The Garden History Blog

A European Mole

Back in October I wrote a piece about how gardeners in the past dealt with garden pests Someone got in touch to ask why I hadn’t mention moles, [thanks  John!].  Apart from the fact I’d run out  of space in that post,  as one grows older I suspect one acquires a more zen approach to gardening. That’s certainly true for me and there are now very few creatures that I consider pestiferous enough to want to deter let alone eliminate – the coypu who are slowly destroying the banks of my lake, the newly arrived asiatic hornets who are threatening to kill off our bees, and maybe the polecats who play football in our roof-space and eat through the wiring – but  moles are definitely not  among them.

But I thought I’d investigate a bit further anyway…

from Mole’s in Love, David Bedford, 2009

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Ripley, just north of  Harrogate  is one of those picture postcard villages that according to Country Life “has been crowned North Yorkshire’s best village to live in.”   It was largely rebuilt in a picturesque Gothic style in the late 1820s by the local squire Sir William Ingleby of Ripley Castle which sits on the edge of the village and overlooks a beautiful lake and wide stretch of parkland.

From the outside, however, the castle doesn’t look to have much of a garden. In fact, hidden away behind its walls  it does and they contain some real surprises. I was lucky to visit a few days ago on a glorious late November day, with blue sky and very little wind and although the gardens were at the tail end of the season their quality shone through.

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I caught part of Joaquim Rodrigo’s concerto for guitar on the radio the other day [listen to part of  it here if you don’t know it] and it took me back to a visit I made pre-pandemic to the site that inspired him: the Palace and gardens complex at Aranjuez near Madrid.

It was partly  created during what is known as the Golden Age of Spain in the mid-late 16thc and then largely completed in the later 18thc.  Quite rightly it is on the UNESCO World Heritage list  with a  protected area covering over 20 square kilometres,   including  the palace and its gardens which, incidentally,  contain more amazing fountains than I’ve ever seen before in one place.

The royal palace of Aranjuez from the North-East, with King Ferdinand VI of Spain and Queen Mária Bárbara of Braganza on the royal barge, Studio of Antonio Joli, 1756

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The tomb of William Bligh at the garden Museum

On a recent  visit to the Garden Museum in the former church of St Mary next to Lambeth Palace,  it was hard to miss  the impressive tomb of Admiral William Bligh, which stands in the middle of their courtyard.  Better known by his more junior rank of Captain his  name will be forever linked with the Mutiny on the Bounty.

You are probably  familiar with one or other of the film versions of that story – the first starring Charles Laughton as Bligh from 1935 or the later versions  with Trevor Howard in 1962 and Anthony Hopkins in 1984.  But there’s more to Bligh than that, much of it quite surprising.

And what do you know about breadfruit? And who are the two Nelsons? One’s obvious the other not so…

Breadfruit, from the National Tropical Botanic Garden, Hawaii

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Any idea what a Fero-plant might be? Be warned this isn’t one!

Short of space in your home? Love indoor plants but haven’t got enough room to grow many? Want to have goldfish …or maybe frogs or snakes as pets? How about a budgie or a parrot? Any good at DIY? If the answer to any of these questions is yes then you need a Fero-plant.

As its deviser said introducing it to the world: “If a thing of beauty is a joy forever, then whoever adds to the number of beautiful things increases human happiness. And if the “thing” be of one’s own making, and capable of changes and modifications limited only by taste and time, it becomes an almost unlimited source of pleasure.”

Read on to find out how  you can get one of these unlimited sources of pleasure… Continue reading →