www.turning-earth.co.ukfrom
a small Yorkshire garden
Moving in: 1996
When I first walked into this garden, in February 1996, it was already
familiar. Partly familiar because it was so like many other small gardens
behind Victorian terraced houses at the edge of any town. And partly familiar
because I felt it was the kind of place I'd always wanted.
It looked like it was appreciated as somewhere to sit out in summer on
the lawn, under the cherry tree and apple tree. It was mainly lawn, and
there was a concrete path from the back door of the house towards the
outhouses on one side. The path also went towards a gate in the side wall,
a hidden gate that had been long boarded up, and had dense foliage growing
in front of it - reminding me of Frances Hodgson Burnett's The
Secret Garden. I loved it as it was, but also loved the idea of
changing it.
We were there as prospective buyers of the house, so at that point I had
no chance of enjoying this garden, or of changing it. Many months later,
after the invariably long-winded and stressful process of house-selling
and house-buying, in September 1996 we moved in.
The first morning I started pruning, and over the winter continued pruning,
and planning, but work on the house was more urgent, and gardening really
began early in 1997. I kept a journal of all the work, and the thoughts,
and the developments, typed directly onto the computer, and the journal
formed the original inspiration for this website.
These pages will I hope give some idea of the development of the garden.
To help picture the areas discussed, you might want to simultaneously
view the Interactive Garden
Plan . . . (lo-tech - no Flash plug-in needed)
