This is the second lecture in a six-week series of lectures which will look at the history and development of garden technology from Medieval times right up to the present day. The ‘technology’ of gardening has developed enormously over the past centuries due to mechanization, automation, advances in science – and we can now grow plants without soil, we have automated watering systems for our greenhouses and we can watch while the robot mower, controlled from our smartphones, trims our lawns to perfection. But although we may approach them differently, the tasks and challenges that face gardeners today are much the same as they were back in Tudor times and earlier: preparing the soil, planting, protecting, composting, propagating and so on and so on. The rise in the organic movement over the past few decades has reminded us that the gardeners of old knew at least as much about gardening and working in harmony with nature as we do now, so how have new technologies developed and progressed our gardening knowledge, practice, and techniques?
The Gardens Trust has engaged a series of expert speakers to examine this question, including the renowned garden writer and designer, Noel Kingsbury, National Trust curator James Rothwell, expert on lawnmowers through the ages Keith Wootton, as well as regular Gardens Trust lecturers Jill Francis and our very own David Marsh; who will take a different technology in turn – tools, fertilizers, pest control, glasshouses, lawnmowers and plant breeding – and explore their history and development in relation to gardening.
Speaker Noel Kingsbury will cover Plant Breeding on February 28. We owe our survival to plant breeding, the ability to produce productive, disease-resistant and resilient crops. This presentation outlines the basics of how we learnt the basics of plant genetics and applied them to the crops that feed us, along the way producing vast numbers of new varieties for our gardens. Although focused on edible crops, we’ll be introduced to some of the key breeders of ornamental garden plants: their plants and their methods. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us). A link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 week. Tickets £24 or £5 each through Eventbrite. Register HERE.
Noel Kingsbury is best-known as a writer on gardens, plants and especially as a promotor of ecological planting design. Along the way he has written about garden plant history and developed unfashionable thoughts about how we feed ourselves, including Hybrid: The History and Science of Plant Breeding (University of Chicago Press, 2009).
