UK dream
I love reading garden magazines from the United Kingdom. In almost every issue, there is a profile of a great gardener who maintains a well-known public garden or a huge private estate. Those are the people I admire. They know their plants, and they have free rein on their properties. It sounds so cool!
Typically, they work with a small staff, and their plant knowledge is off the charts. And of course, the gardens they maintain look awesome. One example is the Great Dixter, a famous house and garden in East Sussex, England. That’s where the late gardener Christopher Lloyd lived and worked.
Sadly, I will never get to meet him, but I have several of his books. And I highly recommend all of them. One passage I especially love is when Lloyd writes about gardeners approaching him for exact task timing. In response, Lloyd writes that he prunes when he gets to it, even if the timing isn’t quite right. It’s his garden, after all.
One day, I would love to visit Great Dixter.
Sakura estate
Then, in the fall of 2025, one of my clients informed me that, after maintaining the gardens for two seasons, they were putting their house up for sale. It was time for them to travel the world and this house was too big for them now.
So, I put in some extra time pruning and cultivating beds before the realtor showed up to shoot pictures. Barely a week later, the listing went live. And it left me stunned!
The Sakura Estate was listed for sale at C$3.8 million. Now, I knew it was a beautiful Japanese-style home with a full, undeveloped lot visible from the pool. The same pool the owners never used.
The real estate listing gave me a nice look inside the home, which had sliding doors and open, uncluttered spaces. Now, it was beginning to make sense. The architect designed the house in Japanese style, including the plants outside in the garden.
Plants like a large cherry tree, Japanese maples, fatsias, bamboo, Japanese wisteria, and asian pear trees.
Then, it hit me! I was an estate gardener! While I was dreaming of faraway gardens, I was doing it close to home. Unfortunately, the owner capped my service and gave me dubious requests. Like asking me to cut back leggy Anemones just as they pushed out their flower stalks. But still, the whole experience makes me smile. I am an estate gardener. Dream achieved!
