Motherhen's Camouflaged garden

Well, it all started easily enough, but turned out to be quite a challenge that is not yet overcome!

I had staggered back from Eton with two wisteria that I had bought for the Dame’s garden, but did not want to leave, as without water they would have died before September. They were about 5’ in height and in largish pots. Tim and I shifted them around our garden in here in Kent, trying to find somewhere suitable to plant them. Finally, we decided to to the job properly and build a pergola over the newly re-sited oil tanks and allow the wisteria to climb over it, covering up the tanks and perhaps after a few years the wisteria would grow across the garage too

Tim designed the pergola from pictures on the web, adapting it to our situation, and by the next week end the wood had arrived from British Gates! With the help of Edward and Richard it was up and painted by the following week end and Tim added a wooden perimeter to contain the planting. We put in the wisteria, two carefully chosen climbing roses and a clematis.

After about 6 weeks everything was beginning to look comfortable and settled, but we had not counted on four very pretty Herefordshire heifers arriving in the field adjacent to the garden. (‘Pauline’ had just taken third at the Royal show!) They were only in the field for a couple of days and they had striped the pergola of the wisteria and the roses and had only left the clematis because it was so small.

We ended up jamming two pallets between the pergola and the fence to try to stop the cows from eating what was left of my poor plants, and now that part garden looks like a breakers yard.

Hopefully, the cows will move on, when they have eaten their field, and then we can inspect the damage. I expect everything will sprout again in the spring but I think we may have to make an adjustment to the fence!