In order to accommodate the MASSES of garden crazy Germans who are eagerly searching the web for information about the book ”Gartenverrückt” – by ME – this post is in English! If you already know you want to buy it, it’s available HERE.
Today – on this day that we in Sweden call fettisdagen, and what they in Nouvelle Orléans call Mardi Gras – ”Gartenverrückt” is officially released (by Atlantik and Hoffmann und Campe Verlag). It’s a German translation of the Swedish book ”I odödliga odlares sällskap”, and it’s an anthology, of sorts, consisting of 40 portraits of some of the world’s coolest gardeners. The oldest one was born in 1098 and the youngest one in 1984.
I initially wrote the portraits for the magazine Allt om Trädgård, and the gardeners have been chosen in very close association with my editor Anna G. Tufvesson. They’re a kooky, creative and deliciously single-minded bunch, and they inspire me immensely. A surprising thing about writing this book was realizing that a lot of them were superstars in their day, but practically forgotten today.
These superstar gardeners were queer, polyamorous, and anarchist; they were artists, housewives, workers, and poets. Not necessarily all at the same time, but sometimes that too. Each generation likes to think of themselves as the most advanced, openminded and spiritually permitting one. But the people in ”Gartenverrückt” prove that it is not so. And so, they also prove that the garden path towards more freedom doesn’t necessarily lead straight ahead, but is rather circular, or maybe serpentine. It’s a much more interesting shape, anyway.
Well, that’s all for now. If you know German, you could give it a read. If you know someone German, you can give them ”Gartenverrückt” as a gift. It’s already proven itself as a very popular gift, in Swedish at least.
Oh, and just for shits and giggles, here’s a bunch of photos from a recent trip to Venice.
the secret gardener 
I received my copy today! Thanks so much! 😍
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