Gardens Illustrated Current Issue Sampler

PLANTING IDEAS • BEAUTIFUL GARDENS • EXPERT ADVICE

GARDENS SMALL GARDENS Making the most of a limited space

HOW TO DESIGN

a family garden WITH FLAIR

Grow the best

lavender, crocosmia and scented pelargoniums

DISCOVER AN ENGLISH GARDEN PACKED WITH COLOUR

Ferula communis A spectacular, tall and robust herbaceous perennial with mounds of green, finely divided, feathery ostrich plume-like leaves. In time plants summon up enough energy to throw up colossal stout branching stems several metres high, purple tinted, dusted grey-green, and studded with bright greenish yellow flowers. These come in dramatic large rounded umbels composed of 20-40 rays and often festooned with insects.

Summer dormancy follows seed set as the plant retreats underground into a hefty root taking several years before flowering again. Numerous forms exist with variations in leaf colour, size of inflorescence and season. When several plants flower together you are transported into a fantasy world.

Height/spread 4m x 1.5m.

Origins Throughout the Mediterranean to the Middle East.

Conditions Full sun in most soils except waterlogged.

Hardiness rating RHS H3, USDA 6a-9b†.

Season February-July.

dig in nurseryman’s favourites

May plants With summer finally on its way, which plants should you be choosing to give your garden a chance of really showing its true colours?

WORDS FERGUS GARRETT PHOTOGRAPHS SHARON PEARSON

Papaver commutatum ’Ladybird’

Fergus Garrett is a plantsman and head gardener at Great Dixter in East Sussex. He also lectures, writes and serves on Royal Horticultural Society committees

A dazzling poppy that is easy to grow.

Decorated throughout with fine hairs, it has blue-green dissected leaves and sinewy stems, crooked at the neck, dangling fat buds that straighten upright before splitting open, unfurling thin, silky, cupped flowers of rich pillar-box red. Each petal is highlighted at its base with a distinct broad black blotch.

Direct sow outside in spring or into pots in October, prick out when young, overwinter under glass and plant out the following year.

Daring/exhilarating with Lychnis coronaria.

Height/spread 50cm x 30cm. AGM*.

Origins Turkey, Iran and the Caucasus.

Conditions Full sun in any soil that isn’t waterlogged.

Hardiness rating RHS H4.

Season May-June.

Aquilegia chrysantha ‘Yellow Queen’ Attractive grey green, broadly divided leaves and long graceful stems supporting forward facing pale lemon flowers. The species in its native South-western United States is pollinated by long tongued hawk moths, able to reach into the backswept spurs containing the nectar. ‘Yellow Queen’ flowers for longer than most columbines. Lovely with mauve Allium hollandicum and Hesperis matronalis.

Reliably perennial but tires with age.

Height/spread 90cm x 45cm.

Origins Native to the Chihuahuan and Sonoran deserts of southern USA, favouring *Holds an Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society † Hardiness ratings given where available

cooler wetter pockets.

Conditions In most soil (except waterlogged) in full sun or part shade.

Hardiness rating USDA 3a-9b.

Season May-July.

23

dig in shop front

Global gathering Whether you’re harvesting flowers, vegetables, nuts or seeds, here are some essential items to help make your work easy and efficient PHOTOGRAPHS SEAN MALYON STYLING NIKI GOSS

WWPLANTS

1 This classic jute carrier has handles on each corner and is fantastic for gathering up bundles of cut flowers, garden prunings or even logs. £34 from Carrier Company 01328 820699, carriercompany.co.uk.

A Japanese grass sickle will make light work of cutting through stems, perfect for clearing areas of long grass or meadow. £20 from Manufactum 0800 096 0938, www.manufactum.co.uk. Cut flowers from Organic Blooms 01454 300300, www.organicblooms.co.uk

23

dig in shop front 2 Perfect for a cutting garden, this flower bucket is divided into four sections to separate blooms £34.95; this lightweight purple wheelbarrow features a generous-sized tray to accommodate all your garden clearings, and has a pneumatic tyre that will comfortably handle steps and uneven terrain, £69.95, both from Sarah Raven 0845 092 0283, www.sarahraven.com

5

6 3 The Walnut Wizard makes light work of gathering fallen walnuts as you roll it along the ground, £49.50 for similar from Home and Garden Gifts 01788 576750, www.homeandgardengifts.co.uk 4 Collect harvested seed in these glass storage test tubes with cork stoppers, £9 for a set of either four 3cm-wide tubes, or six 2cm tubes from Rockett St George 01444 253391, www.rockettstgeorge.co.uk 5 Gardener’s full apron in ‘aubergine’ with floral contrast trim, £32 from Pinks and Greens 01379 588090, www.pinksandgreens.co.uk. Trekmates seagrass sun hat £20 from Cotswold Outdoors 0844 557 7755, www.cotswoldoutdoor.com. RHS ‘Tough Tips’ gloves £5.50 from Sarah Raven (see 2).

6 Stainless steel wire harvesting trugs £46.95 for a set of three sizes from Harrod Horticultural 0845 402 5300, www.harrodhorticultural.com. Fruit punnets £9.95 for six from Nutley’s Kitchen Gardens 01903 233299, www.nutleyskitchengardens.co.uk. Purple enamel colander £24.95 from Sarah Raven (see 2).

3

4

Shot on location at Tyntesfield, North Somerset, with kind permission of the National Trust.

Little House, big heart This one-acre garden at Little House packs a huge amount of interest into its limited space WORDS MARY KEEN PHOTOGRAPHS LYNN KEDDIE

86

Cotswolds garden The formal potager with brick paths is a signature feature of Rosemary Verey’s gardens.

In brief Name Little House.

What Formal village garden.

Where The Cotswolds, 3 miles from Cirencester.

Climate The site is sheltered in the lea of the hill.

Size Just over an acre.

Soil Well cultivated, alkaline but not stony.

Points of interest Designed by Rosemary Verey.

At its best in May.

Four plant combinations

4 3

2 1

Onwards and upwards The upright blue of Agastache makes a striking contrast with the flat daisy heads of Echinacea – a contrast that will be maintained when they transform into seedheads.

1 Saponaria × lempergii ‘Max Frei’ 2 Echinacea purpurea ‘Pink Glow’ 3 Agastache ‘Black Adder’ 4 Veronicastrum virginicum ‘Erica’.

2

4

1

3

Make it last Persicaria is one of the most useful late border perennials; colourful for months it will collapse with the first hard frost while seedheads of the other plants here will continue to stand. 1 Lythrum virgatum pale form 2 Molinia caerulea subsp. arundinacea ‘Transparent’ 3 Monarda ‘Neon’ 4 Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘September Spires’.

60

Yorkshire garden

4

1

2

5

3

Keeping cool A white cloud of Erigeron dominates, echoed by the fluffy white tassels of Sanguisorba. Mixed with the purples and blues of Verbena and Agastache, it creates a wonderfully cool combination. 1 Verbena bonariensis 2 Agastache ‘Black Adder’ 3 Calamagrostis brachytricha 4 Erigeron annuus 5 Sanguisorba tenuifolia ‘Stand Up Comedian’.

3

5

2

1 4

Clouds of colour A cloud of golden Foeniculum (fennel) flowers is offset by the firmer shapes of Helenium. Spires are repeated through the planting, including white Actaea and Veronicastrum.

1 Actaea ‘Prichard’s Giant’ 2 Aster umbellatus 3 Veronicastrum virginicum ‘Diane’ 4 Helenium ‘Wesergold’ 5 Foeniculum vulgare ‘Purpureum’.

In brief What Large country garden.

Where Near Queenstown, New Zealand’s South Island.

Size 14 acres.

Soil Mainly a thin layer of loam over clay.

Climate Extremes of weather; from low of -19ºC in winter to mid 30ºCs in summer.

Points of interest The entire garden is Janet Blair’s creation over the past 40 years, and the garden has been given a five-star rating by the New Zealand Gardens Trust as a garden of national significance.

62

New Zealand garden

An elemental education

When she took on her beautiful New Zealand garden 40 years ago, Janet Blair learned spectacular views came at a price. But with clever planting and design she has tamed the harsh southerly winds WORDS CHRISTINE REID PHOTOGRAPHS CLAIRE TAKACS

Hedges and trees – both deciduous and evergreen – help shelter Janet’s garden as icy winds tear down the valley.

Michael Pollan He’s a professor, an environmental activist, a writer and above all a passionate advocate of growing and cooking your own food WORDS PAULA DEITZ PORTRAIT CHARLIE HOPKINSON

T

all and lanky, Michael Pollan, now 58, has over the years been a charismatic figure before packed audiences as he introduced each of his seven books.

His speaking presence gives fans a convincing and friendly face to the lucid, conversational tone of his writings. Emerging first as a gardener seeking culture through nature in his book Second Nature (1991), he has evolved into an urgent proselytiser against the pervasive corn-based industrial agribusiness in favour of locally produced organic food and family meals. As expressed in his bestseller The Omnivore’s Dilemma (2006), ‘the way we eat represents our most profound engagement with the natural world’.

Pollan’s culminating creed – ‘Eat food, not too much, mostly plants’ (from In Defence of Food, 2008) – reflects both his common-sense, statistically oriented goals and his relaxed, non-dogmatic practise of them in his life. Arriving at his house in Berkeley, California, through a rose-laden archway into a front garden featuring a fire pit and raised beds of vegetables and herbs, one gets his signal that ‘gardening is about cooking’ – but without sacrificing the lush beauty of a Northern Californian landscape. He and his wife, artist Judith Belzer, live conveniently down the street from the famous restaurant Chez Panisse, owned by his friend Alice Waters, who pioneered the serving of local, organic and seasonal ingredients.

As the Knight Professor of Science and Environmental Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, where he also helped to establish the Berkeley Food Institute, his hope has been to incorporate his brand of journalism into the humanities since it deals with the basic matters of existence.

He credits his college professors and environmental activists, such as renowned Kentucky farmer/writer Wendell Berry, with setting the examples that led to his own active role.

Raised on Long Island, Pollan studied at Bennington College in Vermont, spending a year abroad at Mansfield College, Oxford, where he studied one British author a week, with a slower pace for Shakespeare. But Bennington is where he entered into the tradition of American nature writing and learned to write conversational prose. Proceeding to earn a master’s degree at Columbia University, he wrote his essay on early American literature, including Henry D Thoreau’s book Walden. While others might praise Thoreau’s experience in the wilderness, Pollan believes that Thoreau ‘threw into question

his support of nature’ by abandoning the experimental bean field he planted for food, unable to meet the constant challenge of weeds and birds. Pollan believes Thoreau’s leaving the bean field was a fateful moment in American culture – one Pollan tries to counteract by encouraging vegetable gardens on the smallest plots of land.

His own garden was created by designer Bernardo Lopez as an all-year edible landscape. After a winter of cabbage and kale, the garden burgeons with parsley, sage, thyme and marjoram and, later, cucumbers, lettuce, squash, celery, tomato plants and teepees of scarlet runner beans. Pollan says, “I love the aesthetic of a vegetable garden”, but he also claims it provides exercise, the salutary effect of soil bacteria, selfreliance and confidence.

His latest book Cooked (Allen Lane, 2013) is based on the premise that people who cook, eat healthily. Audiences laugh when he compares the many hours people spend watching TV chefs against the minimal time they actually cook. The book is essentially an adventure story about his engagement with specific cooking techniques and the experts who guided him.

When he describes these experiences, his enthusiasm for the life of food is palpable – including the details of growing it or discovering the proper sources.

President Obama took him seriously when, prior to his election in 2008, he responded to Pollan’s famous New York Times letter to the forthcoming ‘Farmer in Chief’, in which he proposed reforms for the entire food system. The then senator admitted that ‘our agriculture sector actually is contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector.’

There is no better metaphor for Pollan’s efforts to improve the eating habits of Americans than the path he mowed in an earlier meadow garden, as described in Second Nature. He battled to stave off encroaching grasses in the same way that his prose guides others through the onslaught of the industrial food complex to achieve a more wholesome lifestyle.

USEFUL INFORMATION michaelpollan.com NEXT MONTH American landscape architect Andrea Cochran

Eat food, not too much, mostly plants 54

horticultural who’s who

In brief What A formal vegetable garden, which supplies Gartine, the owners’ restaurant in Amsterdam.

Where Beemster, a reclaimed district in the province of North Holland.

Size 1,500 square metres.

Climate Winters can be cold, but not as harsh as in the southern parts of the Netherlands due to the proximity to the sea.

Soil Fertile heavy clay.

Points of interest Productive formal beds and trained trees.

Labour of love STNALPWW

North of Amsterdam, a small but highly productive vegetable garden provides much of the food for the owners’ city centre restaurant WORDS LIA LEENDERTZ PHOTOGRAPHS ANDREW MONTGOMERY

Early morning harvesting beneath the vegetable garden’s lollipop-trained trees.

plot to plate

1

2

3

1 Kirsten Ekhart and Willem-Jan Hendriks harvest vegetables that they will later serve at their restaurant, Gartine.

2 Ice radish, a daikon-type radish that Kirsten uses in soups.

3 Both sweet and savoury cupcakes are a Gartine speciality.

4 Lavender from the garden is infused in honey and cream for use in the restaurant.

5 Kirsten makes white currants into jams to serve with breakfast, and uses the sprigs to decorate cakes.

6 Broad bean ‘Crimson Flowered’.

7 The Amsterdam restaurant, with antique Portuguese chandelier.

8 The box-edged vegetable beds.

4

6

5

7

8 47

Autumn daisies

The Asteraceae family is renowned for its daisy-like stars. Add to these some less recognised members and you have a great selection of plants for autumn colour WORDS NOËL KINGSBURY PHOTOGRAPHS ANNAÏCK GUITTENY

plant profile autumn daisies In brief

What Late-flowering members of the daisy family that have a very important role in the garden.

Origins Overwhelmingly North American, and mostly from prairie habitats; some Eurasian species from grassland habitats.

Season Late summer to autumn, in some cases as late as the first hard frosts.

Size Mostly tall and upright, a few below 1m.

Conditions Very easy to grow in full sun, preferably with moist, fertile soils.

E Noël Kingsbury is a designer and writer, whose garden on the Welsh borders reflects his passion for wild-style planting.

RUDBECKIA FULGIDA VAR. DEAMII Known in North America as ‘Black-eyed Susan’ this is the classic late-season daisy, adored for its profuse flowering and comparatively compact size. In the 1980s it became the signature plant for the late Wolfgang Oehme, whose dramatic plantings in Washington DC did much to change attitudes to using perennials on a large scale.

60cm. AGM*. RHS H7, USDA 3a-9b†.

*Holds an Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society. † Hardiness ratings given where available.

volution has scattered plant families unevenly around the world. The early summer froth of cow parsley, which together with its innumerable relatives lines so many of Britain’s country roads, is not repeated anywhere else, while on a tiny strip of South African Cape you’ll find 700 heathers. In North America, meanwhile, east of the Great Plains, evolution went daisy crazy. Early plant hunters recognised the garden value of the vast number of these late-flowering and vigorous plants, and soon brought them back across the Atlantic to take up residence in our gardens.

During the great age of the herbaceous border at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, breeders in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands got to work on these colourful perennials that have been a mainstay of our gardens ever since. In recent years North American gardeners have turned with enthusiasm to their own flora, so now we are seeing another wave of late daisy species and cultivars crossing the pond.

The daisy family, Compositae or Asteraceae, is one of the largest families of flowering plants. Although some species vary greatly from the traditional image of a daisy, they all share one main characteristic: each flowerhead is composed of not one but hundreds of individual florets. In the familiar daisy pattern, the outer florets have a single huge petal, which contributes to the rays of the flowerhead. Some lack these ray florets, so present a smaller fuzzy flower head, as in the goldenrods – Solidago. Of the family’s many North American genera, some such as Aster and Solidago are large enough to merit looking at alone, but there are many others, and it is some of those we look at here. Some have a long history in cultivation, but we are only just learning about others.

Helianthus (sunflowers) is a good place to start, and also a good place to acknowledge some of the drawbacks of the late-summer daisies: a few run aggressively, and there are an awful lot of species with identical hard golden-yellow flowers. There are two exceptions though: ‘Lemon Queen’ which 49

Front gardens guide Different rules apply at the front of your house, as you work within a smaller space – with privacy to be protected and a path to be accommodated.

Here are three designs to set you thinking WORDS ANN-MARIE POWELL ILLUSTRATIONS RICHARD LEE

4 1

Foraging garden The last decade has seen an explosion of interest in the ‘grow your own’ movement, and like so many concerned about food provenance, I have dabbled with annual vegetables in the area of my garden known affectionately as the ‘veg splodge’. However, traditional veg growing techniques require energy, time and effort; I (and many of my clients) have been looking for a way to grow food with less work.

Martin Crawford’s book How to Grow Perennial Vegetables (Green Books) has inspired this perennial foraging front garden.

I imagine it as a south-facing plot, on a good loamy well-prepared soil. A traditional space with unconventional plants to forage, a crab apple at the centre of a formal crisscross of brick paths stands proud above a host of perennial vegetables. Perennial food gardening may give less food per plant than conventional annual growing, but is a wonderful alternative to sowing from scratch every year. Placed in the front garden, crops are visible and easily accessible every time you return home.

What’s more, growing perennials extends the harvest season without the need for a greenhouse, cold frame or other device. You can harvest Jerusalem artichokes all winter as long as you mulch enough to keep the ground from freezing, and some perennial crops, such as sorrel, are up and ready to eat in March when the snow is melting. Trained fruit is pretty, takes up little space, and doubles as a trellis over which to grow flowering climbers.

46

Our garden dimensions 7.5 metres long x 6 metres wide

Key plants for a foraging garden

Malus ‘Evereste’ Crab apples are a choice tree for the small garden, and this variety has large flushed red-yellow-orange fruit that suits jellies, jams, pickle or vodka infusion. AGM*.

Malva moschata This short-lived perennial sets seed freely. The blooms are irresistible to bees from July to September, and we can feast on the blooms, fruit, young leaves and shoots.

Crambe maritima You’ll find sea kale will crop for years. Young leaves can be used raw or steamed, while unopened flower heads taste like broccoli. The roots can be roasted or boiled. AGM.

PLANT PORTRAITS FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: JONATHAN NEED / GAP PHOTOS; FLORAPIX / ALAMY; JO WHITWORTH / GAP PHOTOS; TOMMY TONSBERG / GAP PHOTOS; BLACKMOOR NURSERIES WWW.BLACKMOOR.CO.UK

Ann-Marie Powell is an author, television presenter and award-winning garden designer. Her books include AnnMarie Powell’s Plans for Small Gardens.

planting & design solutions 1 Wormery Wormeries are an efficient, space saving method of turning kitchen waste and small amounts of garden waste into nutrient-rich compost, and a fine source of concentrated liquid fertiliser. Suppliers include www. wormery.co.uk or www.wigglywigglers.co.uk

5

2 Hard landscaping Brick paths and vegetable gardens have ever gone hand in hand, and narrow paths to walk through the garden provide access for cropping and maintenance. The main path is broken up with large stone slabs, lending a more contemporary air.

3 Bin store A necessary evil in the front garden, using the same materials and colours of the boundary trellis helps to blend the store into the space. A hinged lid and door would give further camouflage.

4 Walls Rendered walls radiate warmth, encouraging fruit to ripen. Trellis fixed atop adds height while allowing air to circulate around the wall-trained fruit.

Try www.gardentrellis.co.uk

3 2

5 Arches

*HOLDS AN AWARD OF GARDEN MERIT FROM THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY

Arches over the path provide another growing opportunity and help frame the front door. Easily accessed, they could host hops Humulus lupulus, whose young shoots can be cropped and steamed like asparagus to retain the nutty flavour.

Planting options Bulbs and tubers eĂŹĂŹAllium species including Nodding Onion Allium cernuum, Chinese onion Allium chinense, Welsh Onion Allium fistulosum eĂŹĂŹ 9%1%7, Camassia quamash Allium cepa Proliferum Group This produces good harvests of food per square foot. All parts of the plant can be eaten raw or cooked, and the 40%28ĂŹ-7ĂŹ94ĂŹ-2ĂŹ )&69%6=AĂŹ0%78-2+ĂŹ well into October.

Vaccinium ‘Sunshine Blue’ This self-fertile semi dwarf evergreen blueberry is the ideal choice for a foraging garden. Highly ornamental, and an acid lover requiring lime-free ericaceous compost.

Climbers for arches eĂŹĂŹ 6%4):-2)7 eĂŹĂŹ 347ĂŹHumulus lupulus Edible fence plants eĂŹĂŹ!%00O86%-2)(ĂŹ%440)7ĂŹ

pears, mirabelles, peaches on dwarf rootstock eĂŹĂŹ %4%2)7)ĂŹ;-2)&)66=ĂŹ Rubus phoenicolasius eĂŹĂŹApios americana eĂŹĂŹSchisandra grandiflora Flowering edibles eĂŹĂŹ ,-'36=ĂŹ Cichorium intybus eĂŹĂŹ 97/ĂŹ1%003;ĂŹMalva moschata eĂŹĂŹ ;))8ĂŹ'-')0=ĂŹMyrrhis odorata eĂŹĂŹCampanula sarmatica ‘Hemelstraling’ eĂŹĂŹHemerocallis Yellow

cultivars are sweeter Ground cover eĂŹĂŹ 23;ĂŹ 86%;&)66= Fragaria vesca ‘White Delight’ eĂŹĂŹ %7,9% Tropaoelum tuberosum eĂŹĂŹ -30)87 Viola odorata ‘Hungarian Beauty’ Mid height/tall eĂŹĂŹ )6)22-%0ĂŹ/%0) Brassica oleracea Botrytis Group eĂŹĂŹ )6)22-%0ĂŹ&63''30Brassica oleracea Ramosa Group eĂŹĂŹHosta ventricosa AGM

eĂŹĂŹ )%ĂŹ/%0)ĂŹCrambe maritima AGM eĂŹĂŹ ')ĂŹ40%28 Sedum spectabile AGM eĂŹĂŹ ;))8ĂŹ'-')0= Myrrhis odorata Perennial salad eĂŹĂŹ 33(ĂŹ -2+ĂŹ )26= Chenopodium bonus-henricus eĂŹĂŹ 3:%+) Levisticum officinale eĂŹĂŹ %0%(ĂŹ&962)8 Sanguisorba minor eĂŹĂŹ )22)0 Foeniculum vulgare eĂŹĂŹ!-0(ĂŹ 3'/)8 Diplotaxis tenuifolia

47

WWPLANTS

Here the formal parterre of the Gray Garden is framed by quince trees forming a terrace that looks down on to the heart of the garden.

In brief WHAT An American interpretation of a classic English garden such as Sissinghurst.

WHERE In the Litchfield Hills of northwestern Connecticut, USA. SIZE Six acres of garden in a 25-acre property.

CLIMATE Cold winters, hot summers.

HARDINESS RATING RHS H7, USDA 5b.

SOIL Acid loam.

POINTS OF INTEREST In an agreement with the Garden Conservancy, the property is owned jointly by George Schoellkopf and Hollister House Garden Inc, a non-profit organisation dedicated to preserving the house and garden.

American garden

American dream Inspired by Sissinghurst, the owners of Hollister House were determined to make their garden dreams come true WORDS PAGE DICKEY PHOTOGRAPHS CLAIRE TAKACS

49

Natural talent After years spent making models for Aardman and the BBC, Patrick Haines now takes nature as his inspiration, using plants and birds to create breathtaking art WORDS ANNIE GATTI PHOTOGRAPHS ANDREW MONTGOMERY

artist profile

Reminiscent of a naturalist’s eclectic collection, artist Patrick Haines gains creative energy from examining the natural world.

49

the writer’s plot

The big push In which our columnist must finally get started on his fruit garden WORDS FRANK RONAN ILLUSTRATION ANGELA HARDING

W

e may, at last, be principles. It is to be a about to make square, three sides of which, the fruit garden. all except the south, are to be Eleven years or so since I first a continuous raised bed. The scanned that piece of ground back of this bed will be and decided to put it there girded with trained pears, and an eleven year pile of apples and gages on wooden fruit tree catalogues later. frames, and the inner part In summer, when the will contain the raspberries raspberries arrive at the and currants and greengrocer, I, grimacing at gooseberries. The idea is the increasing price of them that the whole thing makes and the decreasing size of a south-facing sun-trap. their containers, kick myself The middle can be paved, and resolve to have them and two hammocks will underway by next year. be slung in it, in which Meanwhile a pile of earth one can recline with destined to fill raised beds cushions and a novel and swells to the size of a occasionally extend a hand neolithic tumulus and to pluck a berry. sprouts some of the most We did have a summer vigorous and beautiful once when it was nice to lie weeds I have ever seen. in a hammock (2003 I “A garden made must be a garden It is the last great eyesore think), and I assume we will maintained, with no leeway for sloppiness” in the garden, now that the have one again. I am also greenhouse is gone, but it is assuming that if I get the remarkable how easily an eyesore is overlooked when you have variety right I will be able to grow a gage that fruits up here. It may how it should be in your mind’s eye, and you are seeing, not what be that if I plant a delicious old one I also put in a modern reliable is there, but refinements and adjustments to your plan. And every to pollinate it. For pears, my fingers are tightly crossed that the time you think of an improvement to the scheme you think to ‘Doyenné du Comice’ will condescend to be happy, because it is so yourself, ‘It is just as well I hadn’t started it yet, or it wouldn’t be superior to any other that I would still be buying them if I grew an nearly as nice.’ And so the happiness of procrastination continues. alternative. It will need ‘Concorde’ or something to pollinate it in Until, that is, it is the last part of the garden and then it must any case. Apples present no problem at all. This is apple country be done. And still you cling to it, perhaps because when it is and there are so many good ones to choose from you can almost finished you will lose your excuses. Other parts that you go by looks alone. have neglected a little will suddenly cry out for attention.

Damsons will line the space between the path and the A certain lack of maintainance can be forgiven in a hedgerow on the south side. It seems natural since they garden under construction, but a garden made must be a grow in the hedges here anyway, and I even know a hedge garden maintained, with no leeway for sloppiness. Will it, made of them nearby. A quince or two would be you worry, be that, once it is finished, you cease to be the fantastic, but I haven’t worked out how to accommodate garden’s maker and become the garden’s servant? them in the scheme. There won’t be room for mulberries We’ll soon find out. But I am assuming that any or medlars or anything that can’t get by without Frank Ronan is a psychological disadvantage will be outweighed by the joy novelist who lives spreading its elbows, and we are too cold for figs or of not having to buy raspberries. More than that, the apricots or peaches. Whatever may grow there are and gardens in Worcestershire whole design of the fruit garden has evolved on sybaritic walls to build first, and then we may begin.

130