Gardening Books

I come from a gardening family. My paternal grandmother was a fine gardener. She created the garden at Manley Road, but more importantly she transformed the garden at Mons Hall, as well as working hard in the extensive kitchen gardens. She had a good eye, and used plants well. My grandfather helped to create the structure, trimming lonicera hedges, mowing lawns and creating archways. My uncle Philip helped too, but he was too much a farmer and planted in straight rows without artistry.
My grandmother grew up at Sharston Farm in Northenden, Cheshire, where her father Ted Neild was a nurseryman. He had been a gardener for the Tatton family at Wythenshawe Hall, but after his marriage he grew flowers for market. His own father, William Neill, came from Ireland, living with his father a farmer at Penwortham near Preston, but later became a lecturer in horticulture at the agricultural college at Holmes Chapel near Crewe in Cheshire. He was a fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society, and also travelled as a lecturer, internationally.
My grandmother started me off as a gardener, giving me a small triangular plot at Manley Road. It was very shaded by a massive Russian vine, lilacs and a laburnum, but she gave me packets of seed of annuals like Virginian Stock that never failed to produce some flowers. In the 1960s I took over responsibility for the gardening at Manley Road, cutting hedges, mowing the grass, pruning roses, and planting bulbs from Woolworths.
By the end of the decade I became quite obsessed with Japanese and Chinese plants and gardening styles, thanks to a root cutting that my grandmother gave me of the bamboo that grew at Mons Hall. I knew it as Arundinaria nitida, but it is now known as Fargesia nitida. It flourished in the middle of the lawn at Manley Road, but died, like all specimens of this bamboo, after it flowered in the early years of the 21st century. By the early 1970s I had acquired and planted many plants, trees and shrubs of Chinese and Japanese origin, some of which I transplanted to Devon.
It was in 1985 that we bought Culver House, and it has a huge garden that I fairly quickly began to clear and tame, and took advantage of the resources offered by Rogers Garden Centre in Exwick, owned and run by our neighbour David Wagg. He provided the contents, but the design and inspiration for the garden came from Gertrude Jekyll. I think it was copies of her books in the local library that first inspired me, and I photocopied some of these, but I quickly started to buy copies of her books that were available as reprints. Her work with the architect Edwin Lutyens inspired me, and I incorporated some of her ideas into the new garden that I designed for Culver House.