Published By: Melville House
Pages: 160
Released On: 15/05/2025
As our world continues to change, the gardeners of the future will face many obstacles and dilemmas: from adjusting our practices to less predictable weather conditions and tighter ar – eas, to finding a happy coexistence with AI as it becomes more prevalent in our digital and physical equipment.
But there is still joy to be found through plants. Whether it’s a window box on a balcony, a neighbourhood vegetable patch, or a field of wild flowers, Lane presents a vision of gardens for everyone: providing crucial microclimates for wildlife, acting as community hubs, and potentially transforming our physical and mental health. He even imagines gardening in space: what might horticulture look like as we begin to populate distant worlds?
The Future of Gardens looks at this evergreen discipline with a bold, vibrant and inquisitive eye. Lane’s own vision for inclusivity, sustainability and forward-thinking design shines throughout this extraordinary addition to the FUTURES Series.
*****
Thanks to Melville House for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review and spot on the book tour.
I’m not a big gardener and I dislike the hot weather that most gardeners like. But I do like to wander around a garden show or two, and I am interested in plants and whatnot. I’m just not the big gardener. But I am nosy and I am intrigued by the future, so I love this FUTURES se4ries.
As someone who is a relatively new wheelchair user, it’s interesting to read about gardening and horticulture from the point of view of a wheelchair user. It showed me things I hadn’t really considered before.
I’ve seen Mark on Gardener’s World but I didn’t put two and two together that he was the same person who had written this book.
Having worked in cybersecurity before, I dealt a lot with AI (in fact, an AI program that I helped design took my job, but that’s a rant for another day), and the Internet of Things:: smart coffee machines and toothbrushes etc. and there was the worry that what is smart can be insecure. But I’ve never really giving it a thought in the world of horticulture. I think AI is a good thing, up to a point. If like Mark and myself, you have mobility issues, you can use it to ‘see’ an entire garden or see the best access routes. But I agree with Mark that gardening needs humanity’s input, because gardens need emotion and feeling, and no matter how much it tries to imitate, AI and smart tech just doesn’t have that level of feeling.
It could be seen in parts to be a bit….preachy is too harsh a word. But it does often talk about climate change and the damage we’re doing to the planet etc. but I don’t think it is without cause. Mark is just stating the facts, as shocking as some of them may be.
It’s short, only about 150 pages, which means you can either do what I did, which is sit down and read it cover to cover, or you could pick bits out. It doesn’t really have chapters as such, it’s more of a couple of sections that are then split with some specific headings. But it means you could flip to sections you’re more interested in, or you could think “I’ve got five minutes spare to read a few pages”, and read it like that.
Like I said at the start, I’m not a big gardener but I know people who are (my Mum for starters) and I think this book could be really helpful in determining what actions one might take to ensure the future of gardens – their own and the wider world.
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