I want to show you some nice pics, so here are a couple of little creepy things we put in the crevices of the paving. Just to show that it wasn't all on a large scale. Remember how I told you way back that the paved terrace was a foot deep in weeds and needed clearing? Well, we managed to retrieve it with conscientious weeding, and planted it with a variety of creepers and alpines, of which I have very few photographs, and those I have are of the easiest specimens. Such as this Sedum -
And then, we also had this Pratia -
Both of which were much better than what we had started with -
Unfortunately, the photographs do not show the lovely mounds of plants such as Hypericum olympicum and its variant H. olympicum citrinum, or the various Dianthus, the Onosma albo-roseum, some low-growing Potentillas, Geranium procurrens or Euphorbia myrsinites. Nor do they demonstrate the creeping thymes, such as T. serpyllum album and the woolly Thymus pseudolanuginosus, the dwarf pink Erigeron rosea or Parahebe cataractae or the choice Calceolaria fothergillii, amongst a host of other specimens you would need to crawl along the ground to enjoy.
What I can show you, though, is a long shot from the other end of the terrace fourteen years after the above, which proves that the weeding has worked. All those hours spent with a crevice tool, sorting the wheat from the chaff, or the men from the boys or the cliché of your choice. In most of the cracks you will now see living material of a compact and desirable type, instead of grass, rampant Acanthus mollis and sycamores as thick as your thumb, cut off repeatedly in an effort to stop their reafforestation of the site.
All round the garden we had fine things, some of them quite common. We had quite a collection of Phlomis, including P. italica in delicate pink with pale foliage, P. tuberosa, P. lycia, P. 'Edward Bowles' and the only one we have pictures of, P. russelliana, seen below being visited by a bee -
We had large stands of this elsewhere in the garden, where it filled big spaces in the drier parts which we couldn't favour with much water. Phlomis also looked good in the frost -
A couple of nice plants we tried in the shelter of the south wall of the house were the not reliably hardy Olearias phlogopappa types, 'Comber's Blue' and Comber's Pink'. When they came through the winters they could look splendid, but more often than not we were using plants that we had brought on in the greenhouse to replace ones that had not responded well to the conditions, so they were often quite small, as in the two photos below -
and -
Catch them looking their best, though, and it was quite a different thing -
I have to find a place to stop, I suppose, and I find I am limited by the dearth of pictorial evidence of the fine specimens we used to grow. I did find this, however - Syringa laciniata, a nice dwarf lilac suitable even for small gardens. It only grows to about four feet high, with attractive cut leaves -
And don't forget what I said before about ignoring the accepted wisdoms. Here's another fine Acer in full south-facing exposure to sun and wind -
whilst close by you could find a beautifully scented Viburnum -
So, in conclusion, I will mention just one further important aspect of a country house garden. It needs to work in harmony with the building it serves. One feature I particularly liked was the ensuite bathroom to the Master Bedroom. Not only was it an appealing example of its period, an Art Deco insert into a Neo-Georgian building, with its sunken bath and overwhelming pinkness, but you will also see that beyond the bath there was a partition separating off the toilet, which was placed behind an arch, and had one of the best views in the place. I often used to imagine the Old Man sitting there, reading his morning paper and surveying the domain, watching what the gardeners were up to in the process -
And what would he have seen, looking from there? Something like this, perhaps?
I'd like some of that privilege. If I ever get any, I promise I'll share it.
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