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Gravetye Manor and William Robinson, England THE “WILD” MEADOW THAT FRONTS GRAVETYE MANOR was at the heart of William Robinson ’s vision of a natural yet cultured landscape. I was meandering down a grassmown trail to the lake edge. A carpet of iridescent bluebells spread under the blooming apple trees, all redolent with the sweet aroma of May. Behind me was the imposing silhouette of Gravetye Manor, pale yellow Sussex sandstone under a bright blue sky. As I wandered along the path, I noticed a startling yellow sign with flashing bolts of lightning, warning one not to touch the nearby electric fence erected to prevent the large herds of deer from entering the garden. But whitetailed deer are great jumpers and can and do jump fences. “Can anything keep deer out of the garden?,” I asked our young garden guide. Thinking back to the deer’s primordial fear, now instinctual, as the prey of the greater beasts, my guide quickly responded, “Lion manure, madam.” Dave Garman, a handsome twenty-one-year-old Gravetye gardener who lives on the estate in a tiny cottage just above the oval-shaped walled garden, toured us through the lush spring garden. With glee I caressed first the rosemary and then thyme, and finally I effortlessly grabbed a stinging nettle. With a gasp I cried, “ouch!” Dave diagnosed the problem immediately, grabbed a “doc” leaf and urged me to rub it on my stinging and sore fingers. There is another challenge for the eager gardener—we are beset with varmints, weeds, and blights, all of which are a true challenge for the gardener who follows in the footsteps of William Robinson (1838–1935). My guide, Dave, recited his many weed challenges. There was bind weed with its deep root and a stinging sap, which would grow among the roses, geraniums, and blue forget-me-nots. The long border was lush with pink peonies, deep purple alliums, and bright pink bleeding heart. But intermixed was that cursed bind weed for which the only remedy was RoundUp. Not far away was Japanese nut weed enjoying the natural habitat of the “Little Garden,” which was lush with lavender and white irises and pink and lavender columbines. This had to be extracted laboriously by hand. Dave is one of only four gardeners managing the immense estate of Gravetye. In Robinson’s day there had been nineteen! The ancient manor house, built in 1598, has mullioned windows that bring the formal gardens and lush meadows into the interior. Just under my window was the formal garden with its four green squares, each edged with a flagstone walk. To my right, through a curtain of pink clematis, was the rhododendron and wild azalea garden in bloom with a mix of pink and Gravetye Manor and William Robinson 91 yellow plants. Just behind that brilliant hillside were the Corsican pines brought back by Robinson from one of his plant-gathering trips abroad. For Dave Garman the extraordinary growth of a “sucker” limb on one of those pines had become another major challenge: how to prune a giant and imposing century-old pine? The sad answer in this case was an unexpected snowstorm! Gravetye Manor itself was abuzz with the sounds of happy travelers enjoying the ambience of Robinson’s wonderful home site. William Robinson was a feisty Irishman with a sharp wit. A man of prodigious personal energy, he rebelled against the accepted order of the Victorian gardener and the huge formal gardens of the French Renaissance. Robinson admonished us that there is no need to mow the long and pleasant grass. He railed at “extensive mowing” of immense lawns or pastures . A small path of access is not contrary to his philosophy of gardening. Robinson’s Gravetye is surrounded by several small formal gardens planted mainly in perennials in the immediate vicinage of the manor. But the extensive hills and meadows of his estate do not need to be mowed. Far better that they should be cultivated with perennial native and exotic wildflowers that provide a diversity of changing color from late winter to late autumn. Narrow access paths beaten down by frequent use or occasional mowing are proper means of facilitating access to the wild gardens of the hillsides, meadows, and lakesides. Robinson also offered an opiate for gardeners who spend their small or large fortunes on bedding plants that last but a single season. In his seminal book, The Wild Garden, Robinson proposed that gardeners should search the world...

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