Swags

Helen and I have been potting up bare-root trees today. Hundreds of the buggers! Or at least Helen has, while I've just been carting them away and tying them into position on swags. For anyone that doesn't know, a 'bare-root' tree is one that has been dug or pulled out of the ground, in our case a field, hence the term bare-root meaning that the roots no longer have any soil around them. Our job is to provide this by potting them up into containers so they will grow away in the spring and our customers can buy them and take them home, thus making the immovable movable so to speak.

Also, if your not aware, a 'swag' is a length of rope between two posts, it is a method I developed here at Eggleston Hall Gardens for supporting the trees we have for sale in long lines so they can firstly be viewed from both sides, and secondly to avoid them being blown over. It is becoming fashionable once again to use high swags with thick rope as a support for climbing or rambling roses alongside a path or drive, it is a wonderfully effective method of creating a festooned or garlanded display, and of course adds another height dimension to the gardenscape (I love that word). By their nature for some reason it also imparts a slightly Victorian feel as the Victorians were very fond of garlands and festoons, along with sending children up chimneys, ignoring the poor, shagging goats, and leaving us with the stiff upper lip image we have throughout the world....It's not just the Germans with a reputed humour deficit!

Today's image is a picture from late summer. No reason other than it's been a miserable day and the Heleniums and Hemerocallis are so cheerful.