Page 37 of The Garden of Forgotten Wishes
‘You don’t feel … daunted by it?’ he asked, looking down at me seriously.
‘No, of course I don’t! It’ll be a wonderful challenge and I’m so lucky to be part of restoring it to its former glory.’
‘It’ll be good to have someone enthusiastic to help me,’ he said, and then gave me the first really warm and genuine smile I’d seen since I’d arrived.
I smiled happily back but his quickly disappeared before he said, ‘OK, enough messing about, Ellwood – time to get to work.’
He’d always called me Ellwood at college, when he wanted to wind me up, especially when we were filming that stupid documentary, and I felt he really was beginning to relax his guard and accept me back as a friend again.
Or maybe, in our mutual enthusiasm, he’d just forgotten to be cautious …
12
Bed of Thorns
Whichever way it was, I did feel we’d made progress and, as we headed back into the office, Ned seemed to have forgotten we were going to get straight to work, and, instead, put the kettle on.
‘You aren’t making coffee, are you?’ I asked.
He looked at me in amusement. ‘I went straight out and bought one of those cafetière things after your comments about my instant coffee. I got a bag of ground Java, too.’
‘Your visiting clients will love you for it, and be able to leave the office without wanting to throw up.’
‘I don’t think it was that bad before!’
‘You have to be joking. That, or your taste buds have withered and fallen off.’
I made sure he was spooning a generous amount of coffee into his new cafetière, before wandering off to stare at the original garden plan again.
Over coffee, we talked about the Chelsea Physic Garden, which we’d both visited.
‘Of course, the climate must be totally different up here,’ I said.
‘We do tend to be a few weeks behind – which is actually quite good, as far as the rose garden is concerned, because wecouldstill get it all radically pruned back now. I was going to leave it till next year, but it would add a bit extra to the Grace Garden experience.’
‘Was the rose garden created at the same time as the rest?’
‘No, it’s a lot later, early Regency. That triangle of land between thisgarden and the cottages used to be where the pigs and hens were kept, until they were cleared out to make way for the roses.’
‘I wonder if any of the Regency roses are still there, Ned? There have been some amazing survivals from even earlier,’ I said eagerly. ‘I expect new ones were added later, anyway – the Victorians were gaga about them – so it’ll be fun finding out what’s there.’
‘Perhaps we’ll go for it, then, and you can make a start there,’ he suggested. ‘James isn’t a rose man and, anyway, his rheumatism is pretty bad sometimes. Gertie would much rather nurture the rhubarb with her hoard of well-rotted manure, until it’s so big it takes over its bed.’
‘You have rhubarb in the apothecary garden?’
‘It’s in one of the central mid-level beds. It has lots of medicinal properties, as well as the more culinary uses – and wine. Gertie does all sorts of things, though. She’s been great at propagating plants and cuttings and growing things from seed, ready to go into the garden this year. Luckily, I still have lots of friends who’ve been sending them to me, once they found out what I was doing.’
‘That must be saving quite a bit of money.’
‘It is, though with some slower-growing shrubs and trees, I buy the biggest I can afford, for instant effect. Gertie’s planning to sell the excess herbs in the shop when we open.’
‘Great idea,’ I said. ‘People love going home with plants. Just make sure none of them are baby rosary pea vines,’ I said, and he grinned.
‘I want our visitors to come back again, not turn their toes up.’
I drained my coffee and said, ‘If you definitely want me to start on the rose garden, there’s no time like the present.’
‘OK, I’ll give you a key to the Potting Shed and show you where everything is kept. Keep an eye open for Victorian metal plant tags in the beds, while you’re working. We’ve found quite a lot in the walled garden, so you might find some for the roses, too. We’re replacing them with temporary plastic ones, so they can be restored and put back, so if you do come across any, leave them in the Potting Shed, for James.’
