The Life of a Young Gardener

The author of The Magnificent English Garden is so fastidious that he even includes the names of gardeners going back to the 16th century. And gives us fascinating details about how gardening was regarded as a legitimate career path.

The employer and his head gardener controlled every aspect of the young gardener’s life. Apprentices in other occupations could not marry, but the prohibition extended on the great estates to journeymen gardeners as well. Although both Percy Thrower and Arthur Hooper found girlfriends, there was no question of marriage for a bothy boy. When Percy Thrower joined the staff of the royal garden at Windsor, he was warned: “Keep your eyes off the head gardener’s daughters”; he didn’t, and ultimately married one of them, but the relationship had to be kept secret for years. One of his colleagues was less prudent and “came–almost on his hands and knees–to the foreman to inform him that he had to get married and would have to leave.”

The Magnificent English Garden, p. 208

Past Squares 17: Road Trip, San Luis Obispo, June 2021

The minute California started coming out of lockdown, self threw a few clothes into her car and drove south, listening to The Bangles and Wilson Phillips on her car radio. (“Someday somebody’s going to make you want to turn around and say goodbyeeeee!”). She passed all the old, familiar sights: Paso Robles, Atascadero, San Miguel, San Luis Obispo!

Posting this for the Past Squares challenge, hosted by Becky at Life of B.

Quote of the Day: The Magnificent English Gardens, p. 213

• At Chatsworth in 1918, the maximum daily wage for a woman was $24 while for men it was $60. Women were employed on a casual or seasonal basis and were principally used for weeding because of their smaller fingers.