“Me and Sarah share a love of cutting flowers from the garden that until recently, was not really in vogue unless you had a dedicated space purposefully for cutting. I’ve never been able to garden like that largely due to not having space to devote purely to cut flowers. Instead, my whole garden is always open to the possibility of harvest for single stem vases or for it to be taken into the house in the form of a living pot. It was actually researching how to grow sweet peas that I came across Sarah. She is a natural teacher and her advice saw me grow sweet peas for the first time.”
YOUR GARDEN STORIES WITH
Arthur Parkinson
HOW DID YOU FIRST MEET SARAH?
I first met Sarah at Perch Hill on a garden open day. She was on the slope of what was then the vegetable garden, she was showing ladies red thrills mustard leaves!
WHO INSPIRED YOU TO GET INTO GARDENING, AND WHEN?
Probably my biggest inspiration from being little were the illustrations by Beatrix Potter in her books Peter rabbit in the kitchen garden of Mr McGregor , Tom Kitten and his sisters playing in the farmhouse garden and Jemima Puddle Duck gathering herbs. I think I was very lucky to have grandparents who would take us walks to see their friends who had allotments, things like that that were normal, gardening and being outdoors all weekend was very normal.
My mum always grew one dahlia ‘Arabian Night’ each summer and we would plant ‘Queen of the Night’ tulips each autumn with wallflowers, these we would buy as bare root bunches from the towns market, they often all came up yellow but occasionally it would be a good Persian carpet mix.
WHERE DO YOU GARDEN?
I garden at home all the time, but it is a sort of an office at times really as I’m always photographing what I am growing or arranging for a future book or for my social media. But I love sharing what I’m admiring, including the gardens often very full washing line! I also garden for my Grandmar Sheila in Nottingham, she has a lovely little cottage garden that encircles her bungalow it is full of bulbs, flowering shrubs and perennials.
WHAT DOES GARDENING DO FOR YOU, BOTH PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY?
It gives me hope for our world that is in such peril, I think to know, nurture and respect non-human beauty is incredibly important, I love the amazement of giving life to a seed, it’s like good magic and all your natural senses are reignited when you are within a truly alive garden. Physically alas not enough to really give it much credit gardening is not fabulous for your back or knees, you must protect your skin with a good SPF and it makes you hungry for cake and tea in between the effort also!
IF YOU HAD TO CHOOSE X 3 DESERT ISLAND PLANTS - WHAT WOULD THEY BE?
Honeysuckes, Figs, Rosa mutablis
WHAT IS THE GARDENING/ FLORISTRY TOOL YOU CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT, AND WHY?
Winter cut stems of sapling silver birch for staking and wigwams.
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Arthur Parkinson’s Flower Yard Bulb Collection
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