More than usual there is a last minute rush to get the garden ready for the beginning of the visitor season. In addition to all the regular familiar maintenance tasks there is still a backlog of repair works to get completed. However the weather has been kind and so progress is rapid.

 

The drystone wall by the entrance is finished, along with remaking the brick path by the formal There is Happiness gate. Other uprooted pathways have had to be replaced – at the entrance to the Allotment, by the Seigfried Line and in the Woodland garden.

 

The stone aqueduct at the Top pond has required substantial rebuilding, more than expected, but with its scaffolding now removed it looks purposeful once more – all we need is for the pond to fill and the entire water course to function again. Some of the lower ponds and waterways are empty as the spring source supply was turned off to allow for the repairs.

 

The Middle pond still awaits its new wooden aqueduct, though this can be installed later on without too much disruption.

 

One of the big annual maintenance jobs has been completed – the weeding out of Lochan Eck. Potamogeton is the current dominant invader – the water is clear now and looks as it should – a Picturesque setting – but it is almost inevitable this weedy enemy will be back to trouble us before the end of the season.

 

More trees are planted out to replace those lost in storm damaged areas. Wild cherries behind the beehives, hawthorn at the bottom end of the Parkland, alamanchier slotted in as screening among gaps on the parkland edges, and a row of holly which will be allowed to grow up as an informal hedge and hopefully act as a windbreak over time is set in between the poplars on the southern perimeter.

 

New specimens go in the woodland by the Pyramid – Scots pine, black pine, juniper. The Douglas fir by the Friedrich tree column base is replaced along with the original smaller stone – so that should hopefully last for many years to come. The larger stone moves into storage for future renewals.

 

Many areas in the Parkland need tidied – in particular the cobble circle Virgil groves. There was substantial loss and disruption here, now rectified with new lime, pine and pear trees in accordance with the quotation from the Georgics which inspired this piece.

 

Corinthian planters in the front garden are refreshed – greek oregano is replaced with geranium orkney cherry (which must be some sort of a metaphor). The greenhouse shelves become a production line of things which can go out being quickly replaced by the newly sown.

 

The slate circular benches And Longer Fall the Shadows from the Mountains High are relocated in their grove at the base of new silver birch trees completing the setting.

 

The Kailyard and Allotment are weeded out, sown and planted with crops for the summer. A section of broken picket fence is renovated here.

 

The prolonged dry conditions mean it is a struggle to get the grass to germinate in bare patches and ponds are beginning to show low water levels – it almost feels like we have been through a long hot summer of drought rather than setting out at the start of the season. 

 

…

 

As the garden prepares to reopen it is a chance also just to take a step back and consider what ‘here’ is.

 

All gardens basically consist of the same things in terms of planting – colour, form, structure, position. How these are put together, by horticultural variety or intent, whether decorative or productive, formal or informal is what usually characterises a space for us in terms of a garden. All gardens are a manipulation of nature. They are defined by how we encounter them. They are also as much about their maker as their location. We accept this and in turn have an intellectual, emotional, cultural or sensory response to what our experience of ‘place’ is. This response, descriptive or interpretive, we express in language as our ready tool of communication. Again, all gardens and gardeners can speak of these things. 

 

Here, at Little Sparta, language as word and object creates a further dialogue. It is made an integral and direct part of the composition and this is what sets it apart. A garden which literally has to be read to be understood. A sequence of conceits which redefine, extend, question or camouflage our understanding of things. Where the moment exists under the moment.

 

It is in essence a poeticised landscape. And poetry can contain all things.

 

Planting styles and trends come and go. Plants themselves are transitory. Gardens change with the seasons and over time. Poetry lasts forever.