Other people's gardens

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Very impressed with Judy Wise's greenhouse. 
http://judywise.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/garden-report.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+JudyWise+(Judy+Wise)
The following poem was written entirely from fridge magnet words and in one go. No preparation or rearranging after-wards either.  I have really no idea about the extent of the creative possible potential of the subconscious - perhaps  it is endless.  I had been glancing at the random words scattered about on the fridge door for months, then one day something made me stop and look at them and in no time at all the poem flowed.

  

The Garden


I have to take you to a garden.

It is essential that you tell our friends.

I have one lifetime only here.

There is a void

And then a vision.

The summer rain is felt as music.

The water and the wind whisper through

Eternity a language that we dream of.

Above the mist

Behind the storm, beneath the rain – together in a thousand moments.

A delicate symphony of light

Like diamonds shine and play.

Shadows fall away. Beauty would be these

And death sweet, not sad.

All, an elaborate chain of life.

My weekend is comprised of Thursdays and Sundays as I prefer to work at home on Saturdays. The rest of the week is work, which I love. I love Thursdays - perhaps because I was born on a Thursday! I go to Classics on Thursday mornings and meet up with some of my favourite people and together we explore the Ancient World via Virgil and Aristophanes etc. Then in the afternoon I can sail with friends on the Dart or cove hop for a picnic. Sundays can be a day to visit other gardens and recently I came across a garden that was designed in the 1930's and was restored 20 years ago. The owners are getting on a bit now but the atmosphere is still there - shades of Quince Jelly and Lawn Tennis Parties...

I love this way of building with old brick and stone with sun bleached wood above and will keep this in mind for my pergola next to the pond that I see in my imagination in my garden. A big project for 2013.

A perfect way to incorporate a place to sit and ponder in with the structure of the Pergola. A step up or down from standing and staring perhaps - my father often quoted the first two lines of this poem by William Henry Davies when I was a child. He had been given just six months to live when I had been born so I suppose it was not at all surprising that he would long for those small moments of reflection. He did however get plenty as he lived to be ninety!


What is this life if full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.


The garden of an English Country House seems to require most of the following 

An old shed for doing and storing. A garden roller, a water butt and crazy paving.

A fruit cage beneath dappled sunlight.

An imaginative use of stone and brick for pathways and time. Time passed with Blackbirds singing in the dawn and dusk, time for generations to be born, to play in hidden parts, to live and to sit and remember in later days.

A kitchen garden, slightly hidden away from the rest of the garden with a fine tilth through many years of working. Onions, beans and an unusual pattern of old canes, artichokes and narrow paths of stamped down earth.

One of those lovely Sundays in Early spring when I can meet friends at one of the NGS gardens and have tea and cake. Not bad!

Waiting for friends to arrive for tea.

A good idea. I should do this with my hose reel.

Camelias prefer dappled light and semi-shade. Mine are still quite small and in pots. Next stage will be to transplant them into half old oak barrels and put them in the sheltered garden where they will get some shade from the Cherry tree.

Split Oak, Japanese style for railings on a bridge.

Old Oak joists used to form a canopy for Wisteria.

Simple way to protect plants from too much rain/snow/light.

Stone steps with places to sit and contemplate.

Detail of a stone circular carpet with round corn stone at the centre and rays of slate radiating outwards like the sun.

Coleton Fishacre - Devon at the beginning of the year.

A reminder of one of the many different ways to build a wall with stones.

The Garden House  in Devon well known for it's collection of Galanthus. Galanthus - the Snowdrop, meaning milk flower, were brought back to the British Isles by soldiers after the Crimean War between 1853 and 1856.  

Wisteria allowed to twist around posts. I see problems as the posts rot. 

Kew!

To remind me that I can happily leave the Wisteria in the front garden to twist and grow and to establish a good base rather than trying to drill into granite and attach wires immediately!

How to give pot plants some light when you have rather too many for a windowsill!