For the love of gardening

Memories from a lifetime in the garden

“To plant a garden is to dream of tomorrow.” - Audrey Hepburn

As long as I can remember I have had a garden. That strip of land to call my own. Working along side my mum in the dirt. My mother always grew vegetables when we were young and the gardens allowed.

My first memories were of a garden when we lived in High Wycombe. The land sloped upwards and the first part was lawn and flower beds. This was divided by fruit bushes, bunches of glistening currants, red and black. Fat golden gooseberries with their spiny stems. Next came the rhubarb. A joy to pluck and sit with a bowl of sugar, shuddering at the tartness. Always potatoes, rows and rows, beans, cabbages. I have a mental picture of my father in his Wellington boots and thick cream fisherman socks digging the potatoes from the moist soil. To be dried off and stored in hessian sacks in the shed.

The next house had a much smaller garden but I was allowed my own patch, I remember I planted a small rockery. Mum grew tomatoes, beans up the fence, strawberries in troughs. As it was a new property dad planted potatoes that first year in the front garden, it was something people did in those days to break the soil (and your back).

Fast forward to getting married and having our first home. My own garden to do as I pleased with. What a garden …. The house was two years old. The people we bought from had only put in grass over what turned out to be builder spoil. No top soil just thick clay, wire, bricks, cement, plastic bags, you name it we dug it up. The garden was backed with a tall fence and very large mature trees! What a combination, clay and tree roots. Poor plants, nothing stood a chance

The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul." —Alfred Austin

We ended up just planting hardy shrubs and gave up on pretty unless it was in pots. We bought a small conservatory where we grew tomatoes and a beautiful clematis - Vivian Pennell - lilac purple double petaled with a single petal repeat flowering later in the year. I was sad to leave that behind when we moved. It was during those first years that I moved my planting indoors, filling the rooms with house plants. Something I rarely do now.

Our next garden was an improvement on that first one. Very much a blank canvas - lawn, borders, few shrubs, but more space, not enough for a vegetable garden having two small girls to accommodate. Over the years we lived there we widened the borders, reduced the lawn, put up a pergola, grew tomatoes and courgettes in grobags, beans up the fence. It was a pretty space but I still longed for more …… then one day whilst walking in the village I spied a removal van on a property I had always taken a fancy too. No sale board?! I scanned the weekly property papers, then about three weeks after that van sighting, there it was. I was on the phone and a viewing was booked. The house needed work, lots of work. But the garden, it was a jungle, a big jungle and I wanted it. To cut a long story short, the stars aligned and we were in a position to purchase the property and the garden was mine.

As the property was empty we were allowed to make a start on clearing the garden before the purchase went through, as long as we didn’t make any major changes. So we contented ourselves with cutting the grass, hacking back undergrowth. We discovered a shed (falling down) and greenhouse (bonus but with need of some replacement panes). We could see the bare bones of the garden and our brains went into overdrive.

We moved into the house in the September 1999 so decided to do nothing major until we could see what was growing by season. Contenting ourselves with just weeding and clearing the beds that were there. The house was built close to the road with a large side driveway in which grew huge conifer trees and a sweet chestnut. Also a well. As the house was in a conservation area we knew we would have to get permission for any major tree work but the conifers could come out. The difference it made to light and space was amazing. Allowing us to have good gates and a fence installed for security and also to keep the cat from going out on the road. The drive lead to a gravelled courtyard with double carport, large raised patio and a high wall with gateway to the back garden and barn. Our only gripe with the house was that you could not see the garden from the house.

Once through the gateway you came to a small patio which was used as a drying area - not ideal as it was bordered by more conifers, the barn, the wall and a fence and a HUGE willow tree. The conifers came out, though the neighbour still had some on their side but we were glad to loose ours and it did improve the light. The fence came down, allowing the garden to open out from this raised position. Steps beside the barn took you to the lower garden.

We inherited a good sized patio with low brick wall on the lower part of the garden which we left seeing no point in going to the expense of changing it.

Work in the early years on the garden was slow as we worked in the house, but we setup a vegetable garden near the greenhouse, which we had various luck with due to very mature trees but enough produce was grown for the needs of our family. For me it was more about creating a beautiful garden and having the space to do it in.

Over the years, large beds were created, much to my husbands annoyance. No longer able just to mow in straight lines as he navigated my beds. Plus all those edges to trim! Though usually this was my job. Of course by having lots of beds meant lots of weeding too. Most weekends were spent on the garden, if you missed a week it was a case of extra long days to catch up. We also added chickens to the mix, they were fun but another complication in terms of plant management. Good for eating the bugs but also the plants if given free reign.

The garden also contained 4 apple trees and these became the source of many autumn apple pressing sessions. We also had a fig tree which wasn’t successful, grapevines also not great but the pigeons enjoyed them. Our neighbours cherry tree which overhung the garden was a delight for jam and freezer.

The barn was converted in 2010 to make us a garden room, meaning we could flop in a chair at the end of a busy garden day with a glass of wine and survey our handy work. This space was perfect for our growing family as the grandchildren could play safely in the garden and we could watch them.

This is a link to my old garden page on Blogger where you will find so many flower/garden photos and see changes over the years

https://knitsbysue.blogspot.com/p/our-garden.html?m=1

The garden was the scene of lots of family gatherings, birthday parties, namings and a wedding, the perfect backdrop to so many events.

In late 2016 we had started to think about retirement and what that future would look like. Little did we know that by September 2017 we would have sold our house, downsized, retired and have half of our family moved to France. But that’s a story for another day.

Whilst I know our life now couldn’t have included that garden I do miss it in so many ways. That garden holds so many good memories and I’m glad I have photographs and my old blog posts to look back on