Mentor. See Mentorship – a personal developmental relationship in which a more experienced or knowledgeable person helps to guide a less experienced or less knowledgable
person.
Guru – is a Sanskrit term for “teacher” or “master”.
I have had a wonderful week in the garden. The November weather has been kind and I have been able to get well and truly stuck into cutting down the dead and dying herbaceous material, move a few scruffy roses to less prominent positions and dig up (what seemed like) thousands of cheeky, roving Michaelmas daisy plants and seedlings. I went about this task almost without any deep thought, whilst basking in the weak autumn sun. With hindsight I see that this happened because I felt confident with the task in hand. Experience helps, as do books but the most important learning device available to the novice horticulturalist is the mentor.
My mentors are three people (with whom I have personal relationships) who have taught me in my formative horticultural years and are still teaching me. My gurus (I like to use ‘guru’ in the ‘master’ sense) are a small handful of ‘celebrity’ gardeners who talk a whole heap of sense and inspire me with their enthusiasm. But, oh my goodness, please don’t think that I think I know it all! Good golly, I am such a long way off! Half the fun of a horticultural life is knowing full well that we will never know it all, and knowing that every day will bring surprises.
I would like to introduce my mentors and gurus – one today and more over the next few weeks. I would like to think there are one or two more mentors and gurus waiting for me to find them – perhaps behind a large piece of topiary.
This is Mr John Hillman. When I am older I want to be just like him.
John lives in the village where I grew up. We bought chicken eggs from him and I continue to go out of my way to buy eggs from him for two reasons :
1. Mr Hillman’s eggs are the best around.
2. Mr Hillman, and his wife Marion, have created my favourite garden in the whole world ever.
It is the perfect cottage garden with a twist. Cottage gardening by definition combines a productive fruit and vegetable garden with flowering plants for cutting and for the pure pleasure of creating an attractive space. The difference between this garden and other cottage style gardens is experimentation. The Hillman’s scour the seed and plant catalogues for new and interesting plants so every visit is an opportunity to say “ooh, what’s that!?” I will always recall the time when I first saw their Sedum spectabile ‘Brilliant’ in all its fluffy lilac glory. I was quite young and impressionable and it was love at first sight.
The awesome thing about this perfect cottage garden is that less than a stones throw away from the Sedum, honeysuckle, Clematis and all their funky Begonia foliosa var. Miniata will be rows of perfect brassicas and enough potatoes to keep the family fed all through the winter. John and Marion are virtually self sufficient and if that’s not enough reason why they are my chief inspiration, well then I don’t know what is. I intend to sit and record and proper interview type chat with John and Marion soon. Now that I have said that, I will have to jolly well get on and do it. I’ll give them a call on Monday.
