Mr Fox’s Garden
In this issue Mr Fox enjoys having more time in his shed and rejoices in the delights of snowdrops and hellebores.
I
’m just sitting down to write this page and I’m thinking to myself, “I’m not going to mention the current state of affairs - it’s a gardening page - I’m just going to write about gardening.” But the subject is almost impossible to avoid. It’s February and our gardens have been battered by the wind, frost and rain; it’s all looking rather grim out there and the news is dominated by statistics about the virus or things that are happening over the sea in America. I usually have a few good garden conversations with people every week and at some point think, ‘Arr! I’ll make that the topic of my page’. But the series of lockdowns are now coming up to their one-year anniversary and no one’s going anywhere. Aside from my kids, aged 3 and 5, I’ve not spoken to anyone. On a brighter note I’ve been getting lots of ‘shed time’ and I’m actually really rather chuffed with myself. I’m approaching the end of a project that I started what seems like an age ago. It’s like a big jigsaw now – I’ve got the pieces, I’ve just got to put it all together. The story starts 6 years ago, I was digging away and snap! The handle of my spade had gone. It was no big deal; I’ve been breaking shovels and spades all my life. The broken spade was put back in the van, taken home and put with all the other broken spades. Everything’s so cheap nowadays; it has apparently become uneconomical to repair anything - uneconomical! Anyone with any sense can clearly see the madness in this approach. I decided to buy only the best quality from then on. I’d found out that lots of the tools we buy are manufactured in the Far East and shipped round the world to us.
I thought to myself somebody should start making gardening tools in England – so off I went. The first thing I had to do was to learn about working with metal then start studying metallurgy then to learn woodworking. I had some limited knowledge in all those areas but putting a fence up and turning a trowel handle are two very different things. Before me lay a task of the most grievous kind. Starting out with no knowledge, skills or money, it seemed impossible, but soon after my wife Catherine got involved we started a journey, which has ended with us making a lot of lovely garden art...
Mr Fox
We are James and Catherine (Mr Fox’s Garden). We provide a garden maintenance and landscaping service around the Bay but the main part of our business is making plant supports, garden art and sculptures - and it’s all made right here on the English Riviera. After our display garden won the People’s Choice Award at the 2019 Tavistock Garden Show, we can now happily say we are ‘award winning gardeners’. We’re also proud to say that this year we have pieces on permanent display at RHS Rosemoor and Buckfast Abbey.
mrfoxsgarden.com 48 | February/March 2021
Mr Fox
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