Back in the little Matchbox garden this week for SoS. My main garden is having a rotten winter with chill rain and wind and it’s reassuring to see it survive; spring will be a lovely reprieve for it. But in the meantime, the tiny city patch has its own microclimate. When the streets, hedges and gardens beyond the garden fence have been white with frost, this little space is showing that it’s moving forward quietly and with no fuss.
It’s been an age since I contributed to SoS, despite that I’ve always visited all the other gardens across the globe. Life’s been a bit busy and to be honest, it’s that time of year where nothing much is going on in our gardens.
A really quick trip round the big garden today as I’ve been on a roll with my manuscript.
As spring continues…
This week on SoS, I’m offering two gardens.
The state of one is the direct result of Covid-19.
We’ve been in lockdown with borders closed for quite a while here in my state of Tasmania (Australia). If one had a shack anywhere, (a second residence on coast, rural or highlands), one could stay there for the duration of the lockdown, only venturing away for food, exercise and medical requirements.
It’s similar to the UK, I believe – Stay Safe, Stay Home.
It’s actually Sunday here in Oz and it’s been an awful week weather-wise, so I despaired of having anything to offer. But then I sat and watched Netflix last night – seasons of Big Dreams Small Spaces with Monty Don.
The Don is my hero – his quiet honesty, his raging enthusiasm for things he loves, his faceted depths and what appears to be gentle humility. Anyway, suffice to say that when he went to Wales to help two young chaps create their vision in the worst weather – rain, more rain and wind – I thought’ Oh what the hell…’ and went out to take a few pics.
Apparently maunder is another word for meander, meaning a leisurely walk.
I recently maundered through a friend’s garden. It’s an exuberant garden, high-spirited and vivacious with colour.
Gardening.
One either loves it or hates it.
And I am one of those who loves gardening and to whom a man like Monty Don is a saint.
Vita Sackville West’s White Garden at Sissinghurst is iconic and many gardeners, myself included, have tried to create their own little piece of that superb garden.
My own lasts about 2-4 weeks in spring, a much awaited sea of white before the summer dry begins. VSW wrote for The Guardian’s gardening column and in 1950, this is what she said about the idea of growing a mono-colour garden:
Sometimes it pays to take time and to LOOK as one rushes through the garden at this time of year.
I found some beautiful white spring crocus which I had bought in March at Bream Creek Show and completely forgotten that I’d planted. Look at the amazing white vein down the full- length of the leaf. Stunning. Can see Jane Nicholas doing this in stumpwork.
