Telling times in the Arboretet
A corollary of my seasonal study is an interest in the diverse markers of time embedded in the gardens.
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I鈥檝e come to see the gardens like a giant 鈥榯ime capsule鈥� 鈥� a repository of the recent and ancient past, of cyclic rhythms and extraordinary events, and always the detritus that is the constant march of time. Seeing the past bleed into the present is helping me make sense of seasonal change.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 why you rarely see ruined settlements in old places like this. Because the rocks they鈥檙e built with have been used to make new walls and buildings,鈥� said one gardener as聽they聽took me through the finer points of rock wall building.聽And聽I'm聽starting to see that the arboretum聽today is growing from pieces of the past, and some very old pieces at that.聽
That same gardener showed me some depressions and patches of lush grass that reveal the drainage system, engineered in another time, where the small stream disappears underground into a bed of rocks. Another gardener pointed out an excavated half-moon at the edge of a stream where people might have washed聽clothes and聽told me about the聽stone聽tool聽fragments聽he finds in the聽rose beds. A third gardener took me up to the remnants of a monastery garden abutting the university college campus,聽and we looked on the crocus, trees and聽lyshuset聽(hedge ring)聽legacies of the monks. We see these relics of 鈥榣ongue聽dur茅e鈥櫬爐ime聽imprinted in the聽landscape and plant collections of the gardens today.
Time can be read in the plants of the garden, like reading the rings of a tree, or their shrunken stature as they age like old men.
One tree, planted when the gardens were bequeathed in 1971 and featuring large in photos from that era, is now huddled over and covered in moss. Another was planted by then crown-prince Harald, and grafted from a聽3000 year-old聽royal oak in Denmark. And at the same time, gardeners today are nurturing plants to grow and thrive for the next 10, 50 or 150 years. They鈥檙e planting future giants 鈥� some of those rhododendrons will be 10m tall in 50 years 鈥� that they will never get to see reach their heights.聽
Time is also measured in generations, of plants and people. The聽arboretum聽time capsule faithfully聽preserves the聽particular botanical聽interests of scientists and garden directors over the past 50 years. Some garden zones are affectionately referred to by the old professor that nurtured this or that聽copse, with the glasshouse like a museum of exotic fruit trees. But the gardeners also talk about the generations of plants they鈥檝e nurtured to thrive in the gardens, and the joy of seeing a second or third generation of some exotic species take hold in聽Milde.聽聽
It felt like my own archaeological dig
Back to the present, and聽I'm聽seeing the march of time in my daily practices.聽Sometimes it seems like gardening is fighting with time; trying to hold the gardens in a certain聽state, and聽keep them from being over-run with weeds and moss and rot and the detritus filling the drains.聽A few weeks聽ago聽a gardener and I聽were聽trimming back a bush聽in a less frequented corner of the gardens聽and stumbled across a stash of empty beer bottles that were maybe 15-20 years old by one estimation, and it felt like my own archaeological dig. More artefacts trapped in聽the聽arboretum聽time capsule鈥�
This is the fourth聽blog post from Dr. Scott Bremer. Read all blog posts from the CALENDARS project聽here.
