 Maggy in her workshop Maggy Howarth has played an important part in my gardening life and so it was with great sadness that I learnt of her death. She designed the pebble mosaics for my first show garden, The Beekeeper’s Garden at Hampton Court (video) in 2009 and in the following year, the magnificent peacock mosaic for my garden at Chelsea, The Victorian Aviary Garden. She collected the pebbles from a beach in Anglesey, with permission from its aristocratic owner and enhanced the design with pottery figures and with glass. Her obituaries in the Guardian and the Telegraph amply describe her achievements and so, apart from saying how delightful she was, I will only add a couple of personal anecdotes. The RHS show at Hampton Court was opened by Princess Alexandra, who was enthused by Maggy’s mosaics. The following year the Princess paid a visit to my garden at Chelsea and again expressed her delight at Maggy’s design and asked for her contact details. This led, I believe, to her commissioning a mosaic for her own garden, which led in turn to a commission from her cousin, the Queen. The obituaries refer to current commissions from King Charles at Balmoral and Sandringham so it is possible that she received several royal commissions. Secondly, I have always felt a little guilty and perhaps responsible for the death of her husband Boris (Guardian obituary). Boris was a folk singer, artist, stone carver, friend of Adrian Mitchell and founder of the Lancaster Street theatre. He was also a keen gardener creating, with Maggy, a hilltop farm garden at their home at Wennington, on the edge of the Bowland Valley. Maggy’s workshop was at their home and Boris was mowing the lawn one day when I was indoors with Maggy discussing our plans for the bee mosaic. Our meeting over-ran and Boris came in looking rather irritated and asking when he would get his lunch. Maggy sent him back to the garden. The following day I learnt that he had died of a heart attack that afternoon in the garden and realised with a pang of guilt that the irritation caused by his missed lunch may have been a contributing factor. Maggy’s mosaics are now installed in my garden. She cleverly designed the mosaics in sections, putting the pebbles onto concrete slabs, which fit together seamlessly, but can be easily detached and re-assembled. Once together they are indestructible. The peacock mosaic is in its third home, on a new terrace set high in the garden which looks, fittingly, towards Maggy’s hilltop home and workshop at Wennington, where her son George is carrying on her work.  Maggy cleaning the Peacock mosaic  From the Beekeeper’s Garden  Princess Alexandra in the Beekeeper’s Garden  Pottery birds for the Peacock mosaic  Detail of the Peacock mosaic  The Peacock mosaic installed on Main Avenue at the Chelsea Flower Show  The Peacock mosaic installed on Main Avenue at the Chelsea Flower Show  Detail of the Beekeeper’s Garden installed at Yewbarrow House
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Does torture by bamboo, where a man is tied to the ground and bamboo grows into him, really work? You’d have thought that the total exclusion of light would stop the plant growing, and my guess is that this form of torture is more the stuff of fiction than history. But there are other forms of torture by bamboo, as everyone who has planted a clump, only to see it take over their garden, will know. The second form is the torture of trying to remove it. Bamboo is tenacious stuff, and you have to be very strong indeed to dig it out.
Our land at Itoshima was well and truly tortured by bamboo when we took it over. The bamboo was so dense that nothing else would grow. The first three months were spent digging it out, mainly by Matt’s stalwart bunch of Workaway volunteers. Then the bamboo came in useful. Chris, with his usual creative flair, used it to make a decorative fence round the vegetable garden. These four photos show how bamboo ceased to be an intruder and became our friend.
In 2000 Hilton Hotels bought the side of a mountain by the coast in Itoshima, intending to build a resort there. Unfortunately for them this was prime oyster territory and the local fishermen kicked up such a stink about the threat of pollution that the scheme foundered. My friend Minohara-San bought the 70 hectares for a song. When he heard that I was looking for land to build a house and garden he very kindly offered me a plot right on top of the mountain, and this gave rise to the idea of creating a ‘Slow Life’ village where city dwellers could come and find out about the ways of the countryside. But he had placed the land in the hands of an educational charity who wouldn’t allow any buildings, whatever the environmental credentials, so the scheme fell by the by.
 It’s never a good idea to raise people’s expectations too high, as there’s a risk that they will be disappointed. This was the worry which I had with our website for Bay Villa – the rooms were so photogenic that I thought the reality might not live up to the photos. It turns out I was wrong. The most common reaction, when people are shown a room is to saw “Wow!”. We had a soft opening four months ago, with no advance publicity, but the word has spread, and the reaction from our guests has been wonderful.
In July we’ve had tour groups from Estonia, Pennsylvania and Sweden, as well as our usual NGS Open Day, but the month has been dominated by artists’ events organised by Alan Ward. First, the Life Models’ day and then the Artists’ Day, which is now established as an annual event. So July’s slideshow is dominated by artists, some of them in the altogether. Luckily the weather has been warm, which has been good for the flowers as well.
Sunday Cobblepot, (pictured here with her Shih Tzu called Elmer) the most interesting of Saturday’s life models, was fascinated by the clump of ‘Hot Lips’ Salvia, growing in the lower terrace. It reminded her of ‘Hot Lips Houlihan’ from M*A*S*H, a show which she loves so much that she has its star, Alan Alda, tattooed onto her right arm. She’s also mad about the Avengers and has John Steed, complete with bowler hat, on her chest and a full-length Emma Peel, with bowler and rolled umbrella, on her left leg. But this is no frivolous fascination with television stars of the sixties and seventies – Sunday (her real name) is about to finish a PhD on the subject of fashion design as portrayed on TV in that era. A book will follow, no doubt to great acclaim knowing Sunday’s skill at self-promotion. The generation gap has well and truly disappeared when girls of my daughters’ age know more about the TV of my youth than I do.
June slideshow from Jonathan Denby on Vimeo.
My overwhelming impression of the garden this June has been the scent. The most impressive flowers have been the peonies, of which one, Cora Stubbs, supplied by Cath’s Garden Plants, is gloriously fragrant, but some of the best perfume has come from less distinguished plants. The strongest, whose scent pervaded the entire garden, has been the Cordyline Australis, or cabbage tree, a half-hardy palm, which produces masses of white flowers near the crown. Another white scented flower in June is the Crambe Maritima, which self-seeds freely in my garden. A particularly spectacular specimen emerged among the Gunnera this year. As these flowers fade, their scent is gradually being replaced by the sweet small of Buddleia Davidii. This slideshow of the garden in June may look good but it can’t, regretfully, convey the entire picture.
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