|
The obvious thing to do
was to become a botanist. I couldn't leave my collection, so
read botany at nearby Reading University, then went up to Edinburgh
to do a PhD, on the genus Muscari. In between looking at chromosomes,
I managed a marvellously educative collecting trip to Greece,
where I found out a bit about life, but not much about grape
hyacinths. Classical taxonomy being
in decline, I went to Liverpool University to look at yet more
chromosomes. That was something of a disaster, and I managed
to get a job back in my beloved Edinburgh. My new post
was as a taxonomist studying vegetable varieties. This was not
especially interesting, and gardening somehow took over. I began
restoring an urban Georgian garden (and its house), wrote a book
on Georgian Gardens, sold the house, dumped the job, and bought
a lovely but ruinous 17th century village house on the shores
of the Firth of Forth at Belhaven. My partner James and I slowly
got the garden built and the house restored, and we began selling
plants from our rapidly increasing collection. This soon became
a nursery called Plants from the Past. We managed to buy an adjoining
walled garden, complete with enchanting ruined 18th century summerhouse,
and we began to create terraces and a parterre planted with flowers
of about 1700. I wrote more books and began columns for various
newspapers. After fifteen years, and with huge regret, we sold
both house and land, and the garden no longer exists. We currently garden in a tiny 18th century patch in a Borders village; the garden still has paths, seat, sundial and urns from the 1790's. We also live in Edinburgh in an apartment of the same date. I am still writing about gardens and gardening, photographing, and doing some advisory and design work. |
