Written by Roger Downie, Froglife and University of Glasgow
After obtaining a degree in politics, then training in horticulture, Kate Bradbury has become a busy wildlife/gardening writer (newspapers, magazines and books- this is her sixth book since 2017) and broadcaster, including on BBC’s Springwatch. Among her many roles, she is a Patron of Froglife, so supporters of Froglife will not be surprised that an enthusiasm for amphibians and reptiles is a theme of the book, and may be aware of one of her previous books, How to Create a Wildlife Pond (2021).
One Garden is Kate’s second memoir, following The Bumblebee Flies Anyway- a memoir of love, loss and muddy hands (2019). In the acknowledgements section, she writes that the book has been ‘challenging to write’, but the reader would hardly be aware of that, given the apparently easy conversational style and chatty asides to her dog Tosca, the hedgehogs that visit her garden, the frogs, plants and her partner Emma. So this is an entertaining, inspiring and informative read.
After a prologue summarizing the twin/linked biodiversity and climate crises, including continuing habitat mismanagement in towns (over-zealous mowing; tree removal) and gardens (plastic grass; excessive paving), Kate introduces her own small urban garden in Portslade-by-Sea, near Brighton on the edge of the South Downs. The rest of the book covers her actions, interactions, experiences and thoughts over the period of April 2022 to June 2023 in 15 monthly chapters, each starting with an attractive wildlife drawing by Abby Cook, and ending with a short account of the natural history of a species found in her garden: ten insects such as the wool carder bee, the common backswimmer, and four others such as the slow-worm.
Each month she describes the work she does in the garden aimed at providing and protecting wildlife and enhancing biodiversity: bird feeders; seed sowing and seedling transplantation; hedgehog food and refuge provisioning; robin nest protection etc. She also covers the observations she makes and attempts to explain the sometimes puzzling behaviour of some species. She spends hours using her binoculars to follow the mating frenzies of frogs in her pond and the nest-building of a family of robins (when does she get any writing done?). There are also attempts to encourage others in her neighbourhood to look after wildlife, often via social media: a man repairing his roof is persuaded to provide swift boxes; a group campaigns against a man (‘drone bastard’) who is trying to dissuade gulls from nesting on his roof by flying a drone at them; others look out for hedgehogs that are struggling to find food in a drought.
Kate claims to be a reluctant protestor, only occasionally taking part in national climate change actions, but she certainly makes up through the practical local steps she takes that can make a difference. The main themes are climate change- constant worries over heat and drought effects on wildlife, especially hedgehogs, birds and insects. Indeed, in my view correctly, a big part of the book is on insect population and species declines and their cascading effects on everything else. Her June 2023 chapter includes a howl of anguish at the attitudes she reports from friends, relatives and acquaintances over climate change, from denial to complacency (it’ll be good for us; our weather has always been variable; ‘they’ will find a solution).
The book’s subtitle is ‘in search of hope’: did she find it? I’ve been involved in environmental campaigning since the 1970s, and am finding it very hard to be hopeful: we seem to have to fight the same battles over and over, and are cursed with political leaders who refuse to take the environmental crises seriously. Kate’s approach, that individuals can make a difference, certainly has value, but we need structures that work with the natural environment, not against it. I would take issue with one of Kate’s sentences in her final chapter (which outlines actions people can take in their own gardens): she writes: ‘Climate change has not been caused by us but by big business, by oil giants, by capitalism’. There is an understandable tendency to think in terms of us (blameless) and them (the villains). But too many of us rush happily to buy the latest planet-damaging stuff and have the attitudes she clearly describes in her June chapter. We need to look at ourselves, and change our behaviour , because we are, collectively, to blame.
One Garden against the World- in search of hope in a changing climate by Kate Bradbury, Bloomsbury (2024); £18.99, hardback.
