Martes, Marso 1, 2011

Gardeners wild!

When Carol Klein and her husband, Neil, first moved to Glebe Cottage in north Devon, the garden was an unprepossessing sight. 'It was strewn with old cars and sheds,' Carol recalls. As they laboured to clear it, she looked forward to the day the garden would be tamed but, 32 years later, Carol has come to realise that will never happen. 'It's a privilege to live here and garden here, but it constantly surprises me,' she admits. 'Something that works beautifully one year looks terrible the next. A garden really keeps you on your toes.'

The house and garden are surrounded on all sides by deepest countryside and, as they were growing up, Carol's two daughters would complain that the family lived in the middle of a field. Yet for Carol, there is more excitement and tension in her garden than you would find standing in the middle of Piccadilly Circus. 'Each year, the whole garden is the The house and garden are surrounded on all sides by deepest countryside and, as they were growing up, Carol's two daughters would complain that the family lived in the middle of a field. Yet for Carol, there is more excitement and tension in her garden than you would find standing in the middle of Piccadilly Circus. 'Each year, the whole garden is the scene of an unfolding drama. There is comedy, suspense and intrigue too, and occasionally tragedy. It's exciting, beguiling and ever-changing,' she says. She hates being away from it for any length of time but, somehow, as well as raising two children and caring for this ravishing garden, Carol also fits in running a small nursery, and has nurtured a career as a prolific gardening writer and one of the nation's most popular TV gardening presenters.

Carol's latest TV series - and book - is called Life In A Cottage Garden. Surely, at almost an acre, hers is a bit too big to be called a cottage garden? Not a bit of it, she says firmly. 'It's very much a cottage garden. That's how I think of it.

It's more to do with the style of planting than size or location. You can have a cottage garden in the city or the country, whatever the size of your garden.'

Before the Industrial Revolution, just about every rural home was a cottage, and each cottage had its own garden where essential herbs, vegetables and fruit were grown. As more and more country folk moved to the cities, cottage gardening should have died out, but the Victorians cannily turned this practical garden style into an art form - and a charming reminder of the country life that was rapidly disappearing for most people.

For Carol, the abiding principle of cottage gardening is that it should look unplanned. 'Of course, in reality a garden isn't unplanned. The gardener has to exert quite a bit of control, but the art of cottage gardening is that it should look as if it's just happened,' she says. 'If you're the sort of person who is driven mad by your plants self-seeding into the paving, then cottage gardening is not for you.'

And propagating your own plants, Carol declares, is at the heart of cottage gardening. 'I love sowing seed; it never gets boring for me,' she says. 'And it's such good value if you get into the habit of collecting your seed at the end of the season. So many cottagey plants - sunflowers, nigella, hollyhocks, foxgloves - are so easy to raise from seed.'

Although her garden is very much rooted in tradition, Carol has worked hard to give it a modern twist. 'I plant in layers so I get the most out of every inch - big bulbs first, then small bulbs, then perennials or annuals on top. Getting your garden to look good all year is another challenge for modern gardeners. Traditional cottage gardens would peak in summer, then fade. Nowadays, we want to keep our gardens going for as long as possible.'

Will the cottage-garden style ever go out of fashion? Carol says not. 'It's a concept that is endlessly flexible. If you want to plant a bit of everything, in an informal style, then it's for you, whatever sort of garden you have. Just remember that you're not in control - the garden is.'

Life In A Cottage Garden, Fridays, BBC2, 8.30pm. Life In A Cottage Garden by Carol Klein is published by BBC Books at Pounds 20. To order a copy for Pounds 16.99 (incl p&p), tel: 0845 155 0720.

Walang komento:

Mag-post ng isang Komento