Hit the Dirt; Reading From We Made a Garden.

Hi there this is Claire acro You're listening to hit the dirt. This is the last in my gleanings from my library. Next week I think we must get serious and start talking about pruning and jobs in the garden. But I took off my shelf one more book which I have gained enormous amount from reading Marjorie fishies books. Marjorie fish was a lady who lived she died in 1969 at the age of 76. It's a fairly contemporary person as the war ended she and her husband Walter bought a house called East lime Brook indenture and she set about making a garden they were Londoners and with no experience of this she had a clear idea of what she wanted to do and she wrote several books about making her garden Amys number the house of the slum Brook is now open to the public and there are a lot of plants that she developed that carry the fish name. She started her book her original book was going to be called Gardening with Walter because it's great fun reading it. Obviously she and Walter had very different ideas about what should happen in the

garden. He liked to mow lawns and water things and she liked to sort of fuss with delicate plants and the sort of dynamic between them I think was really central to her gardening life. But she did call the first book that she wrote was called we made a garden. And this is from readings from that she's a wonderful lady. So the photographs are of a dumpy lady in a print frock making beautiful gardens. They bought the old house it was dilapidated and their friends told them that they would never get it right. And she writes I have never regretted our foolhardiness of course we made mistakes endless mistakes but at least they were our own. Just as the garden was our own however imperfect the result there is a certain satisfaction in making a garden that is like no one else's. And in knowing that you yourself are responsible for every stone and every flower in the place it is present to know each one of your plants intimately because you have chosen and planted every one of them in the course of time they become real friends. Country. Present associations of the people who gave them and the gardens they came from. Walter and I had several things particularly in mind when we made the garden. The first was that it must be a modest and pretend

as modest and unpretentious as the house with crooked paths and unexpected corners. Next it must be easy to run. We designed it with the idea that we'd have to look after it ourselves. And though there have been times when we have had regular help they were brief and uncertain and we knew we'd soon be back where we started. Where so many are today depending on a little casual labor. When we when we can get it planting came first and whatever job was on hand it had to be abandoned if problems arrived. I remember one weekend when we had some rather special visitors to whom we were showing the countryside a passel of flowering shrubs delivered by the railway. The visitors just had to amuse themselves while we dealt with those shrubs. First we put their roots in a bucket of water and while we dug the hole and then we dug the holes. When Walter planted them for you beautifully and I watered them copiously while our visitors looked on and thought we were slightly mad. Armless one mistake nearly all beginners make is the plant too close together. I heard a lot about this when I first started gardening jokes on the subject were read to me and I came to the conclusion that most humorists were male because it was always the wife who made the silly mistakes is extremely difficult to

visualize how big your plants will grow and it is quite natural to want to cover that expensive bare earth as quickly as possible. In fact if you planted the things as far apart as they ought to be the effect would be very bleak and bare for a long time. But it is the only thing to do. Most people plant shrubs far too close together and the effect is completely ruined when they grow up. It is far far better to plant them at the right distances and fill the gaps in the early stages with temporary plantings. It is sometimes worthwhile to put in more shrubs and you will eventually want if you want quick results I wanted. I did this with Euphorbia Wolf many are in a place where I wanted a quick screen. Three plants were bought in a fairly close together and I had my effect in the first year. The strongest of the three quickly overlaid the other two and I removed them. It requires great space to allow the right amount of space for planting but you do get the results and the results can be surprising. Make no mistake this is ours as an example if grown properly with individual shoots about a foot apart. Half the hype is the usual allowance make themselves into fact pushy products which are a joy to behold. I need to

start staked up hope and he will should be thinned out ruthlessly instead of spindly specimens. Those that are left will show you what can be done when a product has adequate space in which to develop. I have seen a single product might scented stock make a bush about 18 inches square. Not because of my strong mindedness I fear but owing to the fact that all of the little brothers and sisters died in infancy and it was left alone. That is a very good important point. We see that a lot with people building new gardens. We put in way too many things and as a person selling puns I'm delighted when people want to buy twice as many plants as they need. But I wish they wouldn't because if you don't allow space for your problems to develop into mature specimens you never get the effect of a beautiful finished mature plant. And so with Marjorie fishies advice on not overcrowding your garden I'll leave you and next week we'll get serious and talk about some spring chores in the garden. And this is being hit the dirt. My name is Claire Ackroyd and I'll talk to you again next week.