BLOOMING LARGE

In the previous post I mentioned my small garden in south-east London.  If my garden were a car it would have to be a Smart car; compact, eco-friendly and with just about room for two at a squeeze.  But maybe I should own up and admit that my 'other garden' is a stretch Limo, well, more of a Rolls Royce actually - nothing so naf as as a Limo.

I've been a member of the gardening team at Restoration House in Rochester for a few years now.  The Grade I listed house gets its name because Charles II stayed there on his return from exile after the English Civil War.  The house is more famous though for having been the inspiration for Miss Havisham's Satis House in the novel 'Great Expectations' by Charles Dickens.  Look out for a new film starring Ralph Fiennes - coming soon.

This is a view of the house and garden taken in spring showing the box parterre on the right and veggie garden over the wall on the left.

This view shows the small greenhouse where seeds are sown for all the summer annuals to be planted out in the cutting garden. One of my regular jobs was tending the cutting garden which provides all the fresh flowers for the house - deftly arranged in his own inimitable style by owner Robert Tucker.

When the house first opens to the public in June soft, billowing combinations of peonies, lupins and Canterbury bells make for a classic English cottage-garden arrangement.

In high summer, when the dahlia's, annual sunflowers and amaranthus (love-lies-bleeding) come on stream, the arrangements head down Mexico way and turn hot and zingy!

It's sometimes kinder to tell little white lies when tourists ask whether the same flowers would have been grown in the garden when the reclusive Miss Havisham was there.  So, rather than shatter the romantic illusion and reveal that she was a fictional character who never existed, we reply, 'Ofcourse.  Miss Havisham simply adored Dahlias!'

I persuaded the co-author to do some photogaphy in the garden when we were working on a gathering basket for 'Practical Basketry Techniques' - out February 16th 2012.  The veggie garden, brimming with autumn produce, provided a colourful backdrop.

And we got to take home enough fruit to use in another project

                               Illustrated in Practical Basketry Techniques, willow gathering baskets

                               by Stella Harding and Shane Waltener.