Memories
May 13, 2011Today is a lovely day to work quietly outside cleaning the Narcissus and Daffodil bulbs I removed from my garden, listening to the birds. I have picked today as the sun is out, to clean them dust them with bone meal, getting them ready to store them for future planting.
A boxwood lined hedge lined each side of the path dividing the kitchen garden from the lawn area. The lawn had apple trees growing in it. On the north and East side of the kitchen garden was surrounded by a tall brick wall, the West side was a large brick cottage where the Master Gardner lived with his family.
On the East side wall towards the back there was a brick stairway leading to the formal garden areas.
The rose garden was the first thing you would come to see then up a few more stairs you turn and over looked the formal garden and lawn and house. This lawn would be viewed from the rooms in the main house. Of course if you were coming from the manor house you would stroll the lawn garden paths to rest in the rose garden.
The two lawns were treated a bit differently in there care; the kitchen garden only had a pathway mowed down the middle of it during the summer, so when people walked on it too access the back side of the garden beds or to pick apples, the mown path kept your shoes dry.
The formal lawn was mowed three times a year, spring, summer and fall. The lawn edges were trimmed as needed to keep a clean edge alongside the garden beds. It always looked very nice and made me wonder why we here in America we tend to mow our lawns weekly. I used a standing long-handled manual edge trimmer that was seamed as old as the hills or house to trim the manor lawn and the kitchen garden lawn; it took a while for me to learn to use it, much easier than kneeling and using hand clippers as I did with my parent’s lawn.
