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| Go greener |
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| With a growing number of gardeners eschewing chemicals in favour of natural alternatives, we can suggest some effective products from our organic gardening selection |
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| Relax and refresh |
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| Good food freshly prepared daily, aromatic coffee, chilled wine and a grassy play area for the children. What more could you need? |
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| Food heaven |
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| Our Farm Shop is heaven for food lovers! Delicious handmade food, top quality groceries, fresh fruit and vegetables and stylish cookware and gifts. |
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| The Discovery Walk |
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| As thousands of daffodils herald the spring, stroll or stride around our Walk while the youngsters enjoy the Nature Trail |
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There’s no place like gnome!
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| Thursday, 24th January 2008 |
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IN THE GARDEN WITH PETA MARSHALL
Going to an art gallery brings out the loving and loathing in people. Some just adore the art they see, whilst others detest it. Some, of course, are just indifferent.
I find that it’s just the same with ornaments in the garden. You might be entirely happy with your full-sized replica of the Venus de Milo on tall marble plinth. Yet the next person to come along may find that it is grotesque in its position, or incongruous because it’s in a small garden, which has now become dominated by the ‘armless one’.
Me? I do like to see statuary in the garden, but it has to be subtle. A huge garden can take something quite large, which means that it does not become overpowering. A small garden should, for me, have something smaller.
Formal gardens, with straight paths and neatly trimmed hedges can have a piece of statuary as a focal point…perhaps on a plinth at a strategic point in, or at the end of, a walkway. This could be a piece of stone in classic-style: a figurine, a bust, a Buddha, an ornate stone vase or urn – whatever takes your fancy.
Then there are informal gardens, with curved, flowing borders and mixed planting. In these, particularly if the garden is small, you would be far better with a small item of ornamentation. This could be a piece of polished stone, or little stone animals or other characters.
However, the above principals of ‘large in large’ and ‘small in small’ are thrown to the wind when you consider detached pieces of architectural detail in a garden setting. Such things as columns or pieces of architrave out of context and out of scale often have great presence. By being surprisingly, almost shockingly, big in a small space they will distract attention from the confining walls and make the area seem larger than it is.
In very small gardens abstract sculpture has a particular value. Where a figure would dominate a small area and be incongruous, a beautifully shaped stone, or an enigmatic form of metal (perhaps reflecting the light, an idea totally foreign to classical sculpture) has the opposite effect: liberating the imagination and hence enlarging the apparent space.
But few of us have the wherewithal to install a brace of Roman columns in the garden, or the desire to put up even a modest full-frontal ‘David’ by Michelangelo. We should instead, I feel, turn our attention to the opposite end of the scale, and here I’m talking about the gnome. These little gaily coloured characters really do bring out the ‘love-em or loathe-em’ in people.
It was a 16th century eccentric from Switzerland, Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (who called himself Paracelsus) who invented the word ‘gnome’.
He wrote more than 350 works, on a huge variety of topics, but mainly medicine. He never settled anywhere for long because of his aggressive love of argument – and such an argument eventually led to his murder, in 1561.
His word 'gnomus' refers to sprites guarding the interior of the earth and its treasures, and probably derives from the two Greek words ge-nomos, meaning 'earth-dweller'.
Little did he know that four and a half centuries after his death there would be plastic gnomes in gardens everywhere!
Twenty years ago the world-famous Chelsea Flower Show famously banned gnomes from its gardens – although other forms of statuary were deemed to be acceptable. Instantly, this suggested to the world that gnomes were to be frowned upon. These were not the sorts of things that gentlemen and ladies should have in their gardens!
It’s bunkum of course, as you can put anything you like in your garden.
And if it’s gnomes you want, then it’s gnomes you can have.
You can get them in dozens of shapes, sizes and styles. I’ve even seen a comical one bending over and showing its behind (I think the organizers of Chelsea would go into a catatonic fit if that ever appeared within the hallowed showground). Gnomes are predominately made of reconstituted stone, plaster or plastic, scaling down in price as you go.
The plastic versions may fall over in the breeze, so try to go for the heavier ones if you can.
My only other piece of advice would be to keep them to the back garden. I’m not suggesting for one minute that you would be shaming yourself if you put them in the front…it’s just that if they are on full view to the passing world they may be vandalized or kidnapped…remember the story of the gnome that traveled the world, sending postcards to its owners from different far-flung places?
I’d like to see someone try to do this with a 3metre high Venus di Milo made of granite! Incidentally, the pictures shown here are of garden ornaments I’ve seen both here and abroad…if you fancy something a bit different in your garden take a trip to the garden centre to see what’s in stock this week. Happy gardening!
This week in your garden
Sow seeds of summer and autumn cabbage, onions for earlier cropping and exhibition, and tomatoes (but these need warm temperatures in a heated greenhouse)
Plant shrubs, roses and climbers in well-prepared planting holes in mild weather when the soil is workable.
Don’t forget that this is the best month to plan any changes to beds and borders. Those areas to be planted with long-term shrubs and perennials should be dug over and plenty of organic matter incorporated into the top 45cm (18in) of soil.
Mulch shrubs and border plants with well-rotted bulk manure or garden compost, but do this when the ground is not frozen.
Peta Marshall is the plant centre manager at Priory Farm in Nutfield. Website: www.prioryfarm.co.uk
NEXT WEEK: Keeping bonsai
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