Tales from the Beetle House...at the bottom of the garden

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Written by Robin Britton of Coombe Crafts...

Tales from the Beetle house…

My grandparents had a beetle-house at the bottom of their very long garden; other folks had privies and netties or outside lavs, but theirs had acquired the name that stuck for ever, because so many black beetles lived in the cracks and crannies.Newspapers hung on a hook – no posh toilet paper then – a pile of books and papers provided a little light reading for a long stay, and a candle and box of matches was provided for dark nights.

"stinging nettles that did just that – sting...!"

The view from the beetle-house was magic. To the right an old red brick wall, somewhat mossy and crumbly, was festooned with bright yellow stonecrop that rooted where it dropped and the tiny, fairy-like, ivy-leaved toadflax. At its damp base the ferns flourished alongside the stinging nettles that did just that – sting – if you brushed too close.

To the left was a great higgledy-piggledy pile of ancient, weathered, terracotta pots and saucers, in various states of decay, and all rooted in a tangle of grass and scarlet field poppies that had seeded across the gardens? The pot collection provided a home for the usual creepy crawlies, toads, mice and the odd lizard in the summer. Both the local birds and the cat had the pot pile staked out.

SPACE

"rampant loganberries, jostled with some rather wonderful roses..."

The traditional cottage garden was a great varied mix of plants, and whatever it looked like, it was far from random. If there was room, there might be a fruit tree, but certainly vegetables, fruit and herbs were planted alongside and amongst the flowers to provide food and traditional remedies as well as colourful, scented vases of flowers. The overall effect was jam-packed growth and colour, and it is still a popular style of gardening.So, the view through the door of the beetle-house, down the long path to the house, was very much that kind of garden.

A huge pear tree, too tall now to ever be picked, shed vast quantities of ripe pears which slammed onto the borders and attracted swarms of wasps. The stray gooseberry bush, and rampant loganberries, jostled with some rather wonderful roses, and the path was edged with radishes, carrots, snapdragons and cottage pinks. Flowers flourished in big clumps and seeded and grew as nature intended, so there were wonderful plant combinations, with Madonna Lilies, Michaelmas Daisies, giant red Oriental Poppies with sooty black centres, all coming into flower and going over in the proper order, marking the changes in the season.

www.coombecrafts.co.uk

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