blooms than they did before.
8. Planting
I learnt a great deal from Walter that first year of gardening. The first thing I learnt was that he knew a great deal more about the subject than I thought he did. I was a complete novice, and I thought that he was too. I knew he had had gardens and gardeners, but I assumed that being very busy he had left all the planning and work to them. I may say I got very tired of one particular gardener during that first year. He was quoted at me morning, noon and night until I came to hate his name. Everything he did was perfect, he never neglected anything and he always did all the jobs that needed doing at the right time. It was no good for me to tell Walter that I had to sandwich my gardening between housekeeping! household jobs and a certain amount of social life. In his opinion there was no excuse for not getting things done at the right time.
Another of his gardeners had my sympathy, and I think there was a moral for me in the tale of his undoing. This man had one joy in life and that was to grow wonderful chrysanthemums in pots to bring into the house in the winter. According to Walter he used to stroke and fondle his chrysanthemums so much that he was neglecting the rest of the garden. Remonstrances had no effect so one day Walter took a knife and slashed off all those pampered darlings at ground level. It was by remembering this episode that I learnt to have a sense of proportion and fairness in my gardening, and not devote too much time on the things I like best at the expense of the rest of the garden.
The first inkling I had that Walter held very definite views was concerning the level of the flower beds. I had always seen them raised above the surrounding grass or path, and I made mine in the same way. I suppose the original idea was for better drainage and to allow one to get the best possible view of the plants. Rose gardens are still often made in this way, and one sees it in parks and public gardens. I never thought of it before Walter pointed it out, but the whole idea is superficial and a bed that is absolutely flush with the path or lawn looks larger and far more attractive. Now that I have paved paths I am even more enthusiastic over the idea as I plant sprawlers as near the path as possible so that they spill over the path and break the hard line. In Walter’s day I had to be careful that nothing spilled over the path, which was then gravelled, as the roller did not recognize the rights of sprawlers. A plant that benefits from this level way of planting is Gentiana acaulis. It likes being trodden on and I plant borders of it so close to the path that they regularly receive attention from my full-sized feet.
We used some of our plentiful supply of stones to keep the beds separate from the gravel paths. In my ignorance I first put them in vertically so that several inches protruded above the ground, but after it was pointed out to me I realized that the effect was far pleasanter and just as effective if they were laid flat. One thing Walter taught me was to avoid unnecessary distractions. One must have something to separate flower beds from paths but one should not draw attention to the border and so detract from the flowers themselves.
It is surprising that in quite good gardens one often sees a gravel path merging straight into a flower bed. It is bad for the path because earth inevitably mixes with the gravel and one gets more weeds than ever. Something neat is needed, that blends into a picture. We were lucky in having plenty of stones, and I was able to pick out flat, even-shaped stones with one straight edge at least. These were laid very carefully so that they were level on top and the straight sides were used to make the edge of the path. If I’d had straight paths I should have used a line, but I had to rely on my eye to get a straight effect for my curving paths. Some people use bricks, and they look quite well if laid flat, particularly if there are brick
8. Planting
I learnt a great deal from Walter that first year of gardening. The first thing I learnt was that he knew a great deal more about the subject than I thought he did. I was a complete novice, and I thought that he was too. I knew he had had gardens and gardeners, but I assumed that being very busy he had left all the planning and work to them. I may say I got very tired of one particular gardener during that first year. He was quoted at me morning, noon and night until I came to hate his name. Everything he did was perfect, he never neglected anything and he always did all the jobs that needed doing at the right time. It was no good for me to tell Walter that I had to sandwich my gardening between housekeeping! household jobs and a certain amount of social life. In his opinion there was no excuse for not getting things done at the right time.
Another of his gardeners had my sympathy, and I think there was a moral for me in the tale of his undoing. This man had one joy in life and that was to grow wonderful chrysanthemums in pots to bring into the house in the winter. According to Walter he used to stroke and fondle his chrysanthemums so much that he was neglecting the rest of the garden. Remonstrances had no effect so one day Walter took a knife and slashed off all those pampered darlings at ground level. It was by remembering this episode that I learnt to have a sense of proportion and fairness in my gardening, and not devote too much time on the things I like best at the expense of the rest of the garden.
The first inkling I had that Walter held very definite views was concerning the level of the flower beds. I had always seen them raised above the surrounding grass or path, and I made mine in the same way. I suppose the original idea was for better drainage and to allow one to get the best possible view of the plants. Rose gardens are still often made in this way, and one sees it in parks and public gardens. I never thought of it before Walter pointed it out, but the whole idea is superficial and a bed that is absolutely flush with the path or lawn looks larger and far more attractive. Now that I have paved paths I am even more enthusiastic over the idea as I plant sprawlers as near the path as possible so that they spill over the path and break the hard line. In Walter’s day I had to be careful that nothing spilled over the path, which was then gravelled, as the roller did not recognize the rights of sprawlers. A plant that benefits from this level way of planting is Gentiana acaulis. It likes being trodden on and I plant borders of it so close to the path that they regularly receive attention from my full-sized feet.
We used some of our plentiful supply of stones to keep the beds separate from the gravel paths. In my ignorance I first put them in vertically so that several inches protruded above the ground, but after it was pointed out to me I realized that the effect was far pleasanter and just as effective if they were laid flat. One thing Walter taught me was to avoid unnecessary distractions. One must have something to separate flower beds from paths but one should not draw attention to the border and so detract from the flowers themselves.
It is surprising that in quite good gardens one often sees a gravel path merging straight into a flower bed. It is bad for the path because earth inevitably mixes with the gravel and one gets more weeds than ever. Something neat is needed, that blends into a picture. We were lucky in having plenty of stones, and I was able to pick out flat, even-shaped stones with one straight edge at least. These were laid very carefully so that they were level on top and the straight sides were used to make the edge of the path. If I’d had straight paths I should have used a line, but I had to rely on my eye to get a straight effect for my curving paths. Some people use bricks, and they look quite well if laid flat, particularly if there are brick
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