This month I am still on the subject of gardening as it has taken over everything we have done in the last month, but I will be looking to poets and artists for inspiration. We are all influenced, consciously or unconsciously, by other gardeners, fashions, TV gardeners, books and pictures, and perhaps the people who taught us. But first of all Dr Hessayon. Do note the price, 30p from WH Smiths. The very first year that we were married we lived in a tied house on a farm near Easingwold and begged a corner of a ploughed field (which had once been part of the garden) to grow some vegetables. This was 1977, and I bought this little book as my guide. We never had the opportunity to grow vegetables again but I had kept the book - and more importantly - knew exactly where it was on my bookshelf. It now sits on the kitchen work top and is read and re-read almost every day as I am sowing seeds and watching. I was surprised to find this page - Following Dr Hessayon's advice I had made a little plan of our crops. We also had a marrow plant which yielded into the teens of marrows. I think it had copious amounts of FYM [farm yard muck]. Even though husband loves marrow as a vegetable I was making stuffed marrows, marrow jam, marrow chutney. In that first year I can also remember making pickled red cabbage and pickled onions..... how our tastes change ! Each vegetable has a page, in alphabetical order, with all you need to know. Excellent. First attempt at beetroot was not good, second attempt I soaked the seeds as instructed above and they are just coming through. Bless Dr Hessayon ! He was prolific in his production of books on gardening which were all in an easy to read format and must have encouraged endless amateur gardeners. He was born in Lancashire but was from a Cypriot family. He studied at Leeds University, travelled, and then came back to Britain and gained a doctorate in soil ecology, at which time he came up with the idea of the easy to follow books on gardening. Husband grew up in a house that was in a commercial market garden which grew flowers, so an influence on his gardening was the market gardener who grew masses and masses of dahlias, chrysanthemums and sweet peas. I think that these may be chrysanthemums all nicely staked in rows. In the misty background of this picture are rows and rows of either dahlias or chrysanthemums all staked. So an influence on husband's gardening is remembering helping the gardener in his childhood. At the moment our dahlias are just waking up after their winter slumber. In complete contrast to everything in straight rows is this cottage garden with a haphazard exuberance of colour and texture. It is a painting by Helen Allingham called "Summer Garden". Helen Allingham [1848 - 1926] was an important artist in the Victorian era, and is known for her rather chocolate boxy pictures of rural life. She was unusual because she studied art not just as a suitable female accomplishment but as a career and supported herself as an illustrator and artist. Her grandmother and an aunt were also artists, and Helen went to the Birmingham School of Design and then to the Royal Female School of Art in London. This is called "Wallflowers" and mine are out at the moment. They have a lovely perfume. In the background I can see white lilac, in the foreground tulips, perhaps yellow allysum, daisies and pansies. There are thatched cottages in many of Helen Allingham's paintings and one theory is that she wanted to capture rural life before it disappeared. She saw rural cottages being destroyed and was part of the movement that included the collectors of folk songs, novelists like Thomas Hardy, and others who wanted to make a record before it was all lost. Or, another theory is that she made a lot of it up and used models and not real local people. So our idea of the "cottage garden" might not be what it really was ....... Rudyard Kipling [1865 - 1936], another late Victorian, is more known for his writing and connections to India and The Empire, but I rather like his poem "The Glory of the Garden" because he takes us beyond what we can see to the work that makes it happen. Our England is a garden that is full of stately views, Of borders, beds and shrubberies and lawns and avenues, With statues on the terraces and peacocks strutting by; But the Glory of the Garden lies in more than meets the eye. For where the old thick laurels grow, along the thin red wall, You'll find the tool- and potting-sheds which are the heart of all The cold-frames and the hot-houses, the dung-pits and the tanks, The rollers, carts, and drain-pipes, with the barrows and the planks. And there you'll see the gardeners, the men and 'prentice boys Told off to do as they are bid and do it without noise ; For, except when seeds are planted and we shout to scare the birds, The Glory of the Garden it abideth not in words. And some can pot begonias and some can bud a rose, And some are hardly fit to trust with anything that grows ; But they can roll and trim the lawns and sift the sand and loam, For the Glory of the Garden occupieth all who come. The picture is "Old Scott, the gardener" by Robert Lillie [1867 - 1949] at the Lillie Art Gallery 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. This picture is "Boy with a grass rake" by Henry Scott Tuke [1858 - 1929] at the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society. I bet he did his fair share of weeding gravel paths. "The Old Gardener" by Briton Riviere [1840 - 1920] Yale Centre for British Art. There's not a pair of legs so thin, there's not a head so thick, There's not a hand so weak and white, nor yet a heart so sick But it can find some needful job that's crying to be done, For the Glory of the Garden glorifieth every one. Then seek your job with thankfulness and work till further orders, If it's only netting strawberries or killing slugs on borders; And when your back stops aching and your hands begin to harden, You will find yourself a partner In the Glory of the Garden. This picture is "A gardener and his wife" by David Teniers the 2nd [1610 - 1690] The National Trust collection at Erddig Oh, Adam was a gardener, and God who made him sees That half a proper gardener's work is done upon his knees, 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 ! This picture is "The gardener" by William Henry Hunt [ 1790 - 1864] at the Courtauld Gallery. Much to my surprise this apple tree has got blossom in its first year. Another favourite poet is George Herbert [1593 - 1633] (also writer of hymns). His writings do have a spiritual dimension. This is called Paradise. I bless Thee Lord because I GROW Among Thy trees, which in a ROW To Thee both fruit and order OW. He contiues to compare his growth with that of the fruit tree needing careful pruning. When Thou doest greater judgement SPARE And with Thy knife but prune and PARE Ev'n fruitful trees more fruitful ARE Such sharpnes shows the sweetest FREND Such cuttings rather heal then REND And such beginnings touch their END. This little baby apple tree will need careful training to spread across the wall, we were also delighted that it decided to blossom in its first year. This gorgeous picture is in York Art Gallery and is called "An English Garden" by Percy Robert Craft [1856 - 1934]. Think of all the hard work behind it ! In complete contrast this picture is of a different era in gardening. The men with scythes remind us that before the advent of the domestic lawnmower lawns were only for the rich who could employ staff. This picture is in Buckinghamshire County Museum and is called "The north west woodlands with gardeners scything, Hartwell House, Buckinghamshire" by Balthasar Nebot [1700 - 1770]. "St Audry's Hospital Garden, Woodbridge, Suffolk" unknown artist, Felixstow Museum. What ever influences you in your plot I hope that it gives you pleasure. It is so sad that we cannot visit gardens at the moment, but I hope that these little pictures and poems give you as much pleasure. Do visit the ArtUk website and enjoy virtual tours of art galleries https://artuk.org There is a passage in St John's Gospel where Jesus talks about God as "My Father is the gardener", and in fact my real father was a great gardener, first a farmer, but in his retirement a wonderful gardener and I had the benefit of learning from him. Here is a prayer to end with. We live in troubled times and it is when in the garden we can think about many things. This prayer is called "Be the gardener of my soul"
Clear away the dead growth of the past, Break up the hard clods of custom and routine, Stir in the rich compost of vision and challenge, Bury deep in my soul the implanted Word, Cultivate and water and tend my heart Until new life buds and opens and flowers. Amen.
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AuthorThis is where you can share creativity with me. I believe that everyone has something creative within them, and it is a joy to find ways of being creative. Blogging is NEW to me, so here goes ..... Archives
January 2024
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