A Walk On The Wild Side: Hidcote

"What he did was to sum up the English dream of the Italian garden." 
Ethne Clark

"...But perhaps our collective memory of this most beguiling and influential garden
has been playing tricks on us."

Noel Kingsbury

I am not a landscape historian.  You won't find me crawling around archival material, looking through old letters or diaries.  I prefer the art of projection and conjecture.

 My Window at Hidcote

In July 2010, I lived in the Manor House at Hidcote.  During the early morning hours, before work, I prowled around the garden.  Walking through enclosed rooms, wondering what was really going on in Lawrence Johnston's head.

 Walking through one of the garden rooms at Hidcote

The short and long of it is that Lawrence Johnston was a American expat, who created the quintessential English arts and crafts garden.  The idea that there is anything "American" about the garden, especially any Yankee influence would be pure heresy.  

Lawrence Johnston, plant hunter, plant explorer, garden designer, Anglophile, couldn't escape a childhood memory of something much more unfettered, less controlled, more "American".  Hidcote, may be an iconic English garden, but does it have its origins in its creators wide open country?

That is my theory.  But I needed some back-up.

I consulted a psychoanalyst, not a therapist, to find out if the basis for believing our earliest memories of landscape consciously or unconsciously, influence the gardens we create.

I took myself as a case in point.  I grew up in a middle class neighborhood, where every lawn and backyard looked like hairspray had been applied to all things green.  My father, had an affinity for open spaces, particularly the White Mountains of New England, the Grand Tetons of Wyoming and the Alps of Switzerland.  He threw a monkey wrench into our subdued, acceptable garden by planting dahlias in outrageous colors, tulips in the wrong places and tomatoes next yews.  He erred on the wild side.

Thinking about my own garden predilections, I have been reflecting on their origins.  It would be comforting to think that the gardens, I have created, are the result of schooling, reading, traveling and conversations, but I have a feeling that something more elemental is at work.

It's not the place, the size, the flowers or shrubs.  It's something metaphorical.  It's practically indefinable.  What has formed a good part of what I "like" in a garden - or what I respond to or what I want to make is a walk on the wild side.
 

11/17/2010

for roz & paul

 

A story behind every plant:GREAT DIXTER

A STORY BEHIND EVERY PLANT:

Great Dixter

I met Klaus when we were both working at Hidcote as part of the garden team.  I came from Nymans and Klaus from Great Dixter.

We had a chance to compare notes and I asked Klaus to give me an idea of what it was like to work at Dixter.

Dixter is a working garden.  You can see evidence of this everywhere. 
Above:  The gate to the veg garden.

PO:  Can you describe what it was like to work at Dixter on a day to day basis?

K:  It was an amazing journey, from day one I was given interesting and challenging things to do.  I never felt I was given lesser work, just because I was a student.  Very often we work in little groups of two or three, but for big stuff all of us would work together.  The work was incredibly varied, not only did I learn how to dig or how to mulch, how to mix soil or how to propagate, but also how to choose plants and how to lay them out, the secrets of succession planting and much more.

A Dixter trademark:  Expect the unexpected.

Every job was explained properly, and there was always a very open atmosphere, critical questions or suggestions were always welcomed and answered.

A little "green roof" at Dixter. 

Unexpected combination of plants grown in pots is an indication of the quirky, surprising plantings at Dixter.

PO:  Can you talk about your impressions of the garden? 

The way it is planted?  To many people it looks like chaos.

K:  Great Dixter is a plantsman garden. There is a story behind every plant. Christopher Lloyd always wanted to have an exciting garden, full of unusual plants and plant combinations, surprising, highly experimental and full of contrast.  We are constantly trying out new combinations in many parts of the garden and some are replanted every year.

The paths at Dixter are narrow.  You feel enveloped in the garden.

There are lots of bedding areas and succession planting is very elaborate.  At the same time we rely a lot on self-seeding annuals, which, carefully edited, give the garden a very casual, wild look.  I think I really appreciate the complexity of the planting.  It is necessary to see how it changes during the seasons.

PO:  If you like Dixter, why?  What about the garden itself? or is it the people? or both?

K:  I like Dixter for many reasons.  The people are just amazing and it is an incredibly busy place, things are changing, projects are launched, changes are made.  It is buzzing with people that come to see what we are doing or just pop in, because they are friends. the garden is wonderfully varied: there are meadows, orchards, exotics, vegetables, and then all those fantastic plants that have been collected for almost a century.

Then of course, the feeling of experimentation, the constant trying of new things.

The exuberance at Dixter is overwhelming. The paths are narrow, you feel like you are almost part of the garden.

PO: Do you think Dixter is an "English" garden?

K:  This is a difficult question. 
What is a typical English garden?  
Are the rooms created by Lawrence Johnson at Hidcote typical of English gardens?  
The mixed border at Dixter is a feature of lots of English gardens, but at the same time it has a very contemporary feel, with all its wildness and meadows coming right up into the garden.

Maybe it's English, in its individuality and its independence of fashion, in the amount of love and work that has been put into it and the respect for its heritage.

_______________________________________________________________________________

A word about the education of gardeners

Klaus, like many fellow gardeners, is a "career changer."   He started attending lectures at the Koenigliche Gartenakademie in Berlin.  He worked in Isabelle van Groennigen's nursery.  This lead him to lectures for Llndscapearchitects at the University.  He worked in the studio of Gabriella Pape and then applied to Dixter.  As many of us have found, working in a garden is a great education.

________________________________________________________________________________

All photographs copyright Phyllis Odessey.  No usage without permission.

If You Can Do It In Five Months...Hidcote

If You Can Do It
In Five Months...

HEDGE CUTTING AT HIDCOTE

August 2010

"If you can do it in five months, I will take you all out to lunch."

Glyn Jones, Head Gardener, Hidcote

to the gardening staff, July 26, 2010

If they can cut all those hedges in that amount of time, I think it will be a minor miracle.

I don't know if anyone has calculated how many miles of hedges exist at Hidcote, but no matter the number, it's a task that takes 7 to 8 people, half a year to accomplish.

What if these great historic gardens abandoned hedge cutting?

At Hidcote the hedges define the garden rooms. Without the hedges, the gardens would be a collection of plants in various areas, but they would not have definition and architecture.

These labor intensive gardens are in one sense UNSUSTAINABLE.  They rely on minimum staff and maximum volunteers.  These gardens were created for and by ladies and gentlemen who had a never-ending budget and an inexhaustible amount of people power.

In 2010, can these gardens survive, when none of these conditions exist?

Before

The Process

After

The National Trust, English Heritage and other organizations (as well as English people) are devoted to sustaining these gardens. The gardeners, whose task it is to do the work, recognize the necessity and the people who enjoy it, appreciate the immensity of the feat. Hats off to Queen and Country!

When it comes to gardening, occasionally, there are some advantages to being an American. 

We have to reap what WE sow and NO MORE.

my window at Hidcote... from which I observe all.


Sustainable Gardening Fellowship
Royal Oak Foundation
National Trust
2010

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS COPYRIGHT PHYLLIS ODESSEY.  USAGE WITH PERMISSION ONLY.

Don't Tell Until I Ask: Plant Labels

The donation box at The Garden House for plant labels

Don't Tell Until I Ask

The BATTLE over LABELS
Hidcote vs. Nymans
and a word from Christopher Lloyd

Only one of the reasons I was extremely happy when I got to Nymans, is relevant to readers of this blog.

On my first walk around Nymans with Head Gardener, Ed Ikin, I noticed every plant was labeled.  I was elated.  I would be able to learn the names of plants, without asking anyone.

Nymans

When I arrived at Hidcote and walked around the garden with Head Gardener, Glyn Jones, I noticed none of the plants had labels.  Plant anxiety set in.  I would have to ask for help and within one minute I was sure help was needed.

I asked Glyn about the lack of labels.  "We don't believe in labels.  We think it takes away from the experience of the garden, of looking at plants individually and in the context of the overall garden design."

Hidcote

I started to think about what he had said over the next three weeks.  Was it true that plant labeling takes away from the experience of "looking and seeing?"

Plant label at Sissinghurst

In a single day, visitor after visitor ask the gardeners what a particular plant is.  The gardeners have been trained to stop what they are doing and answer visitor questions, and when they don't know the answer to find someone who does.  I have seen gardeners take the email address of a visitor who is interested in purchasing a particular plant or receiving seed from a unusual plant.  Gardeners in the UK are overwhelmingly generous with their knowledge.

Great Dixter no labels 

Christopher Lloyd on Labels:

The plants at Dixter are unlabelled.  I know this is a bore, when you quickly want a plant's name.  Generally there is someone to ask.  

Plant Label - Nursery - Great Dixter

Here are some of the reasons for my not labelling:

1.  This is my own, personal garden; I do not have the obligations of an institution like a botanic or National Trust garden. 

2.  I hate the look of labels.  Like a cemetery.

3.  They are expensive in terms both of materials and the time needed to list the plants and to write and place the labels.

4.  Plants (as against shrubs) need labels that are stuck into the ground.  The public removes them, the more easily to read, but does not replace them firmly or even int he right place.

5.  It is easier to pop a label into a handbag than to try and memorise it on the spot.

6.  The wrong label is read for the name of the plant to be identified.

7.  Visitors dart into the border, oblivious of footprints, the better to read a label that is out of reach from the front.

8.  If all labels are for that reason placed at the front, misapplication of names will be aggravated.

9.  Even when plants are clearly labelled, the public will still ask their name if anyone is around to talk to.  They're on an outing.  We're trying to work.

Sorry!

Christopher Lloyd

- from A Guide to Great Dixter

Nymans and Hidcote have differing approaches to plant labels.  I remain in the corner of labeling. I know that one day, the garden will become like the museum.  We will be attached to headphones, listening to podcasts about plants and garden design.  In the meantime, I enjoy having the information in front of me.

 

Two Homes Away From Home: Chipping Campden & Handcross

TWO HOMES Away From Home

Chipping Campden

&

Handcross
Royal Oak Fellowship

June, July, August 2010

During my time in the UK, I have had two "homes" 

Nymans in the Village of Handcross

and

Hidcote in the town of Chipping Campden

These two places are totally different.  Handcross is a village and Chipping Campden is a famous town in the Cotswold, a tourist attraction and of course, the nearest town to famous Hidcote.  

In one (Handcross) the Hardware store is a minor miracle.  From birthday cards to hammers to kleenex to cakes to notebooks to children's toys, the Handware is all things to all people.  They kindly allowed me to sit on the floor in their office and connect to the internet.

The other (Chipping Campden) is town made famous by a nearby garden, Hidcote, famous neighbor, Johnny Depp and Shakespeare.  One can find a mini gourmet grocery, high-end antiques, hip restaurants, wifi and plenty of tourists.

The town signs may tell the story.  Chipping Campden has some sort of crest as its town sign and Handcross has a carriage.  One implies royalty and one is simply practical.

Chipping Campden
A National Trust site

Handcross 
The Handware a store the village can't do wihtout.

  Chipping Campden

 

 

Handcross

Chipping Campden

Handcross

I am not sure which one I prefer.  One is place real people live in.  It's bare bones. As Ed Itkin said of Handcross, "they will do well by you."  And so they have.