Gardens
On the move
Ursula Buchan
The life of the gardening writer is one of almost constant and unadulterated plea- sure. Almost, but not quite. The greenfly in the ointment is that I have not managed to visit every garden open to the public in the country, nor am I ever likely to. This makes for some awkward social encounters.
The question 'Do you know such-and- such a garden?' is asked of me with pre- dictable regularity. I know I am in trouble if my interlocutor continues: 'Ochnadubh belongs to a great girlfriend of mine. It is so beautifully set, on an island off the coast of Scotland, and you get there in a darling little boat .. . We always plan our holiday around its open afternoon, the third Wednesday in August. You haven't visited it? How strange. It's frightfully well known. It's been written up in Your Lovely Garden.' With more honesty than social facility, I shake my head sadly. This gesture is met with a 1mph', and the subtext of this hmph is: 'How can you call yourself a gardening writer if you haven't seen Ochnadubh!'
I don't suppose that anyone knows exact- ly how many British gardens open their gates to paying visitors. It is impossible to compute accurately. A figure of 5,000 is plausible but probably conservative, since at least 4,000 in the United Kingdom open at least one day a year, for the benefit of charities or local worthy projects. There are other gardens which open purely for com- mercial reasons, or as a public duty because they are scientific institutions, or because they contain a plant 'national col- lection', under the auspices of the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens. The difficulty in computing stems from the fact that many commercial gar- dens set aside a day for benefiting the National Gardens Scheme (or Scotland's Gardens Scheme) and so appear both in the Yellow Books and also in other guides.
A substantial minority open regularly throughout the growing season, or all the year round, especially in Scotland. And an increasing number are accessible 'by appointment only', a choice favoured by garden owners with limited parking facili- ties, or the wish to restrict the entry to those genuinely interested, rather than people just wanting to enjoy a cream tea or nick the statues. If I were to spend every summer's day for the next 40 years on the road, I would still not see every garden that is available to be seen. Apart from the geo- graphical distances, there are logistical dif- ficulties in catching a garden on the day, or days, it opens, or when the owners are available.
Although I consider visiting gardens to be the best fun you can have dressed in Husky jacket, stout shoes and a batty hat, I have, up to now, felt reasonably content to go to my grave without seeing the half of them. Recent quizzical reaction to this relaxed attitude has begun to unnerve me, however, and left me prey to self-doubt. Which is why I am making strenuous efforts to fill in a few glaring gaps by undertaking a summer schedule of determined garden visiting.
To this end, I have gathered round me the most useful gazeteers so that I may use my time wisely and well. The Garden Lovers' Guide to Britain by Kathryn Bradley-Hole (BBC Gardeners' World, £12.99) has 600 entries of gardens in the United Kingdom, but also includes descrip- tions of nurseries, craftsmen and ornament makers, with some intriguing sidelights and offbeat information as well. Similar in scope is Patrick Taylor's The Sunday Telegraph Gardener's Guide to Britain (Dorling Kindersley, £12.99) which encompasses about 500 gardens open regularly in the United Kingdom, all of which the author has visited. The individual entries are short, but miracles of compression. This is a book on which you can rely, even if it is wise to check the opening times and dates, because the book was published last year.
The Yellow Book, the National Gardens Scheme's guide, is the great bestseller, but makes for a more uneven read. Most of the 3,300 descriptive entries are written by the garden owners themselves, for it would be too much to ask the hardworking, volun- teer County Organisers to do it. Some are becomingly, if unhelpfully, reticent: '1-acre garden featuring annuals, mixed borders and 2 fishponds', whilst others are selfcon- sciously highflown: 'Ferns and wildflowers abound. A garden for yesterday, today and tomorrow'. Much can be forgiven because the owners open their gardens for charity, and usually after considerable toil and per- sonal inconvenience, but the visitor should be prepared for the odd wasted journey.
The best gazeteer is The Good Gardens Guide, 2000, edited by Peter King (Blooms- bury, £14.99) with a scaled-down 'pocket' version at £7.99. I like it because of the edi- tor's forthright annual introduction, enti- tled 'The Garden Scene', together with the illuminating, and not uncritical, garden descriptions, and the star system adopted by the independent inspectors. All gardens listed are considered worth a visit, but placed into three categories: two star, one star, no star. You can argue the merits of individual ratings, as you can quarrel about the number of angels to be found balancing on the head of a pin; the fact is that this book gives you the information you need to decide whether, and to what extent, a gar- den is worth the trouble of seeking out. My search for an easier social life can begin.
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