Head gardener
A marvelous way to describe the magic-makers of the world, whether they grow their gardens in writing or any other medium. People from whose heads paths lead to sunny cities! Do you know anyone this could describe? I can only think of a few people with this quality,...
Admiration patches
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...
In praise of the scruffy and marginal
I love hedgehogs and see them as an ambling, loveable, flea-scratching symbol of hope and freedom, as well as the rights of the scruffy and marginal to be scruffy and marginal. If they can survive in your garden, your garden is healthy. If the species survives our...
The resilience of the gardener
A beautiful image of resilience despite decades of war and years of drought: a green, tended and elaborate garden. Rory Stewart is humbled by this and other signs of precious normality. ‘Despite twenty-four years of war and four years of drought, the grass was...
Nothing more marvelous
A delicious dinner with friends, the table noise, also the talk noise. In our case, these are mostly at home, so we are the waiters filling the glasses and plates. The summer is coming and if it is kind, we can hold most of those dinners in the garden, accompanied by...
A scholar’s garden
Pliny the Younger is a delightful correspondent when he isn’t berating you for not having been in touch. His letters have an immediacy and freshness which makes me regret he isn’t around for me to write to. Here he ponders how much land is adequate for the...
Lolling on a lawn
The English poet John Keats is my next candidate for a nuannaarpoq award. I am building a dossier of his nuannaarpoqian behaviour and inclinations to parade before you, before creating a nuannaarpoq award-winners page where I can bring these life-loving exemplars...
In an English country garden…
Spending a summer’s day at a fancy-dress luncheon party. We sit in an English country garden, gathered around a table laden with food and drink. Women shimmer in silk brocade and flapper dresses, men are dapper in blazers and cricket whites. Endless chatter,...Yes, sign me up!
