Sparring partners

Val looks at the pros and cons of gardening partnerships

- Val Bourne

GARDENING partnerships aren’t easy! My gardening hero, Margery Fish, married her husband Walter when she was in her 40s. They had both worked at the Daily Mail and Margery was secretary to six different editors, one of them being Walter. They decided to move to East Lambrook Manor in Somerset in 1937, after realising that the country would soon be at war. They often clashed swords over the garden, because I suspect Walter still imagined he was in charge!

The problem was that Walter loved formality, and spaced, clipped and pruned evergreens everywhere. He also had a penchant for vivid bedding plants. Margery loved subtle, gently hued flowers, and she pioneered the use of pulmonarias, euphorbias, astrantias and hardy geraniums in their two-acre garden. Though widely planted today, she popularised them and influenced lots of gardeners, including me.

Margery wrote several books, including A Flower for Every Day. Reading between the lines, their garden was a bit of a battleground. However, Margery’s style triumphed in the end, because she outlived her older husband by more than 20 years. Her garden still opens today (visit eastlambrook.com).