In my garden this morning….
- Aconites – The first sign of life!
If they can survive the bad weather, then so can I….
Bring on the spring.
Reasons to be cheerful.
A great life…..
Sat in bad traffic on the drive home from Hampton Court yesterday. But the good thing about it was that I listened to Carol Klein on Radio 4, talking about the Victorian writer and garden designer William Robinson.
Before this programme I didn’t know a lot about William Robinson….nothing at all if I’m honest. But listening to Carol, I discovered that he had as great an impact on British garden design as William Morris had on interiors. It was his ideas about wild gardening that provided the focus for the development of the English cottage garden style as we know it today. He swept away the formality and regimented planting of the Victorian age and championed a much more naturalistic approach. And his books are still published and read in the 21st century.
He lived at Gravetye Manor, which is just up the road from me…. and just happens to be where I spent the first night of my honeymoon nearly twenty eight years ago. Tom Coward, the head gardener at Gravetye, came from Great Dixter in 2010. Great Dixter is one of my favourite gardens… So Gravetye is calling to me. And I’m going for a visit as soon as I can.
Finally, a word about Carol Klein…..Because I love her. She is incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about plants and planting; she’s natural and quirky and entertaining; she’s spiky and she doesn’t pull her punches. And she’s 67 and showing us all how to embrace new challenges and live life to the full with grace and energy and integrity. She’s a true old dog/new tricks hero.
The essential book list….
In the last few weeks I’ve bought a lot of gardening books. I’ve already got a lot of gardening books. Just not the right ones.
But I have discovered the joys of buying second hand on Amazon. The only frustrating thing is that the delivery costs more than the books.
Here’s the list so far:
Perfect Plant Perfect Place by Roy Lancaster
Shrubs by Roger Phillips & Martyn Rix
Perennials Volume 1 Early Perennials by Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix
Perennials Volume 2 Late Perennials by Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix
Roses by Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix
Gardeners Essential Plant Guide by Brian Davies
Dictionary of Plant Names by Allen J Coombes
What Plant Where by Roy Lancaster
In the Roses book by Phillips and Rix I found a couple of rough sketches of planting plans… It’s nice to think I’m using books whose previous owners had them for the same reasons that I do. To make gardens.
My satchel
I have to write about my satchel. Because it’s one of my favourite things.
My son gave it to me for my birthday in December. It’s made by Ally Capellino. Ally Capellino clearly knows a thing or two about making satchels…..
New tricks
Ok…. This blog is about doing new things. So here’s a list of things I’ve done in the past few weeks that I’ve never done before.
1. Started writing a blog. (Hadn’t even read one until now!)
2. Got a pass for going in and out of Hampton Court. (Have I mentioned my security pass? I love having a security pass….)
3. Met a sky diving, base jumping fellow student called Katarina. I like Katarina. She told me I remind her of Jennifer Aniston. Which is a lot better than Alex… who asked me how old I was… because he’d heard me say I felt about eighty… and wasn’t sure if I was joking…
4. Had a lecture from Luciano Guibbilei.…. (hands up who knows how to pronounce his surname.)
5. Drew up a survey to scale using a drawing board and a set square after only three days.
6. Sketched a still life of a plant, a pot and a bean … several times….in pencil…. and then in charcoal. And you know what…. I’m not as bad at it as I thought I was going to be.
7. Drew an elevation. I didn’t even know what an elevation was until now. (It’s a vertical view of a garden with the plants sketched in.) But I did it….. And I feel ridiculously pleased about it.
8. Started to get to grips with using a Canon Eos 500 digital camera. It’s a lot more complicated than the point and shoot camera I’m used to. But if I’m going to illustrate this blog with lots of photos then I need to get better at it.
9. Put together a concept board using all the creative skills we’ve been learning in the first couple of weeks. It was a bit like being back at kindergarten – scissors, crayons, tracing paper, glue. Such fun! I based mine on High Cross House in Dartington where I went to school. It was the headmaster’s house in those days, a modernist dream in a rolling Devon landscape. These days it’s owned by the National Trust. It’s definitely worth a visit if you’re in South Devon.
10. Had a session on CAD. The old me of a couple of months ago wouldn’t have had the faintest idea what CAD was (Computer aided drawing? I think). But the new me has downloaded Vectorworks onto my laptop…. and used it. This might not seem much to most people. But for a woman who uses her laptop to write unpublished novels and send emails, it’s huge…..
So that’s ten things. Quite a lot don’t you think. In just three weeks.
Going to School
One of the best things about being on this course is the walk to school.
I park the car at Hampton Court station, just over the bridge from the palace, heave my satchel over my shoulder – there’s a hell of a lot of stuff you have to carry around with you when you are a fledgling garden designer – and walk towards the river.
First amazing view……
the palace stretched out behind a lacy curtain of winter trees. Every day it looks different.
Next exciting thing…..
…going through the security gates. I have a pass. That’s right…. a security pass. I love having a security pass.
Every day I walk past the chapel. First thing in the morning there’s nobody about. I can’t help wondering if Henry VIII’s ghost is in there trying to explain the six wives. 
At the far corner of the Courtyard there’s a wrought iron gate. This leads to the old grace 
and favour apartments. And the location of the KLC studio. The apartments are no longer occupied by the fortunate few who once lived there. But reminders of their existence still linger. The basket lowered for supplies from the top floor saved the residents from going to the effort of going down four floors to get the milk.
And Lady Peake. Who was she? What was her history? Did she love being here as much as I do?
Along the landing to a wooden door. And I’m there. The KLC studios. Let me tell you…. this is a very good way to start a day.
Old Dog. New Tricks 