Ruth Pitter: The Gardener-Poet of Hainault Forest
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast:
November 7, 1897
Today in botanical history, we celebrate Ruth Pitter [PIT-er] (1897-1992), a remarkable British poet whose deep connection to nature, primarily through her beloved Hainault Forest, shaped her literary legacy.
Pitter's relationship with gardens and nature began in her childhood when her family discovered an old cottage on the outskirts of Hainault Forest. This ancient grove of oak, chestnut, beech, and elder trees became her sanctuary and the wellspring of her poetic inspiration. Her words capture the essence of a gardener's reward in this beloved verse:
What do we look for as reward? Some little sounds, and scents, and scenes
A small hand darting strawberry-ward
A woman's aprons full of greens. The sense that we have brought to birth
Out of the cold and heavy soil,
The blessed fruits and flowers of earth Is large reward for our toil.
Particularly moving is her reflection on November gardening, which resonates deeply with today's gardeners still working in their autumn gardens:
All in November's soaking mist
We stand and prune the naked tree,
While all our love and interest
Seem quenched in the blue-nosed misery.
Her father's garden provided early horticultural lessons, where she learned to appreciate everything from three-pound frilly lettuces to the magic of new potatoes.
One of her favorite spots was a field of red clover that created "an unbroken mass of rosy purple all along the horizon," filling the air with a honey-sweet fragrance that reminded her of freshly baked bread.
Pitter's most intimate garden moments often found their way into her poetry. In "The Strawberry Plant," she celebrated the simple beauty of wild strawberries, their "perfect little flowers still lingering amid the beautiful, flushed leaves, and the dark crimson fruit ready to drop with ripeness."
Her garden observations were not merely decorative but deeply spiritual, often lifting what she called "the edge of the veil" between the material and the mystical.
The first woman to receive the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1955, Pitter's work resonates with gardeners and nature lovers today. Her poetry reminds us that the greatest rewards of gardening often come in small, precious moments - the dart of a hand toward a ripe strawberry, the weight of fresh greens in an apron, and the miracle of bringing life from cold soil.
