On 24/7/08 10:11, in article
, "FarmI"
ask@itshall be given wrote:
"Sacha" wrote in message
"FarmI" ask@itshall be given wrote:
"Sacha" wrote in message
Today we visited Prince Charles's garden at Highgrove.
I'm pea green with envy! I've always liked Charles attitude to the world
even when he was being criticised left right and centre about his loopy
views, Dianna (who I always thought was as nutty as a fruit cake), his
criticism of inappropriate development etc, etc.
I was never mad about Diana myself and felt he got a lot of very unfair
but
carefully orchesrated flak over that situation.
Indeed! My ma-in-law is fond of reminding me that when Charles and Di got
engaged and she asked me what I thought of it, I predicted that the marriage
would be a disaster.
I saw "The Garden at Highgrove" at a friend's place and thought that I
wouldn't bother to buy it. I didn't think that, other than the pretty
pics,
I would find anything or real interest or applicablity therein. I live
in
dry, scruffy rural Australia and a gardener charges more than a surgeon,
if
you can find one. I also live in a nasty climate for drought and heat.
He's a rich royal living in a drop dead gorgeous area of the UK with
multiple resouces at hand. Not at all promising, but having bought it,
it's
amazing how inspiring it is. I refer to it again and again. I can't use
the same plants or the same vastly expensive pots or the statuary ....,
but
the inspiration is all there and I can find alternatives even if not as
posh
or as expensive.
You've summed up the reason to visit gardens, IMO. It doesn't matter
whether they're huge ones of several acres or tiny ones lovingly tended by
their owner. There is always the possibility of seeing something - a
plant,
an ornament, a juxtaposition of planting, that will give you an idea for
your own garden.
Yes. I don't think I've ever visisted one garden when I didn't pick up one
idea. I'm a garden groupie.
One thing I liked was the fern 'mountain'. It is probably about 10' high
and is a metal frame packed with soil and planted with all sorts of ferns. I
can't remember if it had 3 sides or 4 but it is much wider at the bottom
than the top. Apparently, it struggled to get going at first but this wet
year has done it good and it's now flourishing. Once it really gets started
it's going to be wonderful. Now anyone could do that on a scale that suits
their garden, if they have a shady place the ferns can grow in.
As I said, I'm pea green with envy, as that is one garden, I'd almost be
prepared to kill to see.
All you have to do is get yourself over here and join some organisation
that's likely to be considered for a visit. ;-)
Hmmmmm Wonder if he'd consider having some County Women's Association
visitors? That org is the equiv of the WI and I'm a memeber and have been
for years.
I don't see why not. I can email you the name of the tours organiser, if
you like though it's probably on the internet somewhere.
I believe the usual
waiting list is a 'mere' 5 years long. But those visitors must raise
thousands of pounds for the Prince's Trust. What amazed me was while
security there is known to be extremely tight, it was very unobtrusive and
we were able to walk right up to the house. The blinds in the lower
windows
were drawn in case anyone was rude enough to peer in but I hadn't expected
to be allowed into the immediate surround to the house.
I have actually seem garden visitors peer through windows that weren't
curtained. I was gobbsmacked at such rudeness.
Some do it here and it makes me extremely cross. Luckily, we have a deep
flower border all the way round the house which prevents them from walking
right up to the windows. But my son opened his garden for charity some
years ago and my daughter in law, who was outside, saw some people going up
the drive on the way out, walk right up to the windows, put their hand to
the pane of glass to shield their eyes and peer right in. She asked them
what on earth they thought they were doing and they said quite coolly that
they just wondered what 'the place is like inside'. She asked them to move
on and they looked at her as if she was quite mad to object to their
behaviour. It makes you despair as to what peoples' normal boundaries are
these days. The thing is that if we visited their house and peered in the
window there would be shrieks of outrage. It's like the woman here who was
overheard telling her small son to go and pee in our garden because she
couldn't be bothered to get up and take him to the loo. And the people who
become furious when we tell them dogs are not allowed on the premises. Our
usual answer to those who rudely persist is to ask them if they take their
dogs to Tesco or Marks and Spencer! For years we did allow dogs in but got
fed up with piles of visiting cards all over the place and never cleared up
by the owners, dog fights or a few near misses and dogs let off the lead to
run over the flower beds, so we stopped it altogether.
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon