Edward Thomas' Garden

from:The Life and Letters of Edward Thomas

...The garden gave him much more pleasure …. The weeds which always flourish in virgin soil challenged him to plant friut-trees and prepare a vegetable-plot. With Helen’s help he made a wild thicket which they hoped would tempt the birds to nest there; he stole seedlings of beech and maple and birch, and planted them haphazard, with traveller’s joy and Helen’s favourite white bryony among them; and for the borders he begged cuttings of bergamot and rosemary* … and put them beside thyme and sage and lavender, all the sweet herbs in which he delighted…

*After the War cuttings from this very rosemary were taken to France and planted on his grave.


By John Moore, published by William Heinemann 1939.
P.165