Overgrowth

Today

The garden at Spencer House is largely a neglected tangle of overgrown trees and spreading laurels. I think that the previous owners were reluctant to prune so much as a twig.

Last week Wesz and I penetrated to the depths behind the new shed and found piles of old prunings, many brambles and dark sodden earth beneath the dense cover of laurels and self-seeded sycamore.

At the front I have planted bulbs around the roots of the beech tree and have all sorts of ideas about what to do with the woodland.

In My Day

This garden is the closest I have had to one resembling that at 4BH. It's not so large, of course.

The entrance to 4BH was via a gate that led into a large drive. on all sides were trees and shrubs, some of which were becoming totteringly elderly and inclined to topple when stressed. At the back was a large lawn, at least as long as the house was tall. And beyond that "The Wilderness" -an overgrown orchard which was eventually compulsorily purchased for housing.

Daddy persuaded the council to put a kink into the fence to allow us to keep our walnut tree, although why I can't imagine, unless it was for the pleasure of seeing squirrels get them before we could.

All around the more managed areas was a raised bank covered with trees. On one side, connecting with next door, this was pretty narrow but 4BH was  a corner property so on the other side there was a large and irregular area full of trees and brambles.

I think we played there a fair bit - David tunnelled through the banks to create his marble railway; long after we'd stopped playing with it marbles would turn up if you scuffed the earth. I loved finding those gleaming spheres with their twists of vivid colour.

There was an ivy-covered mulberry tree behind the copper beeches which had a low. nearly horizontal branch. As with the walnut we never enjoyed the fruit much which mainly belonged to the wasps, but I did make myself a den there one summer, with an old mattress and a painted sign reading "Ivy House".

These hidden places appear in my dreams and are often covered with daffodils; a detail about which I'm unsure.

I would like to turn my wilderness into a riot of bluebells and colourful shrubs and I'd dearly love to get rid of most of the damp and dripping laurels.