...Eden, but I suspect very many people would simply consider it a mess.

I was down in the old part of the big garden, by the first ditch, doing a bit of tidying up, as I hadn't been there for a while. There was a lot going on. Years ago I planted 'Ayrshire Splendens' on one side of the ditch, with behind it a privet, and with a baby oak sprouting to one side, and beyond that, a forsythia. This is just above the path across the ditch and the rickety pergola above the path. On the other side of the ditch, a plant of 'Reve d'Or', just above it an oak a few years old, above that rose 'Dumortier' and then a lilac, with Oregon grape growing between rose and lilac, and in front of 'Reve d'Or'.

After quite a few years, the area has gotten full. The seedling oak is now an adolescent tree, and 'Ayshire Splendens' is traveling through it and continuing on along the hedge, also crossing the ditch and mixing with the plants on the other side. The oak has rather nice yellow-brown fall foliage, while the leaves on the two climbing roses look pretty great, still a good rich green, those of 'Reve d'Or' beautifully large and healthy, while 'Ayrshire Splendens' has round red hips, as well as scattered blooms. The low-growing Oregon grape is spreading about, its glossy green stiff leaves turning deep purple-black-red in late fall. I spent some time fighting back the nettles in the ditch: I don't want to eliminate them entirely, which is a good thing, as that would probably be impossible. The ditch itself is looking less and less like a ditch and more and more like a natural drainage since I stopped maintaining it years ago. It has water in it as a result of days of drizzle, and the sun was out again at last, and, even though the grass needs cutting, this little bit of the garden looked, to my eyes, glorious, and made me happy to be there.