Letters to garden makers

Dear Monty, I received my copy of 'Down to Earth' this week - it has a very blue cover which matches my laptop. I have to admit to being a little disappointed by it - especially after listening to your introductory talk to bloggers on a rooftop in London. I perhaps expected more of the philosophical reasons for making a garden than a book on how and when and what to do according to the seasons. Nevertheless I do need to be reminded of the practicalities - and when you do bring insights into the why of garden making, it made me smile - a kind of spiritual recognition. I believe we grow into a garden over time - we get a feel for it and start to carve it and build it according to an inward response to the place. I often wonder what I would make of a new space. It must be a real challenge for designers to come up with a design that they will not be able to tweak over the years. I love the incidental - how light makes su...

Dear Monty, Here I am sitting in the thinking room thinking of blight. Yesterday I had found a new place to sit in the garden - sitting gives me time to think - no digital devices just me and the leafy loamy smells of autumn. By sitting and contemplating the shapes trees and shrubs are making, a kind of subliminal desire to cut or prune seeps into my mind and up I get and cut a branch from a potted beech. I then look at the box rectangle that divides the right hand beds and notice dying circles on the top surface as though a corrosive substance had been poured from above - blight - my box has succumbed to blight. Now I will have to think about replacing that shape with alternative plants, it is what it is. I think about the cotoneaster that has formed a similar shape by the garden gate - it will take time and this is the frustration of it - it was time that brought the box to the peak of formly fruition ! Today though all negative thoughts are wiped clean ...

Dear Monty, Sometimes I am tempted to enter the world of the blogosphere and apply to the www.gardenmediaguild.co.uk  blogger awards ! I still have this drive to seek approval. But I have resisted the temptation and just sing my songs to the ether. I in no way believe I have anything new to say - or anything which is beyond anyone else's ken. Or anything that you ; or many others may say in a much more articulate way. In fact I am in awe of the creativity displayed on the www. But writing in my journal and translating it into letters to you somehow helps. I suppose I seek connection with like minds. I read a sobering article in the Saturday Guardian by Robert Macfarlane where he discusses how important naming nature is in order to appreciate it and that we continue to do so from generation to generation. The book he has written in conjunction with the artist/illustrator Jackie Morris aims to add to the impetus to inform young and old minds alike, lest...