Do you remember the nursery rhyme, ‘Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?’ I certainly do. Now, not knowing Mary, I can’t fairly quantify how great a gardener she is, but judging by her response of ‘with silver bells and cockleshells, and pretty maids all in a row’, I deduce that she still has a few things to learn about gardening! For many of us when we start out on our gardening adventure, learning how our gardens grow is one of, if not most important lesson to learn. We all have to start somewhere, and I recall, many, many ‘Patriot’ turned brown and crinkly at the edges, despite being positioned, pride of place in the front of a beautifully appointed, free-draining, sunny border. Silver foliaged lavenders sulked miserably beneath the dappled shade of a towering silver birch. It was becoming an expensive business, but most importantly, their failure dented my ambition and excitement for all things gardening. Huffing petulantly at the shortcomings of these ‘disappointing’ plants, a great gardening friend of mine tapped me gently on the shoulder one day and carefully enlightened me about the importance of right plant, right place. It was, without doubt, one of the most important gardening lessons I’ve ever learnt and is one of the fundamental building blocks for all of us to become greater gardeners for the future.
