A GARDEN FOR LILLIPUT

15^th February 2021

Miniature garden designer

My first garden was created decades ago.  Must have been aged about five. When Ma took me out on a walk, I gathered twigs and mosses, and on returning home I arranged them on a plate to become a doll’s house garden.  Ma lent me a little mirror from her handbag.  My garden was Japanese in feel, with bridges, shrubs, a tree here and there and a central glittering pond.  Green was its only colour.

I was thinking about it.  And so the other day, in this damp cold time of Covid restrictions,  as I went for a muddy walk in the wood, I had a bag and in this bag went mosses, lichened twigs, a leaf or two of ivy, and a few catkins.  When I got home I made planted my garden on a metallic tray, and at the end added a Lego man which Geordie had left on my window sill years ago.

So satisfying, creating on another scale, entering Lilliput with everything downsized, being inside it.  The golfer (can you see his club?) is in the rough, looking for his ball, but I fear it has sunk without trace in the pond.