In anticipation

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So, I have been pretty quiet these past few months, predictably, being away from the garden. But, I had a nice e-mail from a member the other day asking me how I was getting on, and it made me realise how long it has been since I was on GOY, and how much I miss it.
In addition to ‘work’, I’ve been reading a lot of garden history recently, including Andrea Wulf’s Brother Gardeners and Margaret Willes. The Making of the English Gardener (who I met at a seminar recently). It begs the question, what can one do when away from one’s garden? In literature and art we always read of returning home, but the trope seems to refer to a house (including the family instilled in it), or to ‘society’, but less often returning to the garden. I wondered therefore whether any of you can remember stumbling upon specific references in literature or correspondence to the pleasure of returning to one’s garden. The theme of being separated from one’s garden — and hopefully being re-united — would, I suppose be the theme of an interesting book. All this is to say that I am pining (excuse the pun) for my garden, after almost a year away from it, the more so because we have only been acquainted for a short time and I have much to learn about IT (incidentally, should a garden be feminine or masculine…or perhaps I should steer clear of that can of worms).

Needless to say, as I replied to the interested GOY enquirer, we will be returning to Japan at the end of March, in time to see our first spring in Hakone. I’m just so hoping that the promise (all those cherry trees, irises and flowering trees — including a magnolia Elizabeth that I planted a while ago) will come to fruition. I’m particularly interested to see whether the 30 weeping cherry will deliver its blossom. It is alas North-facing, but since we cleared a couple of diseased Sawara Cypress, it should now receive more sun, and may flower (?). The wild mountain Wisteria that I hard pruned out of necessity — which I reported in a blog a few months ago — is also going to be fascinating to watch. It’s a monster, but hopefully a monster tamed, and one willing to break into bloom. Who knows? The delight is in the unknown.

My plans for the garden have basically remained unchanged (getting the lawn down being the priority), but we have recently had a change in personal decor taste, now very much into the art deco, and so this may slightly alter the shapes and lines I try to put down vis-a-vis paths and borders. Talking of which, can anyone suggest a good Art Deco garden in the UK that I might be able to visit before I leave Cambridge?

Once back in Japan I am planning to put my blogs on a more regular and disciplined footing: that is to say weekly. I continue to seek the indulgence of GOY members.

Kind regards,

ptarotuos

• 15 Feb, 2012
• 4 likes

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