Head Gardener's Demesne
12 June 2009 11:22:35
Liquidambar Worplesdon
Yesterday morning I was delighted to pay a visit to Head Gardener's domain. Bill had kindly invited myself and Cooper for the grand tour.
We had a lovely morning, strolling leisurely around the garden and hearing about all the plants and trees. Bill's knowledge of Latin plant names is quite astounding and, despite Linda's several attempts to trip him up, Bill did not fail to disappointing, magicking up the required Latin name to our joint amazement.
The backbone of Bill's garden is his trees - sturdy, healthy looking specimens. The vegetable area, complete with Monty Don style fruit cage, is already producing strawberries and his kids' triple raised beds are in immaculate condition. In the greenhouse, I was disgruntled to note how Bill's Agapanthus-from-seed was far more advanced than mine. Tomatoes were looking fine and bushy too.
We had a good mooch around Bill's shade garden, marvelling over his tree ferns and discovering various unknown perennials. But the highlight for me was the large planted area around Head Gardener's Deck. Although not yet mature, the advantage of looking up at these plants, gives the illusion of maturity. And the sun, hitting the back drop of Stipa Gigantica must be lovely when enjoying the seating area.
So, after two short hours had lapsed, it was time to head home and back to work.
But as the majority of the gardening day was already gone, I just did some planting, notable planting up the Liquidambar tree, in the picture, which is to remember my mother.