This month remains dominated by the after effects of the storm. All of the clearance work which has begun will continue for a good while yet. As the larger felled specimens are cut down it is a chance to assess the full extent of mature tree loss and damage caused. Individually some of these are:

 

Douglas fir – by the Friedrich tree column base. The stone base has been removed into storage. The root plate sprung back into the ground here, and the remaining cut tree in sections displays the structure of a truncated column – we may well retain this as an unintentional device in this settling. A form of visual found poem.

 

Poplar – by Cupid’s arrow and the Guercino plinth. The end of the arrow is temporarily lost, the plinth might need to be repositioned further along the path.

 

By the Pyramid – a number of adjacent Scot’s pines and Spruce collapsed like dominoes. There is a marked change in the light levels here and how all will be put back requires careful consideration. Not only the planting but the objects. The stone plinths on the nearby Holzwege path have also shifted – the intended effect of the impenetrable wood has been lost to some extent.

 

Sycamore – on the perimeter of the Allotment, lifting the picket fence and pathways with its root plate. At least this is one area where more light will be welcomed, as it has previously struggled to be productive in dense shade.

 

Larch – towards the Siegfried Line by the base of the Virtue is Harmony pan pipes. The paths and base will need to be rebuilt, and a new washing line put in place, along with a replacement greenhouse.

 

A number of Geans – Wild Cherries – down behind the Fishing Boat beehives: Bountiful, Sweet Promise, Golden Gain. The order of this setting needs to be addressed.

 

The circular cobble setts which defined the perfected Virgil Georgics groves in the English Parkland have been emptied of specimens of Plane, Linden, Pine and their implicit reference and meaning uprooted. It might be necessary to lift, rebuild and replant these sections in their entirety.

 

A Birch close by the overflow end of the stone Aqueduct. This rocked and pushed the whole structure out of shape, and needs to be rebuilt.

 

Various bonfires are set to get rid of a lot of the smaller brash wood, other branches and sections are chipped (which at the very least produces a useful resource for mulching), and stump grinding takes care of a couple of the most disrupted areas where the root plates lifted their adjacent environments.

 

So for the moment we have many piles of logs shaped like sculptural or sectional column forms scattered throughout the garden. The next task is to get all these moved to the wood shed or stacked and stored out of the way. Then we can begin to see the extent of work required to repair the various pathways, artworks and their surroundings.

 

It feels even more than usual that gardening here is a process of constant battling. It becomes very apparent that the garden exists to be both for and against continuity.

 

We have been greatly assisted in our endeavours by groups of volunteers and other helpers, and a huge thank you is extended to all of them once again. We could not have progressed so quickly without so many skilled and willing hands on site. A further note of thanks goes to all who have donated to our appeal to help fund all the renovation and repair works required. This is work which will extend into the coming weeks and months, and form part of our considerations for the long term maintenance of the garden.

 

It is also impossible not to wonder how Finlay himself would have responded to this situation. He would of course have been heartbroken by the loss of every individual tree, but it is also conceivable to suppose his more creative response to the raw sublime power of the elements – a new Temple of the Winds perhaps?

 

For the rest of the time February is marked by foggy, frosty days with scattered flurries of snow. It is a mostly drab month, but the snowdrops and aconites provide colour and cheer, nature persists, in spite of everything, with a sense of adjustment, of rejuvenation…

 

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