Material culture, as a concept, is suggestive of control. Yet, when we acknowledge
it, it becomes clear that all the physical things we handle have a degree of
independence. Indeed, by exploring the ways in which this independence is intimately
accommodated, a richer understanding of certain kinds of experience could follow.
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London to reconsider the human activities associated with the plants that are found
there. In these sites it seems that amicable arrangements of entity only ever become
possible through fully embracing the fact that those people involved own only one,
amongst many, of the agencies in evidence there. In fact, whilst an idea of a
successful gardener can connote an efficient exercise of power, I want to argue that
the opposite is actually the case. My contention, therefore, is that, to fully find
pleasure from plants, people must become enjoyably expert in understanding that any
complete control is always unlikely, and this is a contention with some potentially
important implications for current patterns of practice.
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