Margery Fish

“{{cite web|author=Cooke, Rachel|title=A Gardener’s Revenge. Margery Fish’s popular gardening book bid farewell to her dead husband’s lawn and launched her career.|date=March 18, 2015|website=slate.com|url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/03/margery-fishs-we-made-a-garden-is-a-feminist-manifesto-disguised-as-a-gardening-advice-book.html}} (excerpted from the 2014 book Her Brilliant Career: Ten Extraordinary Women of the Fifties by {{w|Rachel Cooke}}, published by Harper)”

“Margery Fish, who published eight gardening books in the 1950s and 1960s, was, with Sackville-West and {{w|Frances Perry (gardener)|Frances Perry}}, one of the leading English {{w|Garden writing|garden writer}}s of her day. She began late, in her 40s, and We Made A Garden tells us how it happened.”

“The gardener Margery Fish married {{w|W. G. Fish|her boss}}, the tyrannical editor of {{w|Daily Mail|the Daily Mail}}, and they moved out of London to {{w|East Lambrook Manor}} where a regimented, formal garden was created. After he died she uprooted the lot and started again, to create a romanitc oasis, now designated by {{w|English Heritage}} as a {{w|East Lambrook Manor#Garden|Grade I listed 'cottage garden'}}.”

“All the {{w|wood ash}} from my open fires is shared among the plants that particularly like {{w|potash}}, {{w|magnolia}}s and {{w|Iris (plant)|iris}}es particularly, and I give some to the {{w|Raspberry|raspberries}}, and in the winter the apple trees get their share. When I grew potatoes and {{w|tomato}}es they, too, were lucky.”

“{{w|London Stock Exchange|Stock Exchange}} holidays—{{w|May Day#England|the 1st of May}} and 1st of November—were our aim for the ceremonies of {{w|Dahlia#Cultivation|planting and lifting the dahlias}}.”

“{{w|W. G/ Fish|Walter}} believed in manuring with a very generous hand and woe betide any little plant of mine that grew nearby, as it would surely die of suffocation under the great gallops of manure that were plastered round every rose. All the manure we could get was devoted to the roses and {{w|dahlia}}s.”

“It is not possible to make sweeping statements about what will or will not grow in clay soil, because there are so many different types of clay. Some are much stickier and more difficult to handle than others; clay that has been made easier to handle by the addition of {{w|humus}} will grow most plants. I don't believe there is any soil that will not grow something.”

“{{w|Hellebore}}s are particularly valuable for the winter and one in particular, {{w|Helleborus argutifolius|Hellebores corsicus, (now said to be H. lividus corsicus)}}, is a good all-the-year plant for a place in the garden that is in constant use. I noticed a very happy and very natural treatment of a bed next to the porch of a front door.”

“If the flower spikes are kept cut the {{w|Plantago major|bronze-leaved plantain}} makes good cover because the roots are strong and the beetroot-colored leaves quite big. The plants should be put fairly close together and soon colonise if all the spikes are not removed very quickly.”

“There are some roses that always flower late, not just in a freak year. I always enjoy November roses, whether it is 'Madame Abel Chatenay', that wreathes the dining-room window, or {{w|Rosa_%27Zephirine_Drouhin%27|'Zephrine Drouin'}}, who pops up from behind the barton wall at a time when I thought all good roses had gone to sleep.”