Gertrude Jekyll 119
countryside, distinct from the wider, unbridled landscape. Th ey were rural envi-
ronments that could be tamed and cultivated to suit one’s own aesthetic tastes,
thereby perfecting their natural beauty. Th is separation from the masculine
public sphere reinforced the appropriateness of the space for women. Griselda
Pollock and Linda Nochlin argue that in the mid-century, middle-class women
artists venturing unaccompanied into the public sphere, be it a garden or a bar,
was not considered acceptable.^10 Th is physical divide was, however, contested
and women increasingly occupied public space for a variety of uses as the cen-
tury progressed.^11 Th e issue of women artists, in particular, encroaching into the
masculine, upper echelons of professional and high art continued to be a public
debate throughout the century, coinciding with issues of gendered public and
private spaces, even as more public and private schools were open to them and
an increasing number of professional women exhibited their works. Neverthe-
less, the subjects of fl owers and gardens were deemed appropriate for women
throughout the century, demonstrating the cultural acceptability of the space.
Th e uncontested safety of acceptability encouraged women to engage with
spaces such as the domestic garden and, in turn, provided an increased feeling of
freedom within them. Mary Poovey and Simon Morgan argue for an element of
fl uidity in Victorian ideolog y;^ despite their social restrictions, women were able to
advocate their prescribed activities, and the spaces within which they were deemed
acceptable, in order to ‘broaden their sphere of competence’.^12 It is not, therefore,
coincidental that the feminine space of the garden was the location where Jekyll
became successful as a professional artist-gardener and horticultural journalist.
Th e physical space she chose to occupy and her desire to create a place of
sanctuary and independence within it contributed to her success. Steven Adams
and Anna Greutzner Robins examine ‘landscape [art] both as a collecting struc-
ture for the representation of inner experience and as an ideological tool shaping
the way in which we envision and construct the natural world’.^13 Jekyll utilized
the microcosm of the garden landscape in this way, declaring that the best pur-
pose of the garden is to help mould one’s inner self, ‘to give refreshment of mind,
to sooth, to refi ne, and to lift up the heart in a spirit of praise and thankfulness’.^14
She reinforced the garden as a continual source of inspiration for herself and her
clients, and, in this way, felt its constant infl uence on her life.
Th is creative and constructive environment was not just a space for self-
refl ection and moulding of the natural world. Jekyll was also actively involved in
moulding her environment; as the designer of her own garden, she was respon-
sible for its tangible construction. Katie Holmes argues that gardens ‘are a place
where individual and cultural imaginings are planted, nurtured and take root,
transforming the landscape and changing its meanings and metaphors’.^15 Flower
gardening was an acceptable activity that simultaneously enabled women to
loosen the restrictions of their assigned gender roles. Behind the garden walls,