Ulterior Designs

On our Easter sojourns to Scotland, Darla's interests and mine are somewhat divergent, perhaps at opposite ends of the tourist spectrum.  This is not to say that these are mutually exclusive.  Merely that they are different.  

2019  Darla, Achamore Gardens, Gigha

Whereas I am inspired by ancient sites and their revelations regarding mortality and the foibles of human kind in a philosophical or historical context, Darla's interests are far more celebratory and immediate--which is to say, she is a gardener.

She takes sheer joy in growing, beautifying.  Indeed, for its location, our Idaho home likely competes with the best of conservatories anywhere.  But if there's a wandering eye or ulterior motive in the girl during our trips to Scotland, it's always on the prowl for new gardening designs.  

For me, it's about the history, the heritage.  As for an immediacy of joyful celebration, that's what pubs are for. 

Lord knows the Brits (including Scots) do love to garden.  They've an embarrassment of riches.  Then again, there's plenty of pubs as well.  It's fortunate that our respective interests during our Scottish sojourns often overlap.  They do not, in other words, conflict. Well...most of the time.

2019  Ogham Stone, Ghigha

The monumental gardens we have visited (and we should even include natural landscapes as sources for ideas) are usually off most tourist radars, or at least American radars.  I must admit, manly or not, visually the riot of color, texture and in some cases the outright strangeness to be seen in these gardens is in itself a reward. 

Being off-season the week before Easter, we are normally in front of the tourist surge, as Europe awakens from its winter.  Beyond the pensiveness we seek in an Easter pilgrimage, practical reasons exist for visiting at this time.  Off -season rates are more affordable.  Weather is generally good.  And, we mostly avoid the crush of tourists from the Continent.    

2017  Daffodils, Kildalton, Islay

Of course there are drawbacks.  If we were just tripping to the U.K. for its gardens, we would delay our visits by about a month because our two-week bookend visits around Easter are also generally in front of the full Spring bloom--except for common gorse (Ulex europaeus) and of course those "daffy down dillies".

Gorse (or "whins" locally) is an odd "evergreen" leguminous genus (20 species; Fabaceae family).  Common gorse is native to western Europe and the British Isles.  Most species of gorse, however, are indigenous to Spain. Between them, gorse is generally always in bloom.  In the U.K. during early Spring right before leaf out, little can compete in the view shed with gorse for color.  Spring is the height of common gorse's bloom. 

More, it is aromatic, with a coconut fragrance that is experienced very strongly by some individuals but only weakly by others.  It's a yin yang thing maybe.  Darla senses gorse's fragrance strongly.  Me?...not so much.  They're pretty to look at, so long as it's over there.      

Common gorse can possibly survive in USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 6a, though we are probably too arid and too cold for it here.  In the western United States (principally along the much wetter west cost from Olympic Peninsula to north California) gorse is said to be invasive.  It has not been found in Idaho.  Still, its invasive potential has given us pause to  introduce it here.  Besides, it is probably considered contraband under the Idaho Code, Title 22, Agriculture and Horticulture, Chapter 19 and the Idaho Invasive Species Act of 2008.  Like I said, it's pretty to look at...over there.

2019  Achamore, antique equipment

I am content to ponder the histories of these living monuments (gardens) and marvel at the conscious decisions, dedication and expense required to bring these into existence...or just as important, the work needed to keep them up. 

We have something like this in mind for our place here in Idaho--with our numerous nascent gardens, orchards, plant beds and borders all demanding time and labor.  

When the trip to Scotland was abruptly halted under international Covid quarantine 8 days before our Easter 2020 trip was to take place, we set about planting apple and pear orchards, tearing down a couple dilapidated outbuildings and reusing any solid material in putting up an open equipment shed.  

We also began clearing our pastures of stones, putting those into gabion walls at the entrance to the "W".  We are now extending the wall along our south pasture line on the county road.  The wall will doubtless be a lifetime task.  It seemingly moves at a snail's pace--or rather, it moves at my pace, which basically says the same thing.  My herculean effort is probably better suited for younger bodies.  So, snail's pace it is then.

By August 2020 last year, the short east side wall at our road entrance was put in.  It runs to the picket fence gate which cannot be walled across because it allows field equipment into our back wheat field.  And the first couple gabion baskets were started on the west wall work.   

Equipment access to wheat fields

The wall is "measured" by rolls of gabion wire used.  In 2020, we bought two 300 foot rolls; and then two more this year.  That is not exactly inexpensive, as 300 feet of wire if formed into cubic baskets will only cover a just over a third of that linear distance. 

August 2020  Extent of the gabion walls

But, the wall is now a landscape feature, as many neighbors have stopped by while I worked the wall and complemented it.  It is definitely more permanent than mere wire.

One might speculate that our mimicking of the quintessential Scottish landscape monuments (i.e. rock field walls) is owed to our nostalgia for Scotland.  Perhaps.  And yes, it is true that stone walls are everywhere to be found across Scotland's landscape.  But actually, our wall building has a practical side.  

Scotland has omnipresent stones that need to be cleared to improve pasture land, as do we.  They decided the best place to put them are in walls.  We concur.  A nice wall sure beats piles of clearance rocks dumped randomly around the field perimeter, and in some instances in the middle of the field.  Good fences make good neighbors and all.

October 2021 Wall progress

By October, I reached the end of the second roll.  With winter coming on, rock clearing and stacking will need to resume again this Spring, 2022 (which we hope means after our Easter sojourn to Scotland, if Covid travel restrictions are finally ended).  

At the same time, we have contracted for new siding and windows for the farmstead, upon our return from Scotland.  The farmhouse is old and desperately needs to be hardened against the weather, if it can be expected to last another 100 years.

2019  The homestead

As to the wall, neither is that only utilitarian.  It has its art.  

We intend to continue the gabion wall roughly a quarter mile.  The rock wall will serve as a horticultural backdrop for a rim of trees and windbreak plantings.  With any luck, and some determination, the landscape feature we are working to put in place should be a joy for generations to come.

That's the inspiration we have taken out of Scotland.  Quite a gift is this sense of working to improve the world one stone at a time.  One can move mountains that way, we are told.

November 2021  Sunset over the vegetable garden