The Full Monty
Inspired by two different gardens, Monty embraces the concept of change at Longmeadow
Monty is inspired to ring the changes
y and large, my life revolves squarely around the two acres of Herefordshire that are Longmeadow. However, I have made the odd trip this summer to see other gardens, and inevitably it has stimulated new thoughts and plans for Longmeadow. Flower shows are all well and good, but no show garden is a patch on the real thing for stimulating fresh thought. This is because a ‘real’ garden is caught in mid-stream. You chance upon it, as it is on that day. Inevitably it will have had better days and worse days. A show garden is theatre, with all the entertainment and inspiration – and unreality – that goes with that. A real garden has mess and transience, giving it depth and relevance. Over the summer, I made a short trip to Ireland and visited Hunting Brook Gardens in Wicklow, made by Jimi Blake, and Helen Dillon’s new garden in the suburbs of Dublin, down by the sea in Monkstown. Apart from the fact that Jimi and Helen are supreme plantspeople, you could scarcely find two more different gardens. One of them is set in the middle of countryside, and has huge borders, meadows and a deeply wooded valley; the other is a small virgin plot set around a bungalow in the city. One is made by a charmingly eccentric, modest man; the other by the doyenne of Irish gardening and one of the most famous plantswomen of her era. Yet I came away with the same message, reinforced by both: that change, at every level, is the only hope of sustaining and maintaining even a half-decent garden. In Jimi’s case, change is planned and created from a playful mixture of boredom, curiosity and discovery. He wants to see what things will look like. I say ‘things’ but that betrays the way that I look at a garden – as an amalgam of plants, landscape, place and humans – whereas for Jimi, a garden is really all about plants. So, in the spirit of this, every few years he will take out all the dominant plants in a border and replace them with something entirely different. A demon propagator, he never uses one plant when scores can be created – the result is always dramatic, original and transformative. When I visited, the meadow was wonderfully good yet it had been mown lawn until the previous autumn. Maybe it will be again. The key is that changes are not entirely whimsical, but remain true to Jimi and the garden. Helen Dillon’s changes are much more dramatic and measured. She was in her last Dublin garden – the famous 45 Sandford Road – for 45 years. Then one day last year she decided to move. So the house was sold, and she and her husband moved into a hotel while another house was sought. Favourite plants were potted up and eventually a bungalow bought and builders moved in. In her eighth decade, things could hardly be more dramatic. Yet this is not ‘downsizing’, she says, simply a new adventure. The garden is smaller, though many would consider it large enough, and the borders – generous and without any nod to so-called easy maintenance – are filled with Helen’s unique plant vocabulary. It is already an extraordinary garden. What makes both gardens a success is the idea that the gardener is an active participant. Sitting in it or walking through it may be a joy but it is reactive and, however good that may feel, you only get part of the pleasure. To really be certain that you and the garden are dancing in time, you have to be making it ALL the time. This does not mean just digging weeds and ‘doing’ the garden, but also managing it and being part of its change. So where does that leave Longmeadow? Shall I take out the key plants from the Jewel Garden and replace them with an entirely different palette? Shall I alter the cricket pitch by adding in herbaceous perennials among the grass? Shall I convert one of the two vegetable gardens to something else entirely? Who knows. But the thoughts are rolling round, and changes are being discussed and considered. Suddenly
Change, at every level, is the only hope of maintaining even a half-decent garden