THE GARDENS | 2018

During the Second World War my grandfather bought a small section of dike for two gold coins worth 20 guilders with the idea of building a cottage there. But he didn’t get permission. So he turned it into a garden. He planted a privet hedge to keep out the relentless westerly wind. I suspect he just stuck branches in the ground, which then grew into a hedge. I can’t see him going to a garden centre to buy seedlings. My clearest memory of this garden is of one day working there with my grandfather, and him getting a splinter in his hand. He took out the penknife he always had with him and asked me to remove the splinter, as his eyesight wasn’t what it once had been. I thought this was very scary. I think I said I didn’t dare. “Don’t be so anxious, little girl,” he said.