a way of seeing their work anew and can provide a fresh insight into their character, as both gardener and artist.
Like Saint Phalle, the US photographer Lee Miller turned to her garden in a time of suffering. But rather than showcasing her art, it was a place to grow food. After joining the surrealists in Paris and then working as a war correspondent for British Vogue, capturing haunting images of the death camps, Miller reinvented herself as a cook, with her garden playing a key role.
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