Chris Madden Cartoons

A searchable archive for licensing

Book of gardening cartoons

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gardening cartoons book

A Funny Year in the Garden
Gardening cartoon book

Versions of many of the gardening cartoons on this site can be found in my book, A Funny Year in the Garden.
My gardening cartoons appeared for many years in the pages of the Irish Sunday Independent newspaper.

The book contains about a hundred of my cartoons in black and white.
The book is available through Amazon.
Such as at:
Amazon UK
Amazon USA

Gardening cartoon – beer traps to trap slugs

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Garden cartoon - beer traps to trap slugs

Gardening cartoon – catching slugs with beer traps

A cartoon about garden pests – slugs – and how to eliminate them

A joke about beer drinking – the man is drinking a can of lager and wants to open another one
Cartoon reference number: a584

See my book of gardening cartoons here.
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Garden tools cartoon – labour saving gardening tools

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Garden tools cartoon - labour saving gardening tools

Garden tools cartoon
Labour saving gardening tools

A humorous observation about hard to start power tools.
The joke is that power tools, which are meant to be labour saving, can be exhausting to get started, especially if they are started by pulling a starting chord

Cartoon reference number: a582

See my book of gardening cartoons here.
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Garden cartoons – noisy neighbours cartoon

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Gardening cartoon - noisy neighbours cartoon

Noisy neighbours cartoon

Cartoon showing problem neighbours hanging a loudspeaker outdoors in a tree.
A gardener is hanging a bird nesting box in a tree. The loudspeaker looks very similar to the nesting box, which is part of the joke

A humorous observation about neihbors from hell, encouraging birds in the garden, inconsiderate neighbours
Cartoon reference number: a578

See my book of gardening cartoons here.
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Sundial cartoon. A sundial is a solar powered clock

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sundial cartoon

Sundial cartoon. A sundial is a solar powered clock

In the cartoon a person is looking at a sundial and is saying “It’s incredible that all those years ago they’d developed solar-powered clocks.”
The cartoon illustrated how in the modern world we assume everything has to be powered by a relatively modern form of power, such as electricity in the form of batteries or mains electricity. In the past everything was powered by “sustainable” or “natural” resources, such as solar power, the wind or water.

A cartoon about the history of clocks, horology
Cartoon reference number: a544

See my book of gardening cartoons here.
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Gardening cartoon – flower appreciation guide book

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flower appreciation guide book - cartoon

Gardening cartoon – flower appreciation guide book

Cartoon showing a gardener looking in a book to see how different types of flower should be appreciated
The cartoon is about conventions of taste and aesthetic judgements as much as it’s about gardening

A cartoon about aesthetics, taste, beauty, design, cultural convention, artistic taste.
Cartoon reference number: a518

See my book of gardening cartoons here.

Butterfly friendly insecticide cartoon

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butterfly friendly pesticide cartoon

A cartoon about selective pesticide – butterfly and ladybird friendly insecticide

A joke about insecticide that kills only ugly insects

The cartoon has deeper meanings about how we judge things by appearance, by prejudice or by attractiveness.
It’s also about gardening and the aesthetic values that are deployed in the garden (such as in the selection of plants and flowers, not just in the selection of pests). However it’s also about the wider phenomenon of judging everything, including people, by appearance

Cartoon reference number: a472

See my book of gardening cartoons here.

Mushroom illustration – toadstool illustration – fungi

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mushroom illustration - chris madden

A drawing of a mushroom
Fungus illustration
Toadstool sketch

A drawing of a toadstool, mushroom or similar fungus, inspired by a walk in the park in autumn

The fungus in this drawing is a purely impressionistic one, made up on my sketch pad in my studio. It is meant to give the feel for the fungus rather than being a scientific representation of one

A drawing about autumn, fungi, mushrooms, toadstools.
A digital painting of fungus.

Cartoon reference number: a400

Seeing the face of God in a flower – cartoon

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Face of God in flower - cartoon

See the face of God in a flower – cartoon

A cartoon showing a Sunday school teacher telling her pupils that you can see the face of God when you look at a flower.

One of the children is imagining the face of a pansy as the face of God.
Pansies do have faces after all.
Seeing faces in things is known as pareidolia.
Cartoon reference number: a396

See my book of gardening cartoons here.
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Gardening cartoon – insect repellant

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gardening humour insect-repellant

Gardening humour – how to repel midges

How to repel midges when outdoors

Midges are a pest in the garden and outdoors. They may be small but they go around in swarms and their bites can drive a person to the point of distraction. However, a slight breeze is all it takes to get rid of them.
This cartoon shows a method of producing such a breeze.
Cartoon reference number: a665

See my book of gardening cartoons here.

Organic gardening cartoon – worms dragging unwanted organic matter underground

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Worms dragging unwanted matter underground - cartoon

Organic gardening cartoon – worms dragging unwanted organic matter underground

Cartoon showing a woman thinking about her husband being dragged under the soil by worms. Wishful thinking

A cartoon about organic gardening

The woman in the cartoon is a keen organic gardener – and her husband is a lazy waste of space.
She is thinking about the organic gardening principle that you should allow worms to drag decaying organic matter into the soil, and she is wishing that the worms would do that to her husband.

Cartoon reference number: a298

See my book of gardening cartoons here.
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Garden plant protection cartoon

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umbrellas as plant protectors cartoon

Gardening cartoon – a novel way to protect plants from bad weather conditions

Cartoon showing small umbrellas as a novelty form of plant protector in the garden

The advantage of these mini umbrellas is that because they are vivid colours they bring a welcome splash of colour to the garden during dull weather.
Cartoon reference number: a297

See my book of gardening cartoons here.
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Topiary cartoon

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topiary gardening cartoon

Garden cartoon
Topiary cartoon – gardener creating a topiary chair

Cartoon showing a gardener relaxing in a chair that he has clipped as a piece of topiary from a bush. He is reading a magazine called ‘Topiary Monthly’

A cartoon about topiary art, clipping hedges, topiary animals, garden furniture, garden chairs, relaxing in the garden.
Cartoon reference number: a296

See my book of gardening cartoons here.
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Solar powered sundial cartoon – a sundial with solar panels

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electronic sundial cartoon

Garden cartoon – a garden sundial that is powered by a solar panel and that has a digital display

Cartoon showing a digital sundial

The original version of this cartoon was drawn many years ago, before the start of the recent proliferation in solar panels.
Part of the joke is that sundials are very low-tech devices, whereas the device in the cartoon is very high-tech. Both use the sun as a way of telling the time.
The cartoon questions the need to make everything hi-tech, because the normal sundial works almost as well as the solar panel electronic clock in the cartoon (except when the sun’s not shining of course, but let’s not get pedantic).
There is a companion cartoon that goes with this one in which a traditional sundial is advertised as a ‘solar powered clock‘
A cartoon about alternative technology, garden ornaments.

Cartoon reference number: a294

See my book of gardening cartoons here.

Summer gardening cartoon – gardening in dull weather, compensating for lack of sunshine

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sun lamp for summer sun - cartoon

Garden cartoon – how to provide sunshine in overcast weather

Cartoon showing a gardener setting up a sun lamp to provide artificial sunshine to his garden plants

This cartoon was drawn during a prolonged period of very overcast summer weather, when the sun didn’t shine for a long period of time.

A cartoon about gardening equipment, flower gardening, encouraging plants, gardening in shady gardens, sun-loving plants.

Cartoon reference number: a293

See my book of gardening cartoons here.
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Spring gardening cartoon – the results of an early spring

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spring early - neighbours out early - cartoon

Spring gardening cartoon – an early spring

Cartoon showing the results of an early spring.
When spring arrives early in the year plants come out earlier. And so do neighbours.

Cartoon showing people relaxing in the garden to take advantage of early spring sunshine and unseasonable warm weather
A cartoon about garden seasons, hot weather, relaxation in gardens, suburban gardening.
Cartoon reference number: a292

See my book of gardening cartoons here.
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Gardening cartoon – a cartoon about data-obsession and looking forward to spring

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measuring spring buds cartoon

Garden cartoon.
Cartoon about obsessive data collection

Cartoon showing a gardener measuring the length of a bud on a tree and determining the progress of the seasons as a result.

This is a cartoon about people who feel a need to measure things as a way of feeling that they are in control of their lives and environment.
This cartoon isn’t a criticism of the data collecting urge. After all, where would we be without the people who do it? It’s due to them that we can predict what will happen in the future (The man in the cartoon is precisely predicting the time till the arrival of spring).
A cartoon about control freaks, creating order, psychological personality types.
Cartoon reference number: a291

See my book of gardening cartoons here.
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Gardening cartoon – garden seating cartoon

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spiral staircase up tree cartoon

Garden cartoon – garden seating up a tree cartoon

Cartoon showing a garden seat high in the branches of a tree

There is a spiral staircase going round the trunk of the tree, providing access to the top of the tree
A cartoon that refers to the recent trend to construct aerial walkways or arboreal walkways through the upper branches of trees, allowing people to explore the tree canopy. Examples include the Xstrata Treetop Walkway in Kew Gardens, London.
The cartoon also refers to the tree houses built in trees by children (or their parents).
Part of the joke in the cartoon is that the two people sitting on a bench in the tree are old people rather than the young and agile people you’d expect.
A cartoon about garden seating, garden chairs, relaxing in the garden, suburban gardening.
Cartoon reference number: a290

See my book of gardening cartoons here.
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Garden flowers cartoon – looking at a snowdrop using a mirror

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looking at a snowdrop using a mirror - cartoon

Spring garden flower cartoon – snowdrops in the garden

Cartoon showing a man in his garden studying snowdrops by looking at them from below by using a mirror on a stick

A cartoon about spring gardening, early spring garden flowers, flower appreciation, how to study snowdrops.

Cartoon reference number: a282

See my book of gardening cartoons here.
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Gardening cartoon about cutting a branch from a tree – and forward planning

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saw branch off tree - cartoon

Garden tree cartoon – sawing a branch off a tree while sitting on the branch

Cartoon about the cliche of a man sawing a branch off a tree while sitting on the branch.
In the usual version of this cartoon cliche the man is sitting on the part of the branch which will fall to the ground when cut – a joke about human stupidity.

In this version of the cartoon the man has realised this danger and has sat on the part of the branch that will remain attached to the tree.
However, he’s overlooked the fact that his ladder was leaning on the branch and has fallen to the ground, stranding him on the stump of the branch high in the tree.

A cartoon about hubris, the law of unforeseen consequences, insufficient planning, foreword planning, flawed planning strategies, flaws in reasoning.

Cartoon reference number: a281

See my book of gardening cartoons here.
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Garden pond cartoon – a mobile pond in a wheelbarrow

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garden pond in wheelbarrow - cartoon

Garden pond cartoon – a garden pond in a wheelbarrow

Cartoon about unusual garden ponds

A moveable pond in a wheelbarrow – a pond that can by moved round the garden

A cartoon about creating a garden pond, novelty garden ponds, humorous garden ponds, uses for old garden tools and implements, unusual uses for wheelbarrows, novelty garden design.

Cartoon reference number: a280

See my book of gardening cartoons here.
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Fruit growing cartoon – pear tree producing gluts of fruit in the autumn

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pear tree fruit glut cartoon

Fruit gardening cartoon – a glut of fruit on a pear tree

Cartoon about the problem of gluts of seasonal food or the over abundance of seasonal crops

The gardener complaining that all of the fruit on a fruit tree arrives at once.

A cartoon about fruit gardening, vegetable gardens, harvesting fruit, pear trees, garden fruit, allotment gardening, autumn gardens, fall gardening, fruit picking.

Cartoon reference number: a279

See my book of gardening cartoons here.
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