Letters to garden makers

Dear Monty, This time of year the owners of garden businesses and the media are attacking our senses with shows and merchandise, and I end up suffering from overload and stress that I need more to my garden to justify even calling it a garden. I can't help thinking that I have made a mistake by opening my garden - because it is just really a weedy green clearing a controlled wilderness with one or two flowery things, a dog, a couple of chickens and the occasional grandchild or two. Oh yes and lots of washing on the line. I visited two 'proper' gardens last weekend, Dyffryn House Gardens near Cardiff, and an NGS opening of the Glanusk Estate Gardens near Crickhowell. They are both large gardens - landscapes really. Dyffryn in particular is made to be seen from the long vista in front of the house, and the grand scale gives a sense of awe, but seeing these places close up I realise that weeds and diseases are ubiquitous and not only that, they are pres...

Todays news brings a mixture of sadness, deep sorrow and tiredness. How can such acts of violence ever bring peace or order ? I cannot understand it.

Monty, The sculpted figures by www.ospreystudios.org  have a conversation on this May morning. This moment in the Coal Tip Cloister Garden with iridescent beetle, blackbirds and a pointy dog is close to perfection to me. Fresh green in the morning light - it is best seen from the kitchen terrace - and from the pergola in evening light. So we learnt on GW last night that you have been influenced by Penelope Hobhouse and by Italian gardens. I in turn have been influenced by Italian gardens and the great romantic garden of The Veddw in Monmouthshire. As I have discussed in one of my early letters to you I was also influenced by the long vistas of Versailles which seemed to stick in my formative brain - I had never seen such a garden before, my experience of gardens had been small back gardens, rockeries and municipal parks. I suppose that is why I feel so privileged to have even this modest space - space enough to create an illusion of an Italia...

 Dear Monty, Tracery in the early morning light A network of breaking buds Nature's reward. A song thrush pierces the air Soft green leaves cascade from the beech buds. The blackbird sits motionless in its nest Beak skywards Alert. Humanity wakes and thunders in the distance. These hills could be Judean hills This garden the garden tomb The light around the sculpted woman An angel appearing to Mary. But this is Ystalyfera The voices of a garden speak louder than words. Paul.