ABSTRACT
I have demonstrated that through a range of forms of publication, John Loudon developed the notion of gardens in the public sphere as national projects to which all should have access. Gardens in the private sphere and their contribution ‘to our ideas of happiness’ will be the focus of the first part of this chapter.1 In the Gardener’s Magazine, John Loudon argues that gardens of essential labour for the poor and gardens of labour and leisure for the middle classes will both be of benefit to the polis. Middle-class gardens are a primary element of the discourse of the Suburban Gardener, and Villa Companion, which was sold serially (like the Arboretum) over a two-year period, before the ‘complete’ bound volume was published in 1838.2 In contrast to the Arboretum and the Gardener’s Magazine, the Suburban Gardener addresses a mainly female audience.
