Inspiration

To my great delight I was invited to the Great Budworth Garden Club tonight for a talk by David Howard, head gardener of Highgrove. He is something of a character and a truly dedicated plantsman. I think I was most impressed with his strong sense of the interconnectedness between plants, soil, weather, seasons and animals. I picked up several tips, but the best was on the management of perennial wildflower meadows. Basically, mow them close after flowering and then graze them with sheep till almost bare. The aim is to remove fertility and supress grasses in favour of flowers.

But I also felt reassured by some of my new plant choices for this year. He picked up on Polystichums, Dryopteris, Dahlias, Aquilegia ‘Black Barlow’ (which I only ordered this morning!) plus Camassias, Fritilaria meleagris, golden hop, hostas and hellebores, all which I’ve been busy rescuing from near-death this week from the back tunnel. He particularly praised Vitis cognetiae and I’ve just unearthed several this week and cleaned them up. At this early stage in my nursery career it is good to feel that my instincts are broadly with, rather than against, the zeitgeist.