So, quite simply, today I am going to show you more of the same, but better, section by section. By keeping a close eye on things, you will see how the garden was quickly becoming fuller, more colourful and crisper. Note particularly how much the box hedges were improving after the introduction of a more frequent cutting regime.
First of all, the entrance drive was much improved. I was managing to keep traffic off the grass, although this involved me in much more work that it deserved, and considerably more stress, as in the bad old days people had used it as a short cut when other cars were parked on the drive, and indeed, it had been used as parking space itself. This did mean that I had to remove and replace the bamboo hoops every time I wanted to mow the grass, which was a pain, but better for a gardener than the tedious business of scraping up mud and turning it back into lawn. I had also branched up the heavy Sweet Chestnut in the centre to give it a more pleasing browse line and make mowing beneath it possible -
I haven't spoken much of the tennis court so far. It was an odd place, set at an angle across the lawn it formed part of, so as to avoid the afternoon sun getting in the players' eyes. I paid lip-service to the idea of reinstating it, but didn't push forward with this, because I had heard too many excited rumblings in the office about how nice it would be to play tennis on the lawn. I was in no hurry to be taking on base-line repairs just to satisfy the whim of colleagues of equal status to me who had a limited perception of the respect even a gardener was due. I talked about marking the lines, as an indicator of the purpose of the land for visitors, but not reinstating the net. The one thing I did do was to fertilise it, to try to improve the turf on the court itself. In the next picture, the court is the darker patch showing -
The Mulberry was looking grand in the centre of the next frame, beside the sizeable Irish Yew and the puny statue of a deer it obscured -
and the Verbenas were at last of a stature to enhance the Roses -
Whatever angle you look at them from, these were starting to look good. The heights of the two types of plant complemented each other well, and the whole thing had a tranquil uniformity deriving from this, which is worth bearing in mind in view of some later photographs I have to show you.
The borders opposite the terrace were now showing plenty of colour and beginning to bulk up nicely, although it would be years before some of the trees I had planted would reach the scale I had envisaged for them -
Looking back towards the house, the work I had done on the climbers was in evidence -
and the border that separated this area from the orchard was now growing away fast.
Shown from the orchard side, in the next picture, the improving scale is clearer, and the white Judas Tree on the right which was one of my favourites, can be seen to have put on a spurt -
The textures in the orchard had come into their own -
whilst the area behind the Library was now beginning to look like a garden instead of just a bit round the back that nobody looked at -
And Stan was still hanging round the pond waiting for me -
In that photo, in front of the patio doors, two period-specific concrete 'flying-saucer' planters can be discerned, in which I had placed a standard Wisteria each, underplanted with silver-leafed Helichrysum petiolare. I had high hopes for these in the future, replacing as they did some rather poor choices of inadequate scale for the containers.
I have umpteen pics of the Kitchen Garden of which I will show only three before signing off this post. Firstly, one that lets you see the pierced wall in all its splendour, fronted by vastly improved, though still imperfect, hedges -
Next, one of the garden at its fullest, with the shallots on the right just about reaching harvesting stage -
And finally, one of the annual flowers in the centrepiece, including colourful sunflowers. I liked this feature for its frivolous use of colour bringing joy to what in many people's hands becomes a serious practical space measured in terms of yield rather than pleasure -
So that was how it was on 24th July. Not bad. Now the harvesting would begin in earnest.
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