wrote in message
news
On Tue, 8 Feb 2005 21:55:52 +0000 (UTC), "Franz Heymann"
wrote:


"Bennett Langdon" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I'm currently writing a novel in which the hero's wife is a keen
gardener
(probably a member of the RHS etc). Would anyone here be willing
to
give me
advice as to what she might have in her garden (upper middle
class,
near
Hampstead) and what she would be doing in it at different
seasons?

It depends o whether she has a gardener and a potting shed or not.

More seriously, would it not be better if you wrote a novel
involving
activities about which you know something?

I think you have been trolled again. :-((

Oh, dear, that's the curse of being pure and simple minded.

Franz

My word, I bet you feel a lot better getting that tirade off your chest.

Might I respectfully recomend a wonderful book which would, I feel, do you a
lot of good?

"Psycho-cybernetics" by Maxwell Maltz.

In article ,
Janet Baraclough wrote:
The message
from "Mike Lyle" contains these words:

Often only too realistic, as well: "I don't know what to give
my wife for Christmas: after all, I've only been married to her for
twenty years."

Speaking of which, last week John met our neighbour returning from a
lone shopping trip to a Shed. The neighbour had been to that repository
of feminine delights to choose "a surprise" for his wife's 59th
birthday on Valentine's Day .

An electric drill. (It was a toss-up between that and a kitchen hob).

Does history relate the sort of things that she buys him?


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Mike" wrote in message
...


I'm currently writing a novel in which the hero's wife is a keen
gardener
(probably a member of the RHS etc). Would anyone here be willing to give
me
advice as to what she might have in her garden (upper middle class, near
Hampstead)

What she might have in her garden?

Moles digging under the lawns leaving their little piles of earth.

Badgers burrowing under the banks and boundaries. (And the Tennis Court as
my daughter has found)

Foxes making a noise/racket and killing birds/poultry etc and leaving bits
behind.

Leaves etc in the outdoor swimming pool.

People walking across the land who have no right.

Thieves digging up the border hedges/shrubs just after they are planted.
(Daughter and Son in law had £400.00 shrubs pinched within 24 hours of
planting!!! Someone in the know????)

Not 'Everything in the garden is rosy'

Mike


Hang in there Mike!

Nick

In a message dated 08/02/2005 14:28:13 GMT Standard Time, Jmikelyle writes:
What a fascinating question! I think the other Mike's jaundiced view is
unlikely to apply, at least in its entirety, to Hampstead, though.

Yes, I seem to have caught him in a bit of a mood. Many thanks for your
reply by the way.


She won't be following the TV garden makeover programmes. too vulgar,

Yes I thought so too.

though she may watch them avidly in order to enjoy expressing contempt.
She'll probably rather fancy Monty Don, if she likes vulnerable men. She'll
have some of the more expensive plants you don't get at bog-standard garden
centres, and she'll probably be fascinated by herbs and some unusual
vegetables. I see a walled garden, which means there'll be a peach, a
nectarine, and an apricot


Trees yeah? I am terribly ignorant about it but you see she's the hero's
wife and the character presented herself to me and was quite definitely a
gardener.


.. Some of the plants will have originated as cuttings or bulbs from her
parents' garden or trips abroad. She probably won't like double flowers,
even if it takes trouble to get the old single varieties; she may dislike
variegated leaves. She'll be big on winter-flowering things and scent; and
will be angry about modern sweet peas because they don't smell as strong as
the old ones. The lawn will have camomile and shepherd's thyme in it for
the scent. There will be nothing conspicuous in the place made of plastic.


That's great, thanks. Funnily enough I already had her '..cultivating a tiny
camomile lawn.' You think it would be better to have Camomile sown into the
usual grass? She's got to have roses. I was toying with the idea of her
breeding roses and her making a new one that hase some nice symbolism...



Will you need to have a full garden design in your head? Depends how
important it is to the "oh dear, yes, a novel tells a story"

Good old E.M! Well, I have a rough idea; just a big, oblong London garden
really.


, I suppose. We can come up with some good plants to drop the names of,
though.

Excellent

What she's doing at any time of year will, broadly speaking, be shown in
the back of general gardening books: usually in a chapter headed something
like "The gardener's year" or "A gardening calendar". A Beth Chatto and
Margery Fish fan. I bet she reads the _Guardian_: if so, she likes
Christopher Lloyd, though she won't share all his ideas, and occasionally
goes to Great Dixter to see his garden.


Good I bought an old gardening book: The Complete Gardener by W.E
Shewell-Cooper MBE, NDH, FLS, FRSL, D.LITT., Dip.Hort. (Wye)!



(Sorry, I'm getting seriously self-indulgent! I'm an editor by trade, so I
should know when to shut up and let the author do the writing.)


Many thanks again.

Nick

"JennyC" wrote in message
...



Why not give her some other hobby you know more about ?

Jenny :~)



She's the hero's missis and presented herself fully formed and keen on
horticulture.

Nick

"Sacha" wrote in message
k...
On 8/2/05 12:34, in article , "Bennett
Langdon" wrote:

Hi,

I'm currently writing a novel in which the hero's wife is a keen
gardener
(probably a member of the RHS etc). Would anyone here be willing to give
me
advice as to what she might have in her garden (upper middle class, near
Hampstead) and what she would be doing in it at different seasons? You
will
get my thanks and an acknowledgement in the published book.

She might like to grow plants with architectural interest - e.g.
Phormiums,
Melianthus major, Dicksonia antarctica, Rhamnus alaternus variegata,
Pittosporum 'Garnettii' and Pittosporum tobira. She would eschew Dahlias
and Chrysanthemums, thinking them 'vulgar' but might well grow many of the
Salvias (assuming she's not sticking to white), Iris, lavender, roses.
There would be drifts of daffodils naturalised in the lawn in spring and
ditto snowdrops.
She might have Rosa banksiae climbing the wall of their house with a
Clematis montana and probably Rosa 'Albertine' or Rosa 'Gloire de Dijon'.
Hydrangea petiolaris or seemannii might share a wall with Actinidia
kolomikta. She would love the scent of Sarcococcas and Acacia dealbata
(mimosa) and encourage her friends to grow Clerodendrum fargesii,
expressing
smug amazement at those of her friends who don't know it. ;-)
She might grow Alstroemeria but *never* the orange one, preferring the
biscuity colours and Eucomis bicolor and Agapanthus. Add some Eremurus
robustus or himalaicus and some Crambe cordifolia, Verbena bonariensis,
Nicotiana sylvestris, and Cephalaria gigantica and you have a garden!

Whatever she grows (other than shrubs) would be planted in great masses,
no 'dot' planting in this garden!
As to what she does in the garden at different times of year, would she do
*anything* other than pick flowers for the house? Wouldn't there be a
'little man' to do the actual gardening? ;-)
--

Sacha
(remove the weeds for email)


*Many* thanks for this!

Nick

"Sacha" wrote in message
k...
On 8/2/05 17:51, in article , "Mike"
wrote:

As to what she does in the garden at different times of year, would she
do
*anything* other than pick flowers for the house? Wouldn't there be a
'little man' to do the actual gardening? ;-)
--

Sacha
(remove the weeds for email)


Please read class status


I did. And I do most certainly know that the subtleties of class
distinction have escaped you entirely. Go and fold a 'serviette' or
something.


LOL:

Nick

"Mike" wrote in message
...
My word, I bet you feel a lot better getting that tirade off your chest.

Might I respectfully recomend a wonderful book which would, I feel, do you
a
lot of good?

"Psycho-cybernetics" by Maxwell Maltz.



I do apologise: I seem to have caused an altercation.

Nick

"Franz Heymann" wrote in message
...

"Bennett Langdon" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I'm currently writing a novel in which the hero's wife is a keen
gardener
(probably a member of the RHS etc). Would anyone here be willing to
give me
advice as to what she might have in her garden (upper middle class,
near
Hampstead) and what she would be doing in it at different seasons?

It depends o whether she has a gardener and a potting shed or not.

More seriously, would it not be better if you wrote a novel involving
activities about which you know something?

Franz


No, she must be a gardener.

Nick

wrote in message
news
On Tue, 8 Feb 2005 21:55:52 +0000 (UTC), "Franz Heymann"
wrote:


"Bennett Langdon" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I'm currently writing a novel in which the hero's wife is a keen
gardener
(probably a member of the RHS etc). Would anyone here be willing to
give me
advice as to what she might have in her garden (upper middle class,
near
Hampstead) and what she would be doing in it at different seasons?

It depends o whether she has a gardener and a potting shed or not.

More seriously, would it not be better if you wrote a novel involving
activities about which you know something?

I think you have been trolled again. :-((
--
Martin

You are quite wrong.

Nick

What a fascinating question! I think the other Mike's jaundiced view is
unlikely to apply, at least in its entirety, to Hampstead, though.

Yes, I seem to have caught him in a bit of a mood. Many thanks for your
reply by the way.


One thing I can confidently say, is that I am never in a mood :-))
I am a placid creature and take all in my stride. Ups, downs, Idiots and
sane people. I was given a tip many years ago by an RN Chaplain when I asked
him where he stood in the position of rank. 'How do we address you?' His
reply has been my philosophy. "I am equal to all and superior to none. I
meet people and talk to people on a one to one equal basis".

I will respect a person's rank or position in society whilst on an
'official' footing, but outside that area, we are all equal.

And the response and the problems I presented are those of fact.

:-))

No, she must be a gardener.

Nick



Couldn't she just use the cellar as in "Arsenic and Old Lace"

Mike, who played Mr Witherspoon at the Apollo Theatre. 'Ah, I thought I had
had my last drop of Elderberry Wine', "You have now"

On 9/2/05 10:03 am, in article , "Bennett
Langdon" wrote:


"JennyC" wrote in message
...



Why not give her some other hobby you know more about ?

Jenny :~)



She's the hero's missis and presented herself fully formed and keen on
horticulture.

Nick


If it makes it easier for you to write about her, perhaps she could be an
avid collector of just one particular type of plant - roses, orchids,
lavenders - that sort of thing?
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

On 9/2/05 10:05 am, in article , "Bennett
Langdon" wrote:


"Mike" wrote in message
...
My word, I bet you feel a lot better getting that tirade off your chest.

Might I respectfully recomend a wonderful book which would, I feel, do you
a
lot of good?

"Psycho-cybernetics" by Maxwell Maltz.



I do apologise: I seem to have caused an altercation.

Nick


Wow! That'll make a change for urg! ;-)
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)