Fergus Garrett gave a talk at Arley Hall last week and I went along to listen. It was really good to see him again – he was such a help during the summer with our Tatton Show garden. As always, he was brim-full of passion about the fabulous garden at Great Dixter.

What struck me as he spoke about the care and attention they apply to choosing plants and combinations, is that they have in place an almost perfect backdrop of a gorgeous house and a garden framework of yew hedges, old outhouses and york stone paving. Neither he nor Christopher Lloyd made any substantial change to this structure in 50 years. It’s just so good already. And this means that all of his creative energy can be focussed on the planting in an eternal, experimental quest for improvement. See what I mean?


Good bones are the key to good looks. As a typically self-conscious teenager I peered in the mirror and dreamt of high cheekbones and long legs. My then college friend Marie had all that and more and she just looked fantastic no matter what she wore or how little effort she made. But genetics gave me plump cheeks, short legs and a larger than average bum (a little smaller since I got off my office chair and took up gardening). Fortunately I also inherited a ‘who cares’ attitude about my appearance and quickly outgrew such minor concerns.

I can’t do anything about my physical bones, but I can do something about the structure of the garden. Although the plants are individually lovely, the layout could be much better. And Fergus’s talk got me thinking. If I expect to be here for 20 years or more, there is nothing I can’t change. Granted, trees and hedges take time to work their shapely magic but if I start now… I won’t rush in though – major change needs time to brew.

So while I’m mentally redesigning the garden, we’ve started on the house. Changing buildings is a lot faster of course – walls grow more quickly than trees. Like all major renovations, things get much worse before they get better. And it doesn’t get much worse than this. This was our kitchen two weeks ago. The new one will go in a room which hasn’t been created yet. So we are without a kitchen until February. But like the garden, big changes take time – we can wait.

November 18, 2008