PINNEGAR, in Reginald Arkell’s 1950 novel “Old Herbaceous”, is the gardener at the local big house. A foundling baby, he grows up to find home and family in the garden and its plants.

Mrs Chateris owns the garden and loves it for its beauty. She and Pinnegar often disagree about what should be planted where, but she usually submits to his expertise. In the same fashion, when a plant seems to be in trouble, Pinnegar would ask the advice of the “First Gardener” and go his way.

I am sure Mrs Arkell (and Pinnegar) agreed with the notion that most of us find out, but which Dorothy Francis Gurney put into words: “One is nearer to God’s heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth.”