We Made a Garden

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This book charmed me by the cover and hypnotized me with old-fashioned language, both British and Latin. Obsessed gardeners will love it. Others, possibly not. However, according to David St John Thomas writing in 2004, "It was a miracle that [the garden] survived unscathed." Robert and Mary Anne Williams bought it after visiting the house in the dark and had no inkling of the garden's importance, with its two longstanding gardeners, or knowledge of Margaret Fish. However, Robert completed a Royal Horticultural College course, and they were soon employing 28 staff, with a tearoom, shop and art gallery. [14] Although we have seen each other for years, it is strange how little time we have ever had to talk. That is why it was so jolly to be able to talk to you the other evening apart from business concerns.’ Two years later, on the 2nd March 1933, they were married. Little has changed at East Lambrook since Margery Fish died, in 1969. Photograph: Jason Ingram/The Guardian Margery Fish died in South Petherton Hospital, Somerset, on 24 March 1969, leaving her house and garden to a nephew, Henry Boyd-Carpenter. He and other relatives kept up the garden and extended the nursery. [1] They were sold in 1985, but the next owners, Andrew and Dodo Norton, maintained the garden and nursery and continued to develop the legacy of Margery Fish, before handing over to the Williams family in 1999. [13]

We Made a Garden (Modern Library Gardening): Margery Fish We Made a Garden (Modern Library Gardening): Margery Fish

Margery Fish was a novice at gardening, but she knew that she wanted an informal garden using cottage garden flowers, while allowing also for self-spreading and self-seeding of native plants. There was to be floral interest appearing all the year round. Her husband, on the other hand, preferred a more formal style with extravagant displays of summer flowers. The battle of wills between them was described in the first of her gardening books, We Made a Garden (1956), which is as much about a difficult marriage as about the difficulties of starting a garden from scratch. [4]The present owners, Gail and Mike Werkmeister, took over in 2008. The garden is open to the public regularly and some Royal Horticultural Society and Yeovil College horticulture courses are held there. [15] Books [ edit ] Margery took up the baton of cottage gardening that started outside humble country dwellings, was romanticised by the likes of William Robinson and reached the height of fashion at gardens such as Hidcote and Sissinghurst. Compared with these famous gardens, East Lambrook was modest in size, covering two acres. That's what this book is all about. Learning and sharing experiences. That's how all gardeners should be and it resumes a lot about the joy of gardening. For many years Fish indeed used very little gardening help. She squeezed her writing around working 18-hour days on developing and maintaining the garden, even doing dry stone walling and path-laying herself. Her silver garden caught the heat of the day, and her damp, shady garden used a stream that ran behind an old malthouse. The silver-leafed wormwood Artemisia absinthium 'Lambrook Silver' is still a popular variety.

We Made a Garden - Margery Fish - Google Books

In the development of gardening in the second half of the twentieth century no garden has yet had greater effect.” John Sales, National Trust A visit to Germany in 1937 convinced Walter Fish that war was inevitable and that they should move to the countryside. They eventually bought East Lambrook Manor in the Somerset parish of Kingsbury Episcopi in November of that year. The house, which was designated a Grade II* listed building in 1959, [3] was built of Somerset hamstone in the 15th and 16th centuries and came with two acres of land. [1] Gardening [ edit ] A good bone structure must come first, with an intelligent use of evergreen plants so that the garden is always clothed, no matter what time of year,” wrote Margery in We Made a Garden . In spite of their wildly differing approaches to the garden, this was something her husband Walter had taught her.David St John Thomas: Journey through Britain... (London: Frances Lincoln, 2004), pp. 343–44. Retrieved 2 November 2012.

Great gardening women: Margery Fish - The English Garden Great gardening women: Margery Fish - The English Garden

In 1937, with the threat of war looming, the Fish’s decided to find a house in the country away from the dangers of central London. They finally settled on the 15th century manor house in the quiet, rural Somerset village of East Lambrook. And so, having never shown the slightest interest in gardening and with no prior knowledge, Margery embarked on her second career, finally becoming one of the most important influences on gardening in the 20th century.

I know that he was right when he wrote that the four essentials of a good garden are perfect lawns, paths, hedges and walls,” Margery wrote later, about her husband’s opinions on elements she had once railed against. “We all know how restful and beautiful a purely formal garden of grass and shaped trees can be.” Margery Fish working at her desk at East Lambrook Manor (picture right).She wrote many articles and books, including the timeless classic, ‘We Made A Garden’, which charts the trials and tribulations of her early years in gardening with Walter Fish at East Lambrook Manor. When Margery and Walter Fish bought a neglected medieval manor in rural Somerset as the war loomed, they could not have guessed what it would eventually become. The garden at East Lambrook Manor, open to the public since 1950, has since come to represent the classic cottage garden style. This classic work on creating a garden was first published in 1956. We Made a Garden is the story of how Margery Fish, the leading gardener of the 1960s, and her husband Walter transformed an acre of wilderness into a stunning cottage garden, still open to the public at East Lambrook Manor, Somerset, England. A quirky classic, this book details her creation of a landmark cottage garden, as well as her battles with her husband in the process, who preferred the standard suburban approach. East Lambrook Manor gardens are open Tuesday-Sunday in June and July. Visit eastlambrook.co.uk for full opening times and prices.

We Made a Garden by Margery Fish | Waterstones

Its driving force was Margery who, having started from scratch, became one of the great gardeners of the 20th century. East Lambrook Manor has changed hands several times since Margery’s death in 1969, but the spirit of her garden remains there and in countless gardens around the country.Great gardening women: Margery Fish Margery Fish was a leading proponent of the cottage garden. Find out more about her style and how to create the cottage garden look.