Past, Present and FUTURE Mary Benger talks to Seth Dellow
M
ary Benger describes gardening as ‘a hobby that just got a little bit out of control’. Talking to Seth Dellow, in an audio interview on the Marshwood Vale website, she remembers how, on the day that she and her husband John first came to view Burrow Farm it was in thick fog. It was a small farm with corrugated roof buildings and a bungalow made from timber and asbestos, but it wasn’t until the day she moved in that she realised how spectacular the views were. Today it is known as Burrow Hill Gardens, a popular and beautifully landscaped thirteen acre garden with superb views of the surrounding countryside. ‘I’ve always been keen on gardening and my father was a keen gardener’ explains Mary. ‘You don’t realise how much you’ve picked up in fact—names of various things. I was always encouraged to have my own garden and that sort of thing.’ Not long after they moved they had lunch with a neighbour who asked which one of them was the gardener. They looked at each other in silence until Mary piped up, ‘Well it looks as though I’m going to be the gardener, doesn’t it’ she remembers ‘and that was the sort of start of it.’ Born in Kent and then moving to Surrey to a farm run by her brother, working hard came naturally. ‘I think that’s where I had very early learnings about working hard. As you can imagine, a brother ten years older than me didn’t hold back if I wasn’t putting my back into things.’
12 The Marshwood Vale Magazine July 2021 Tel. 01308 423031
