Spring 2020, Small WorldTorrey Douglass

English Gardener for a Day

Spring 2020, Small WorldTorrey Douglass
English Gardener for a Day

story and photos by Lisa Ludwigsen


“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”
— Margaret Atwood.

When I arranged to visit my college friend, Patti Stevenson, in Oxford, England, I thought spending our time touring renowned English gardens would provide inspiration and distraction. After all, any place with a national trust dedicated to the preservation of historic estates and their extensive gardens could not possibly disappoint a scrappy backyard gardener from northern California.

I was also excited to see my old friend in her new career. After years of demanding positions in international and local urban planning, Patti had pivoted into a new vocation about as far as one can get from long commutes, policy-making, and tall office buildings. In response to a health crisis brought on by all those years of stress, Patti decided to become a Royal Horticultural Society certified gardener.

“After I left my job, I volunteered for different nonprofits in Oxford to see what appealed to me,” Patti shared. “In my work with the Oxford City Council parks department, I realized I loved the way my body responded to being outside and to hard physical work.”

Fueled by this new interest, Patti began taking classes at Waterperry Gardens near Oxford. Here she met and soon began working for one of the course tutors, Steve Relton, and from him she learned the intricacies and level of commitment required to care for formal English gardens. After two years of classes and training, she passed the intensive Royal Horticultural Society exams, obtained her British driving license, bought a van, and launched Perbellus Gardens. Today she maintains about a dozen gardens year round, in and around Oxford.

When Patti gave me the okay to work with her for a day in Oxford, I was delighted. After 20+ years of gardening in a true Mediterranean climate, where six months of the year see no measurable precipitation, I was excited to discover some secrets of the legendary English garden culture.

The basics of gardening organically are universal–build healthy soil that will support a diverse system of plants and organisms. Right plant, right place, border shapes and layouts, along with the shared concepts of soil cultivation, mulching, pruning, and irrigation are similar in most places. The level of gardening that Patti does, though, is so much more. Finding balance in design, knowing the characteristics of each plant, and keeping gardens interesting in each season require considerable skills.

English gardens range in style from formal layouts to wilder cottage gardens, perhaps as an expression of the various aspects of English culture. The many gardens of Oxford in late spring/early summer were truly inspiring. One great example of the whimsy factor were tiny flowering plants growing out of stately rock walls. They showed up in unexpected places and were always very sweet.

It was mid-May, just approaching summer, and we set out early, with two gardens on the schedule. Each of Patti’s clients was exceedingly polite and engaged. “Would you like a cup of coffee before getting to work?” one asked. We declined and dug in (pun intended).

We were tasked with getting these gardens ready for public viewing to benefit a charity called the National Open Garden Scheme. Both gardens looked great to the casual eye, but we made them look even better! At each site, the owner reported to Patti the work they’d done over the weekend and laid out the plan for the day’s chores. Both gardens were impressive, incorporating distinct zones within the overall garden.

“Large gardens are thought of as having rooms,” says Patti. One garden had more structural landscape than the other, but both offered a feeling of respite and reflection.

The front yard of the first garden was composed of mixed herbaceous borders, which is a fancy name for a mix of perennials, bulbs, annuals, biennials, ornamental grasses, trees, and shrubs. “This garden is designed for four-season interest,” said Patti. The garden was at near peak that day, with large balls of purple alliums mixed with resplendent spears of yellow lupines, deep purple heucheras, feathery salvias, Icelandic poppies, irises, and other perennials. It barely looked real to me. The homeowners had spent the weekend working in their garden, and it was obvious.

We tackled the back yard, which was more of a woodland with a mix of shrubs, low growing plants, and trees. As I crawled around at the side fence, pruning spindly bamboo and pulling weeds, I was reminded that my old friend is a monster of a worker. I tried hard to keep up with her. At one point I lost my clippers—secateurs as the British call them—and had to dig through a large tote packed with prunings to find them. A rookie mistake, but Patti just said, “That happens sometimes,” as she kept on working.

After a couple hours sprucing up the first garden, we moved on to our next garden, which was also near peak bloom but differed in its layout. The owner of this garden is a successful author and a dedicated gardener. Her layout featured distinctive water features, raised beds for veggies, a small chicken run, and a garden building where potted tomatoes were trellised up the walls. “The front garden is more of a true herbaceous garden,” shared Patti. “In the fall, these plants will be pruned to the ground, so during the winter this area looks bare.”

We worked in the back yard, crawling through foliage at the back of borders to get at the tall weeds and tangles of brambles. When it began raining, we put on our jackets and kept going. My traveling wardrobe wasn’t exactly weatherproof, but I really didn’t care. I had forgotten how really lovely it is to be out in the rain.
At day’s end, Patti had a specific routine of cleaning, drying, and storing her tools. I was pooped. Patti, however, responded to emails, made a few calls, then made us dinner. It was a great day.
In reflection, I realize that Patti’s specific brand of gardening service isn’t about just maintaining a landscape. Instead, she enters into an ongoing conversation with her clients so that they may realize the gardens of their dreams. It is a collaboration, sharing the creative process and the hard work.

When I returned to my semi-rural acre in northern California, I understood that my established drought-tolerant gardens can withstand a lot of neglect, but I am happiest when my gardens are happy. Like the gardens in Oxford, my gardens speak of the place and living things that inhabit them. Gardens everywhere speak a common language. I believe it is the language of connection—connection to nature, to others, and with oneself.