We Made a Garden

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Probably through Northcliffe’s influence, Margery went on to work for the News Editor of the Daily Mail, Walter Fish. He finally became Editor in 1922 and although known as a tyrant, it was his combination of decisiveness and unrestrained zest for life that made him an inspiration to work for. For seven years they worked together in a purely professional manner, but in the Spring of 1930 Margery received a much more personal letter from Walter. You do not have to covet the tower room in Sissinghurst Castle, you do not have to be wearing jodhpurs, to feel the charm of this thought, that you might be quietly reading or in leisurely conversation, and there might be a vase of peonies nearby, and a flowerhead would fall, and you would notice it, because that's the kind of beauty-noticing person you would be . East Lambrook Manor Gardens is the iconic and quintessentially English cottage garden created by the celebrated 20th-century plantswoman and gardening writer Margery Fish. It was here that she developed her own style of gardening, combining old-fashioned and contemporary plants in a relaxed and informal manner to create a garden of immense beauty and charm. 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] 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.

It is a style that goes well with plantsmanship, a word which to detractors means only a kind of one-upmanship and obscurantism (indeed a kind of snobbery, the besetting sin of the gardener), but which in its positive sense connotes a delight in diversity and a desire to explore genus and species to the fullest. Rarity and curiousness are more at a premium in the plants-woman's garden than showiness. Colours are "subtle". A premium is put on handsome foliage, and it is not enough (at the most rarefied heights of plantsmanship) to have an example of an interesting species - one should have a particularly fine form of that species, preferably one either collected from the wild or acquired from a celebrated plant-hunter or gardener. The details of the garden are also beautifully written, and, as another reviewer has also said, the book warrants a second reading - probably with google at the ready to find photos of all the plants mentioned. Many of the tips about growing conditions and which plants go well together are really useful, even to someone like me whose garden is tiny! The book follows Margery as she learns about gardening while building what became a classic garden, but she is not shy of admitting to mistakes and problems and I think anyone who enjoys gardening and reading will probably enjoy this book.Margery Fish encouraged her readers to ‘cherish the simple flowers that brightened our cottage gardens for so many years.’ She created the now famous garden at East Lambrook Manor from 1938, which remains a monument to her. The abundant style of planting reflected her interest in plants and this coupled with her extensive knowledge of soils and situations as to which suited each plant, made her garden very popular in the 1950’s and 60’s. With the exception of February the garden is closed on all Sundays and Mondays including Bank Holiday Mondays.) The National Portrait Gallery, London possesses two photographs of Margery Fish: Retrieved 2 November 2012. The Lido and Ditch Gardens are damp areas that, along with the Wooded Helleborus Garden, contain most of the garden’s extensive collection of snowdrops. The garden also has collections of hellebores, mainly Helleborus x hybridus, and geraniums. A special raised display bed allows named snowdrops in February and geraniums in summer to be seen at close quarters.

The iconic cottage garden at East Lambrook Manor is the creation of celebrated 20th-century plantswoman and gardening writer Margery Fish. Here she developed her own unselfconscious approach to gardening, combining both contemporary and old-fashioned plants in a relaxed and informal manner to create a garden of great beauty and charm. This classic work on creating a garden was first published in 1956. We Made a Garden is the story of how Margery Fish, a 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. All the titles have been reprinted in various forms at various times. Several have been translated into German, Dutch, Italian and other languages. The house was long and low, in the shape of an L, built of honey-coloured Somerset stone. At one time it must have been thatched but, unfortunately, that had been discarded long ago and old red tiles used instead. It stood right in the middle of a little Somerset village, and made the corner where a very minor road turned off from the main street. There was only a narrow strip of garden in front, and not very much behind, but we bought an orchard and outbuildings beyond so that we had about two acres in all. A high stone wall screened us from the village street, and there was a cottage and another orchard on the other side.

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This was the direction in which Margery Fish was moving, and from this and her other writings it is clear that she thought of all these plants she acquired, propagated, and distributed to visitors and friends as her "babies". But in this book it is also clear that Walter has sensed this baby symbolism, and that he resents it: J'ai reconnu bien des conseils donnés oralement par une vieille amie d'origine anglaise, ainsi que de nombreuses plantes que Nicole avait dans son jardin, comme les Geranium vivaces, que j'ai encore chez moi, mis en couvre-sol sur la plupart des parterres.

Apart from writing eight books of her own, Margery Fish contributed to the Oxford Book of Garden Flowers (1963) and The Shell Gardens Book (1964), [11] and wrote a regular column in the 1950s and 1960s for Amateur Gardening and then Popular Gardening. She also made regular broadcasting appearances and gave lectures. A database compiled in the 1990s of every plant she mentioned in print contains 6500 items, including over 200 single snowdrop varieties. Michael Pollan, reviewing a belated 1996 first US edition of We Made a Garden, called Fish "the most congenial of garden writers, possessed of a modest and deceptively simple voice that manages to delicately layer memoir with horticultural how-to." [12] Legacy [ edit ] At the start of World War I, Lord Northcliffe was the most powerful man in Fleet Street, wielding influence at every level. So when in 1917 the prime minister, Lloyd George, asked him to head the British Mission to the USA, Northcliffe immediately requested that Margery be on his staff. It meant crossing the Atlantic under threat of enemy torpedoes, but she accepted without hesitation. The mission spent three years in the USA and Margery was awarded the MBE in recognition of her contribution. This landmark work on creating a garden was first published in 1956 and has rarely been out of print since. We Made a Garden is the story of how Margery Fish, the leading British gardener of the mid-twentieth century, 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. Quirky and readable, this book details her creation of a world-renowned cottage garden, as well as her battles with Walter in the process, who preferred the standard suburban approach.Le jardin est visitable. De nouveaux propriétaires ont organisé la gestion de ce jardin extraordinaire, ils continuent la nursery organisée par Margery Fish en 1950 et vendent les plants et graines issus de ce jardin, comme elle avait fini par le faire, tant elle avait de demandes. Another of his [previous] gardeners had my sympathy, and I think there was a moral for me in the tale of his undoing. This man had one joy in life and that was to grow wonderful chrysanthemums in pots to bring into the house in the winter. According to Walter he used to stroke and fondle his chrysanthemums so much that he was neglecting the rest of the garden. Remonstrances had no effect so one day Walter took a knife and slashed off all those pampered darlings at ground level. It was by remembering this episode that I learnt to have a sense of proportion and fairness in my gardening, and not to devote too much time to things I like best at the expense of the rest of the garden. In 1956 Margery was 64 years old. She had begun her first job before women had the vote. (She had been the secretary to the editor at the Country Gentleman’s Publishing Company before joining the Daily Mail, where she would become Walter’s assistant.) Only now, in late middle age, was she approaching fulfilment. In the weeks after We Made a Garden appeared in Britain’s bookshops, something remarkable happened: a future suddenly opened out before her—and to her astonishment and clear delight, it was more expansive even than her husband’s precious lawn.