Ever since I wrote about UK gardener Stuart Grindle's lawn obsession a few weeks ago, I've had to stop myself mowing ours more frequently than once a week. Stuart, who's 70, mows twice a day, three times a week, to keep each blade at a uniform 5mm long.
At the other end of the scale, I discovered (guess who's been spending too much time on Google?) an 80 year old man who planted a garden in 1960 and last watered it in 1972. And yes, it's still thriving. David Latimer planted his garden in a bottle, and sealed it shut 40 odd years ago= as an experiment to see if it would survive. The hardy spiderworts plant inside has grown to fill the 10-gallon container by surviving entirely on recycled air, nutrients and water. The water in the bottle gets taken up by plants' roots, is released into the air during transpiration, condenses down into the potting mixture, where the cycle begins again. How clever is that?
Almost as clever is a garden so poisonous you can only enter with a fully qualified guide. The creation of Alnwick Poison Gardens in Northumberland, England, was inspired by the legendary botanical gardens in Padua where the Medicis plotted to bring their enemies to mouth-frothing ends.
An English duchess created this garden, dedicating it entirely to flora which is deadly and/or narcotic. The tall, black gates imprison about 100 killers including belladonna and hemlock. Wanting in part to hark back to old apothecary gardens, the duchess shied away from planting healing medicinals and instead sought out deadly poisons. She has also cultivated narcotic plants like opium poppies, cannabis, magic mushrooms and tobacco, many of which can only be grown with special government permission. Some of the plants are so deadly they are caged, and the garden is secured by a 24-hour security watch. Makes my oleander and datura look like pussies by comparison.
And scarily, Alnwick is not the only garden in the world dedicated to murderous plants. Amy Stewart, author of the book Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities, has a small poison garden at her home in California. Stewart's garden has more than 35 different species that can wreak havoc on humankind if mishandled. The plants are secured behind gates at the front and back of the garden to keep neighbourhood kids and animals from nibbling them, and as added security, there's a tombstone informing onlookers about the people plants like these have killed, including Socrates in 339 BC. The 70-year-old was found guilty of heresy and his sentence was death by hemlock. He had to drink the poison by his own hand.