A Listener’s Story
8am on a recording day beside Lake Windermere
Back in June an email dropped into sally@ourplantstories.com which said, ‘please excuse my making contact out of the blue’ …. I’m an avid follower of your podcast’ and then went onto to tell me a plant story that the writer hoped might be of interest to me. From the outset, I have hoped that the idea of Our Plant Stories will resonate with others and that listeners will bring forward stories of their own.
I don’t want to tell too much of this plant story yet - all will be revealed in Series 2 starting in January but over the past few weeks and months the writer and I have talked a lot about her story and how best to tell it in the podcast. On Thursday we met in person in the Lake District and had the most magical day, recording and piecing together her story. Her sister joined us too and became our official photographer so when you listen in the New Year there will plenty of photographs, so you can see where we scrambled around a fellside to find the clues. It’s incredible the things that set people on a journey to uncover a story; some diaries or letters, a name plaque on a bench and as I discovered today that journey may take several years but when someone tells you “I have felt with all my heart that the story is too important to be lost”, you perhaps understand a little of their determination to find all the pieces and put them back together.
It’s lovely knowing that there is a group of people who each Friday take the time and trouble to read this blog, if you ever come across a plant story you think we would all enjoy, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me.
Being in the Lakes meant I was very close to Levens Hall, a garden that we heard about in Episode 8 - Topiary. As a child, Lucy Boston had visited Levens, so when as an adult she bought the Manor in Hemingford Grey (featured in this month’s Gardens Illustrated) she planted small yew bushes and waited for them to grow so she could have topiary in her new garden.
The topiary in Levens dates back to the 1690’s making it the world’s oldest topiary garden. The current Head Gardener Chris Crowder has spent over 30 years in this garden. In Episode 8, he and Diana Boston (current keeper of the Manor) discussed slow gardening and he did say to me afterwards that I was welcome to come and visit - so I did! In November there will be an Offshoot episode with Chris as they give the yew tree shapes their annual cut. I think he makes it look deceptively easy!
Have a lovely weekend.