A Sense of Place

This a picture of ginger lilies (hedychium) collected for use in flower arrangements in a St Lucia resort. David returns to St Lucia tomorrow to work (as a volunteer) at the Diamond Botanical Garden for the winter months.

I once asked a couple, both well known as gardeners, what they wore on their feet when gardening, they seemed offended by the question and said ,rather tersely "What ever we're wearing at the time". I had a picture of them tripping through their bog garden in fluffy bedroom slippers and decided not to pursue the subject any further. Perhaps they thought that I was looking for a recommendation for a pair of over-priced "branded" wellingtons; but rather, I was hoping to find that they had a pair of shoes that though wear and familiarity had taken on the character of a much loved side-kick. There are certainly many examples of these well-worn items, William Nicolson's painting od Miss Jekyll's Boots is almost as well known as his portrait of the lady gardener herself. Miss Jekyll's Boots by William Nicolson. More recently I found in Edwin Smith's beautiful photography book "Evocations of Place" a wonderful picture of Vita Sackville-West...

Now that Winter is here, I thought it might be a good time to reflect on the influence of travel on ones ideas and attitudes to gardens. Although I wouldn't even attempt to build a Japanese Garden, I am always inspired by them and try to incorporate many of the details in my own. This picture was taken in Kyoto at the Ginkaku-ji Temple, it shows a display of the mosses used in the design and layout of the temple gardens. Each one was carefully labeled and arranged under a sign that said "Very Important Mosses".