Our final gardener at Saling Hall, a Scot (or should I say another Scot as their numbers were conventionally disproportionate) had a favourite saying, repeated in almost every conversation, “We’re getting there’, she used to say. Supply the Scots accent for full effect. Where, though is ‘there’?
Naturally there were projects with a palpable end point. The mowing, for example – except that the finish of one mow usually marked the start of the next. We had too much short grass. I strongly advocate mown paths through long (or longer) grass; the opposition said they were just as much work, ‘what with the raking and that.’ My argument is that they point your feet (or simply your view) just as clearly as a paved or permanent path, with the advantage that you can change your mind.
I went to a seminar at Kew one day on the responsibility of the owners of trees for their safety. It was scary. If anyone walking under any tree is hit and damaged by a falling branch the fault is the tree’s owner’s. Which is why the 14,000 trees at Kew are regularly inspected for faults and potential dangers. If there is opponent the inspector whacks the trunk with a heavy wooden mallet, listening for a hollow sound. More doubt and he resorts to boring into the trunk.
Apparently, an American visitor was knocked over by a cedar branch not as it fell, but bouncing. It sounds improbable, but the gardeners were found responsible. Now, if a tree looks dicey they move the path.
