Jungle

As always happens at this time of year, we return from our holiday to find that the garden has gone from tidy to jungle! I’m not complaining, I actually love cow parsley (but prefer to call it Queen Anne’s Lace because I love that descriptive name) and am pleased that it has seeded itself in all sorts of places, as well as in the wildflower garden at the back corner, where it was originally intended to flower. The froth of lace helps fill up the gaps, but no doubt I will be pulling it out vigorously before long if it spreads any further. 

Having said that, we visited the beautiful Gravetye Manor in Sussex about 15 years ago, which in the late 1880s was owned by William Robinson, a pioneer of the ‘wild garden’ and lover of more natural English cottage gardens with herbaceous borders of hardy perennials, in contrast to the formal high Victorian ‘planted out’ bedding schemes – in effect, a similar ethos to the Arts & Crafts movement. In homage to its former owner, the head gardener at Gravetye at the time of our visit had introduced cow parsley in the flower beds and the overall effect was stunning. 

Today’s been a productive day, getting all the washing and ironing finished and returning the house to a satisfactory state by removing the influx of suitcases, plastic boxes full of food, photographic equipment and general holiday paraphernalia that had been deposited all over the place.