My Love of Small Spaces
The garden I remember most clearly from my childhood was not large. It belonged to my gorgeous granny who had planted it so thoughtfully, and tended it so consistently over the years, that it felt complete in a way that some much grander gardens never quite manage. There was a rose garden with a stone path that ran around the outside edge of it. I would ride my little tricycle around that path and once fell into the roses. I remember her patching me up with lots of plasters from her metal tin first aid tin. I’d die for that tin now; it was a beautiful vintage tin that had the loveliest trim on it. It’s funny what you remember. She had a small lawn right outside the back door, and perennials around the edges. Nothing was there by accident. Everything had been considered. I think about that garden often, but I think what I am really remembering is what it felt like to be in a space that had been genuinely tended to. I loved it. I loved the size, it felt cosy and manageable. When I was at drama school and living in Notting Hill the terrace balcony filled with pots of flowers had the same feel. And summer mornings on that balcony with coffee and a cigarette were my favourite times of the day.
A balcony, a windowsill, a narrow strip of south-facing wall, a collection of pots arranged along a path: I don’t believe these are consolation prizes for the gardener who wanted more. They are their own thing entirely, with their own pleasures, and their own advantages. In fact, I’ve sub-consciously always split my own gardens up into much smaller ‘garden rooms’ to recreate that feeling over the years.
Oh, how I love the image of one beautiful terracotta pot planted with something that suits its position, a trailing rosemary, a compact bay, a single standard olive if the spot is sheltered enough.
There is also something so intimate in knowing your plot completely, every corner of it in every season, in the way you know a room you have lived in for years. Not limiting. Familiar. And there is a real difference between the two, which is something I think gardening teaches you eventually.
I am curious what you are working with this year, and what you are planning to grow.
Sending lots of love for the weekend, Cherry