The Glory of the Garden

'Our England is a garden, and such gardens are not made

By singing:-" Oh, how beautiful," and sitting in the shade

While better men than we go out and start their working lives

At grubbing weeds from gravel-paths with broken dinner-knives.'

So said Rudyard Kipling, some time ago (1911), when no doubt he was sitting in his lovely study at Batemans whilst better men were grubbing the weeds from his gravel paths. I have some empathy with those better men, having spent much of this morning on my knees, titivating the edges of our grass and turning over the soil in the borders to at least make our Sunday visitors think there's been some serious gardening going on. I was not alone today either, with David hard at work making sure the brick pathways are as level underfoot as possible, and our young friend John beavering away at path clearing at the eastern end of the plot. Youth and energy personified, John simply gets on with the task in hand, and in two good mornings of work has reinstated the old brick pathway from the back gate down the side of our garden. A feat neither David nor I could have hoped to have completed before the big day.

The garden itself is looking ok now, with lots of roses in bloom, including Princess Charlotte as seen above, one of the new aquisitions that I've been looking forward to blooming for a while. The iris sibirica have all but finished but have been replaced by lots of the foetidissima or 'stinking' iris, also pictured above. On a recent visit to a spectacular garden in Bladbean (open again on 19 August for NGS and most definitely worth visiting) I overheard a gentleman remark to his wife that these iris 'always look half dead to me'. Well sir, look again, the fine markings on the very pale blue, sometimes almost brown, petals, are so delicate and what's more, after the flowers come brilliant orange shiny berries in a sweetcorn like mass. A plant that's very much at home in seaside gardens and certainly nothing to do with my efforts, it's here because it wants to be.

The veg beds aren't flourishing nearly as well as the flower borders, but I haven't given up hope that we'll be eating some homegrown produce by the end of the summer. Also, the greenhouse plants are doing really really well with lots of tomatoes appearing on all the plants and even two courgettes nearly ready for picking.

So, just a couple of days left to do the final chores on the lists, including one last mow, get the plant sale table set up and then welcome our visitors - a lot we hope! Fingers permanently crossed that the weather stays as it is right now.

Lots of other people around the village are working hard to make this second Open Gardens Event go well. A very welcome addition to our 'garden attractions' will be photographs by my lifelong friend Melanie Chalk, which will be on show at the Chichester Memorial Hall during the event. Also there, Melanie and Michael will be on hand to serve tea or coffee and cake to any weary footsore garden visitors.

To give Rudyard Kipling the final word:

'So when your work is finished, you can wash your hands and pray

For the Glory of the Garden that it may not pass away!

And the Glory of the Garden it shall never pass away ! '