SEnine
HERBACEOUS
God's Patch
t PluMstEad t thaMEsMEad t ChaRlton t BlaCkhEath t ElthaM t
Herbaceous
narrowed his eyes one
day when a passer-by
heaped praise on the heavens for the delights of his summer
garden display.
Never one to lavish praise on authority, even the highest,
Herbaceous growled back ‘Aye, but you should have seen
what it was like when He were looking after it’.
The old curmudgeon hammered home the point by
describing his allotment after taking it over from ‘nature’, a
tangled mess of bramble and horsetail with an encroachment
of Japanese knotweed, all forces of evil driven back by years
of human husbandry.
Imagine Herbaceous’ reflected pride when, accompanying
As ever Herbaceous was being less than frank. One feature of
successive orange marigold blooms, a spindly lemon
his front garden is purple aubretia which climbs a low brick
flowered cordyalis started emerging from the same crack and
wall each spring, giving an unusual splash of colour.
gave a show lasting several months.
When admirers ask how he planted it, the muttered reply
He was further shaken when he heard the news that growing
contains the words ‘secret’ and ‘skill’ but, in truth, it just
in his favourite park, Well Hall Pleasaunce, was a pyramid
happened. No plants or seeds were bought, one year it wasn’t
orchid, origin unknown, something considered ‘distinctly
there, next year it was.
unusual’ by authorities on the subject.
Deciding to leave well alone, Herbaceous christened it ‘God’s
Maybe somebody was trying to make a point, he wondered.
patch’ and his faith was rewarded when, at the base of the
wall, the brightest orange marigold of the old-fashioned type
Taking the hint, the old sceptic thought he’d better send
unleashed a golden glow from between the cracks, smiling
a signal in response. So, he started filling in forms for
up at visitors.
the Greenwich In Bloom, ‘front garden’ section. Name of
Applicant: Gordon Oliver Daniels. Credit where it’s due, he
Again, there was no human agency to thank for its arrival and,
thought, humbled.
once a marigold is in place, it’s normally there to stay.
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