Looking at Another Landscape | Marcus Bergin's Garden Notebook
GARDEN STORIES
Marcus Bergin
7/10/20262 min read
Looking at Another Landscape
One of the pleasures of travelling as a gardener is that you never really stop looking at gardens. Even when there aren't any.
Today I've swapped the green fields of Gloucestershire for the volcanic landscapes of Fuerteventura.
It's quite a contrast.
Only a few days ago, I was working beneath wisteria, listening to birdsong and watching gardens settle into the rhythm of a British summer. This morning I stepped into a landscape that feels completely different. The colours are softer, the vegetation sparser, and the light somehow brighter. It doesn't take long to realise that nature has found a very different way of living here.
One of the things gardening has taught me is that every landscape tells a story.
Back home, we're fortunate to have rain that allows trees, hedgerows and green fields to dominate the view. We sometimes take that for granted because it's what we're used to seeing. Here, every plant appears to have earned its place. The shrubs are shaped by the wind, the ground holds on to every drop of moisture and life has adapted to conditions that would challenge many of the plants we grow in our own gardens.
There's a quiet lesson in that.
As gardeners, it's easy to become attached to the plants we know and love. We naturally think about what we want to grow, but travelling reminds me that nature has never worked that way. Plants don't choose where they live. They adapt to the conditions they're given, and over time they become perfectly suited to them.
Perhaps gardeners should think a little more like that too.
Wherever I travel, I find myself noticing the small details. The way trees lean with the prevailing wind. The colours of the stone. The plants that thrive without anyone appearing to care for them. Even if I never grow those species at home, they still teach me something. They remind me that gardening isn't about forcing nature to fit our ideas. It's about understanding the place we're gardening in.
That's one of the reasons I enjoy travelling.
A holiday gives the body a chance to rest, but it also gives the mind a chance to notice things differently. Stepping away from familiar gardens often makes me appreciate them even more when I return. It also fills my notebook with ideas, observations and questions that I might never have thought about if I'd stayed at home.
I have a feeling this landscape will do exactly that.
Over the next few days, I'll undoubtedly find myself looking at plants, studying how they're growing, and wondering what lessons they might have for gardeners back in Britain. Old habits are difficult to break, and to be honest, I wouldn't want them to.
After all, once gardening becomes part of the way you see the world, you never really stop being a gardener.
You simply find yourself exploring a different garden.
Marcus
