We Made a Garden Read Free Page A

luxurious display of rock plants growing out of the wall.
    I had very few real rock plants to begin with, and those that I had were very small, so the first season I kept up a succession of colourful effects with annuals. I do not know whether the soil was particularly good or as a beginner I took more trouble and followed instructions implicitly, or perhaps I was just lucky. Certainly I have never again grown such superlative Phlox Drummondii , dwarf antirrhinums, mignonette, zinnias, clarkia, godetia and candytuft, to mention only a few. For once, and once only, I achieved displays that really looked like the pictures on the packet, and I thought that it was all just too easy.
    Not being an orthodox gardener I do not even now restrict myself to rock plants on these gardens, although I have quite a lot of them there. I like something a little more generous, so there are hyssops and ceratostigma, trailing potentillas and penstemon and, to give body a few dwarf shrubs, and against the wall such things as Veronica Haageana , coronilla, Salvia Grahamii and S. Greggii ,and fabiana.
    It was Walter’s idea to lay some flat stones in front of each of the rock gardens. He thought it would look more generous than having the gravel right up to the stones. To begin with they were only flat stones, but very soon I started planting between them and tried a few Dresden China daisies that had been given to me. The little daisies were an immediate success, because they enjoyed the cool root run between the stones, and I think found the ground that had been used for chickens produced a very rich diet. They increased so rapidly that it wasn’t long before I had every crevice filled with them, and in the spring when they were in full bloom the effect was very good.
    Walter never showed much enthusiasm for the smaller plants I cherished so lovingly but the daisies were an exception. He wanted them everywhere, bands on either side of the path, and later when we planted flowering trees I was asked to encircle them with daisies.
    I am afraid the manurial legacy from the chickens must have disappeared long ago but the daisies continue to thrive, and I think it is because I divide them so frequently. I give away hundreds every year and I meet them in the gardens of all my friends. There is only one thing to remember when dealing with these little daisies and that is to make sure the birds don’t uproot all the newly planted divisions. Nothing excites their curiosity or cupidity more, unless it is shallots. If I am doing a large area I find it saves a lot of time and casualties if I cotton them until they are firmly settled.
    Having disposed of the rubbish we were at last able to consider the lay-out of the garden at the back of the house. We wanted it to be as simple as possible, as much grass as we could get and a generous drive to the old malthouse, which we were using as a garage. We had to leave enough room for a paved path from the house to the barton, and the rest of the level ground was to be taken up with a lawn that would stretch to the gate leading into the barton. We knew that the bigger the lawn the more spacious would be our garden. Just as a plain carpet pushes out the walls and makes a room bigger, so a wide stretch of uninterrupted grass gives a feeling of space and restfulness. Why, oh! why, will people cut up their lawns and fill them with horrid little beds? Usually the smaller the garden the more little beds are cut in the lawn making it smaller still. I can sympathize with the desire to grow more flowers, but one long bed grows just as many plants as a series of tiny ones, and avoids the restlessness and spottiness of small beds dotted about the lawn.
    Walter was rabid on this subject and never ceased to exclaim at the foolishness of some of the people we knew. There was one garden in particular which we both liked when we first knew it. Then it was the rectory, and was just what a rectory garden should be. A wide flagged path