On 30/12/05 11:16 am, in article ,
"Janet Baraclough" wrote:

The message k
from Sacha contains these words:

On 30/12/05 12:42 am, in article ,
"Janet Baraclough" wrote:

snip

I can think of several youngish woodland gardens, of similar size
and age, planted from scratch by their current owner with no paid help
at all, which demonstrate a lot more taste, knowledge and care for
trees. Where 25 yr old plantings already look wonderful , and have the
proper space, and surroundings, to achieve their full potential at 50.


It's only an idle thought and may be quite wrong but when they started, I
don't think they, personally, were any sort of experts. In fact, didn't
Heseltine come perilously close to going entirely broke and then recovered
by going into publishing - not sure.

He's certainly self-made, but my understanding is that he made his
publishing fortune before buying that place. He mentioned on the prog,
several property steps along the way. When he started the arboretum, he
"only" employed one fulltime gardener (which might be "close to broke"
in his terms, but not in most peoples :-))

I've never followed British politics very closely in the past - and not the
individuals much either, because in Jersey where I lived most of my adult
life, we are autonomous and have a totally different system of government.
I'm starting to take a bit more interest now and am not impressed with what
I see from any quarter. However, Ray, returning to our moutons, seemed to
think Heseltine had not been wealthy until fairly recently. I can't now
remember but did he say he'd been there for thirty years or so? If so, it
would seem his fortunes have increased to enable them to employ a lot more
people and to clear and plant a lot more of the land. IOW, they didn't go
in there with nine gardeners and a fat chequebook and do the whole thing in
one fell swoop. And I do take your point about being relatively broke! I
don't know anything at all about his background but if Heseltine has made
his own fortune, good for him.

--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)