What’s on Unearthed: The Power of Gardening Coming soon to British Library, London Discover how centuries of gardening have nurtured individuals, empowered communities and transformed our natural world in a major new exhibition at the British Library this Spring.Friday 2 May – Sunday 10 August 2025 The British Library has an exhibition about garden history opening on 2 May which runs to 10 August, please can you put the link on the website. https://events.bl.uk/exhibitions/unearthed-the-power-of-gardening From beautiful botanical illustrations to the world’s oldest mechanised lawnmower, ancient herbals to guerrilla gardening zines, Unearthed reveals how gardeners have cultivated more than just plants – they’ve sown the seeds of change. Dive into gardening’s role in our health and wellbeing, see how people have reimagined our homes, towns and cities to create green spaces, and uproot the tangled histories of the plants that grow in our gardens today. Among an incredible collection of books, manuscripts, photographs, artworks and historical tools, highlights include: the first English gardening manual: Thomas Hill’s 1558 guide on how to tend a garden Charles Darwin’s vasculum, for collecting plant specimens on the Beagle voyage the only surviving illustrated Old English herbal an oil portrait of John Ystumllyn, one of Britain’s earliest documented Black gardeners Gertrude Jekyll’s boots: a trailblazing gardener, writer, artist, and one of the 20th century’s most influential garden designers striking botanical art by European, Indian, Chinese and Caribbean artists four short films following Coco Collective, an Afro-diaspora led community garden that opened as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic a Victorian Wardian case, the mini travelling greenhouse that enabled thousands of living plant specimens to be moved around the world. Unearthed celebrates gardening as a force for creativity, resilience and community through the remarkable stories of the people and plants that shape our gardens. The exhibition is supported by a donation made in memory of Melvin R Seiden, with thanks to Stanley Smith (UK) Horticultural Trust for additional support. Courtesy of British Library information events.
