Nobody hatched or planned the idea of Admiration Patches.  Instead, they were unconsciously crowd-created by individuals literally ‘voting with their feet’.  The gardens at Sissinghurst have thousands of visitors and by the end of the open season, their admiring eyes have led their trampling feet to the same specific spots of beauty and have worn the grass there. 

Tell me, what is your Admiration Patch?  One you have visited, or created, or would like to create?  Mine would include, in our garden, the big floribunda crimson rose that keeps producing massive blooms through the summer.  Or the spot next to a persimmon tree which has a view of the Mont Blanc. 

At the end of the season at Sissinghurst, the gardeners always find spots on the lawns where visitors have stood and gazed at a particularly seductive rose or luscious wisteria, and under their feet the grass has withered and the lawn gone slightly bald.  They call these ‘Admiration Patches’, and they need to be aerated and revived each autumn.

Source: Adam Nicolson, Sissinghurst: An unfinished history (London: Harper Press, 2009), p. 255

Photo credit: AdinaVoicu at pixabay