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| Dewy Tulip 'Jan Reus' in the Broad Border earlier today. This is the reason I disregarded my careers officer's advice that gardening wasn't perhaps the best option. Thirty odd years on and no regrets. |
"I want to work for a Big House with a garden all around it"....the Careers Officer cast a tight, thin lipped smile, code for make another choice. Maybe it was a statement of fantasy, maybe I didn't quite know what I wanted or how I would get it. I was seventeen when I uttered those words and it was to be almost another seventeen years before I was to arrive at Barnsley, the big house with the garden all around it. A formal education in 'Horticulture' and never having worked in private service before was no preparation for Barnsley and the 'art of gardening', that use of eyes, noticing, timing, practical skills and imagination. Mrs. Verey was a mine of information and her son Charles too was influential, an artist, always looking and noticing, seeing the beauty. One spring Charles wrote that the garden 'was verdant but not overweight', genius! Tonight I looked down the Broad Border, unlike this morning it was raining heavily; Charles's words never more apt. A spring garden needs the rain to achieve it's potential and for me a wet, rain beaded garden in spring gladdens the heart.
If you're a gardener and like a bit of action then spring is where it's at, a time were distractions have to be put to one side and you must get your priorities right, you have to be in the garden getting on with the task of gardening. It's frenetic; but weeding, edging, mowing, dead heading, planning for the rest of the season using unseen work that slides spring into summer and it's zenith of Cosmos, Salvias and Tobacco is what it's all about. It's where the art of gardening can be practised with the added pressure of being up against the clock......get it right, time it right and use your imagination; otherwise you might just miss the boat and have to wait until next year to have another shot.
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