I walk past this garden every day, and it gives me an inordinate amount of pleasure. Unlike pretty much every other garden in St John’s Wood, it is entirely unreconstructed. It has no box balls, just some traditional shrubs and perennials. It doesn’t have electric gates, just a Rosa rugosa trained along a few wires, and no hard landscaping apart from a little pond. There’s always something new to look at, and over the past few weeks it has been filled with primroses, forget-me-nots, pulmonaria, daffodils and an azalea. It’s semi-wild, but lovingly tended.
My SJW mole tells me that the house is a Buddhist monastery. It’s the former home of Christmas Humphreys, a barrister (he worked on the Ruth Ellis case) and a Buddhist. After his death he bequeathed the house to a Zen foundation.
I love the fact that the house isn’t owned by an oligarch or a banker, but some gentle people who meditate. I hope they never have cause to sell it, because if they do, it will be paved over and some box balls added just as soon as the new basement and electric gates have been put in.
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I love this. Makes your realise just how many gardens have been ‘done’.
Yes its so organic and gorgeous yet I’m also feeling confused as I have just purchased 4 box balls!
Is it possible to reconcile “unreconstruction” with a liking for box balls?
There is no hope for you. You’ll be getting some lion statues next, and possibly a basement conversion.
What a marvellous idea! Thanks for the recommendation.
Any ideas where I can get some artificial golden leylandii too?
You are clearly reading the wrong blog. Goodbye!