The daffodils and tulips are poking green heads out of muddy beds. I saw a couple of robins squabbling over squatting rights in the front yard. Spring is here and it’s time to get back to the garden. I love gardening. I find I can put all the worries of life out of my mind as I trim the roses, move a plant from here to there, or back again. My wife says it’s in the blood ever since we took a trip back to the home country. We visited a lot of gardens in England and it clicked for her that gardening is a national past time for the English and, even though I have lost most (perhaps all?) traces of my birth place, I am still a subject of the queen. And so, I garden.
Our favorite gardens are the gardens of Hidcote Mansion. Ironically, the garden was designed by an American so it appears I really am a child of two worlds, old and new. The garden is laid out in a series of rooms. High hedges define the walls of each room. Each room has a different function and planting scheme.
There is a Theatre Walk, a grass meadow cut short with beautiful shade trees at the stage end – the room surrounded by a hedge easily 12 feet tall.
In the Circle, the hedges have been clipped into various shapes: pillars, giant perched birds, even a gateway. Our favorite part is the Long Walk that stretches the length of the garden. The sides of this hallway are again, tall hedges. The hallway has a series of steps that accommodate the fact that the garden is built on a hillside. At the far end a pair of tall iron gates open onto a view of the idyllic cotswold countryside. This is the image that springs to mind when I read Thomas Hardy’s books set in this very area. After strolling the gardens we stopped in the tea room where our daughter, aged 2 at the time, had her first tea..
She charmed the tea lady immediately when she, very politely, asked for “scones and tea please” in her American accent. We sipped out tea and ate our scones smothered in jam and clotted cream Sitting at that table on the covered porch gazing out on the garden with my daughter and wife is one of my treasured memories.
The title for this post comes from Larry Norman’s song “So Long Ago the Garden”. Larry Norman ended his visit of this planet Feb. 24th, 2008
Our favorite gardens are the gardens of Hidcote Mansion. Ironically, the garden was designed by an American so it appears I really am a child of two worlds, old and new. The garden is laid out in a series of rooms. High hedges define the walls of each room. Each room has a different function and planting scheme.
There is a Theatre Walk, a grass meadow cut short with beautiful shade trees at the stage end – the room surrounded by a hedge easily 12 feet tall.
In the Circle, the hedges have been clipped into various shapes: pillars, giant perched birds, even a gateway. Our favorite part is the Long Walk that stretches the length of the garden. The sides of this hallway are again, tall hedges. The hallway has a series of steps that accommodate the fact that the garden is built on a hillside. At the far end a pair of tall iron gates open onto a view of the idyllic cotswold countryside. This is the image that springs to mind when I read Thomas Hardy’s books set in this very area. After strolling the gardens we stopped in the tea room where our daughter, aged 2 at the time, had her first tea..
She charmed the tea lady immediately when she, very politely, asked for “scones and tea please” in her American accent. We sipped out tea and ate our scones smothered in jam and clotted cream Sitting at that table on the covered porch gazing out on the garden with my daughter and wife is one of my treasured memories.The title for this post comes from Larry Norman’s song “So Long Ago the Garden”. Larry Norman ended his visit of this planet Feb. 24th, 2008
2 comments:
Very moving Jont, thank you!
Thank you! I love your post and photos. My garden is my neighborhood, and my neighbors do all the maintenance. I stroll around and appreciate the trees, cacti, shrubs, succulents and flowers.
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