Keith Brown - My gardening experience and history

As a boy growing up in the post war years in rural Gloucestershire, from a very early age I fell in love with plants and the countryside. My father, no natural gardener, grew vegetables of necessity, and by the age of six I remember being given a patch in which to grow my own. My first successes were with lettuces, radishes and strawberries. That thrill of growing plants has never left me (Gertrude Jekyll once remarked that “the love of gardening is a seed that once sown never dies”) and now 50 years on and in retirement I am even more passionate about plants an d gardening and have substantially extended the range of plants I grow to encompass hardy and tender plants, displayed in large colour themed borders within my one acre plot - and of course my beloved vegetables!

I have never had any formal horticultural training but have learned by practical hands on experience, making mistakes and learning from them, reading copious books and magazines, joining plant societies and taking every of opportunity of speaking to experienced gardeners and nurserymen. Since 2000 with my partner Moira we have opened our garden for charity under The National Gardens Scheme in which time we have raised over £12,000. We have one main Open Day in July details of which can be found in the current years “Yellow Book”. We also open at other times from June until October for visits by garden clubs and other parties and private individuals. I also regularly give talks to garden clubs and societies. Further details of the garden will shortly be available on line www.cilgwylodge.co.uk from February 2010.