OLD FRIENDS

Many years ago before my son was born I visited the gardens at Falkland Palace in Scotland and was captivated by the beautiful herbaceous border there. On the day I visited I was fortunate to meet the head gardener who had planted the border and of course I was inclined to pick his brains as to how he had managed to create such a perfect balance of colour and continuity. He was justifiably proud of his handy work and was a mine of information. I declared my intention to create such a border if ever I had the opportunity and asked him what would be the most important piece of advice he could give me. He told me that to have patience was more important than anything. “It takes ten years to make a good border.” He said.

I never forgot the old man and when we moved in to our cottage ten years ago I decided to create such a border. Of course I did not have as much ground that he had but within the confines of my own garden I set about doing the best I could. Some where in the back of my mind I was convinced that it could be done in less than ten years but I was wrong.

In the beginning the garden was a wasteland, neglected and overgrown so I left it alone for the first summer to see what was already growing there and was delighted to discover some lovely old cottage garden plants were still thriving amid the weeds. I spent the spring and summer that year growing the plants I wanted from seeds of cuttings as to buy them all would have been far too costly and by the Autumn I had a good collection of plants ready to set out..

We spent a whole weekend marking out the beds, cutting the paths and moving to safety anything we wanted to keep and then I spent several weeks digging the ground and adding compost and manure. A good herbaceous border needs a good start as the plants will remain in the same location for many years. The beds were cut to give the illusion of a coninuous border from the top and from the bottom of the garden alothough in reality there were four large beds and a small centre bed.It has worked well and it is only from the upstairs windows that you can see that it is not a long border at all.

The following spring the plants began to peep through and in the early years I filled the gaps in the planting with annuals like nemesia, snapdragons marigolds and allysum. The result was so lovely that in the first year the garden won an award in the London in Bloom contest. I could not believe it.
Always in my mind I could see the garden at Falkland Palace and I knew I still had a long way to go. During the following years I planted more and more specimens. Dianthus. Pinks. Lupins and introduced some biennials such as foxgloves and hollyhocks. Around the edges of the garden shrubs provided shelter from the wind and cover for the birds who were encouraged to visit the garden. All the plants were chosen for their attractiveness to bees so lots of lavender was added along with thyme, sage, marjoram and rosemary, ladies mantle,tansy and mallow.

There were times when I wondered it it would ever be as I had envisaged it all those years ago and at the start of this season I discovered that the harsh winter had killed half of my lavender bushes. This was disheartening as last year I felt that we were almost there.
I replaced the dead plants and added a few new species and behold the old boy was right, after ten years the garden has matured beautifully and promises to be glorious this summer. I am already seeing the return of old friends like the lovely perennial geraniums, Splash and the fabulous Bloody Cranes bill. There will be no need to fill gaps this year and the garden will be filled with flowers right through the summer and well in to the Autumn.

I am sure now that patience is the most important attribute in any gardeners armoury, I might have given up a dozen times if I had not received such timely advice from a true expert. I often think about the old man, he was about to retire at the age of seventy five all those years ago and is probably long dead. I wish that he could see my garden today, it is to his wisdom that I own all the beauty, scent and colour I now enjoy. There is a poem which begins . “If I could give you anything I would give you a garden.” Where ever he is my garden is dedicated to his memory, although I only met him once on a summer afternoon he has been with me all these years, a man who truly loved his work, a gentle memory and an inspiration for over half my life. He could never have known what a difference he made. To coin an old saying “God loves a gardener.” Perhaps it is true after all He was a gardener Himself, or so the bible says.