The Artless Charm of a True Cottage Garden

While I’m as beguiled as the next person by pretty cottage garden style planting that you see at the flower shows, the real deal is so much more joyous. I’ve recently visited my 88 year old friend Deryck whose exuberant garden is about as far as you can get from designer chic. He came to gardening in his mid 70s when his much loved wife Betty died and he didn’t want her garden to fall into neglect. Goodness knows what he would have achieved if he had been a gardener rather than a farmer for most of his life. His dahlias are enormous and his corn is close to as high as an elephant’s eye – in plantsmanship and energy he is an example to us all.