To autumn ... as I prepare for my spring rose meadow
BUNNY GUINNESS My month in the garden Learning tricks – and tools – of the trade from a former royal head gardener at Highgrove to the art of finally getting to grips with 35-year-old hazel trees. Plus: a visit to an artist-inspired utopia
Icaught up with Debs Goodenough this month. Debs was head gardener at Highgrove, the Prince of Wales’s country home, for 12 years: the longestserving holder of that post. She was appointed a member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) after 10 years. When Debs received the medal at Buckingham Palace, she recalls, she was extraordinarily nervous: but reckoned her curtsy was pretty good, having curtsied to the Prince at their first meeting every day while she was working there.
Goodenough learnt a lot at Highgrove, a garden that attracts 40,000 visitors a year. The Prince always had time to pass on instructions and appreciate her work. She learnt how to look, to take stock of what is there, to see where the light is coming from, and to decide which colours would look good in that light.
Japanese maples, for example, must have the light coming through their leaves for the best effect, and she learnt how golden foliage plants such as Philadelphus coronarius ‘Aureus’ planted in shady woodland situations really lift what can be a gloomy space. The extravagant use of bold-coloured furniture against dark yew hedges added another dimension too. Now Goodenough is starting the next phase of her working life. She has set up a consultancy with James Campbell, the former chief executive of Garden Organic: they will provide a discreet service to owners of gardens that need a bit of an overhaul.
Perhaps the original garden design needs tweaking, maybe the labour costs have to be reduced, or maybe the planting needs pulling together. This kind of specialised advice wll take up, on average, two days of Goodenough’s new working week. As for great tips for maintaining a garden, Goodenough recommends always doing what is most visible first. Having easy access to the work area is paramount and making sure that those work areas (compost, mini nursery, potting bench and so on) are well-designed, enjoyable areas will ensures that the powerhouse of the garden is efficient. Good tools, she reckons, are essential too.
She highly recommends the herbaceous sickle from Niwaki (£14). This is in fact a rice sickle, but its serrated blade copes with tough dry stalks of herbaceous plants and grasses.
The other tool she loves is the Elephant spade or Golden spade, also from Niwaki. This has a pointed blade and a belly on it. We had one like this which my husband brought back from Africa, a cross between a shovel and a spade, and it was just the best tool.
At the moment, no head gardener has yet stepped into Goodenough’s boots at Highgrove – but the search is on.