翻译《我们建了一座花园》Margery Fish
房子附带的后花园，被墙和小片草地划分为两个单独的小花园。我们猜那以前可能是属于两家人的房子的。
除此之外，还有一面墙隔在我们与外面的田野之间。不知是谁，自娱自乐地在所有的墙脚下，打竖地堆起些石块，看起来就像杏仁干放在乳脂松糕（Trifle, 一种英式甜品, 一层果冻一层奶油一层水果）上。我们就想像这是一个现成的岩石花园，供我们玩耍的吧。
对花园有了概念之后，要做的第一件事情，就是推倒所有砖墙，我们将拆下来的砖块和石头垒好放一边，留着以后有用。
不过那些砖石挺麻烦的，我们整地的时候，还得把它们挪来挪去，还不知道以后是不是还会用得上。
那面将房子与马路隔开的高墙，是典型的Somerset风格，石头彻成的墙，墙头上竖着高低不平的石块。我不觉得好看，也想不通倒底为什么要这样凹凸有致。
我问过当地的师傅，他只是说这样做才显得完美收工。我觉得有其它更好的方式来完善，不必浪费那些大石头。
那些石头间的空隙可以种很多植物，Walter提议我先在石墙的墙头种些东西，一边想想花园该怎么弄。
于是我买了些易活的多肉植物，还播了些种子，有缬草、香雪球、南庭芥和小花南芥，覆盖那些错落不平的石头。
那一大堆石头高高竖在墙头，每次我种些花草或者是给它们浇水，都要爬上墙去。我通常晚饭后去浇水，穿着长长的裙子，踏着缎布拖鞋，这就是当时人们的社交活动了－－假如你不用去做晚饭。
我都弄不懂，自己到底是怎么做得到不扭伤脚踝的，因为我得一手提着裙摆，另一只手举着水罐，将身体的重力压在尖突的石头上。
我们是一批一批地处置掉所有的石头的。我们将大量石头给那些想要的人，通常是附近的农民，他们会用石头盖住农场大门的Somerset特有的淤泥。我们自己挑了些好的石头备用。当时没料到，随着设计方案进展，后来我们需要买的石头，比当初有的数量还多的多。
那以后，我将墙头竖着的石头全移走了，横着铺上些平的石板。我一直觉得凹凸墙头很难看，到处去找石块来填平墙头，有时候会很着急，觉得就算那些大块的平整的石块也铺不好看。
墙头上那些小巧可爱的多肉和花草被移走了，铁线莲爬上了墙头取而代之，我还将攀藤月季引上墙头，从墙外也能开到花开。
那些多肉植物和再生出来的小肉肉长进墙隙里去了，它们被塞进每一个裂纹和缝隙，当地面的花床还什么都没种上时，整面墙早已经生机盎然了。墙上层叠着白色，紫色，黄色和粉红色，即便是在早春时节，也不会觉得它冷清荒芜。
The garden that went with the house was divided at the back into two tiny gardens, with walls and small plots of grass. We supposed that these went back to the time when the house had been two cottages.
In addition to the walls dividing the two little gardens at the back another wall divided us from the barton, and beneath all these walls someone had amused himself by making banks and sticking in stones vertically, like almonds on a trifle. We imagined the idea was a nice ready-made rock garden for us to play with.
The first thing we did, when we really set our minds to the garden, was to remove all the walls and stones and pile them up for future use.
They were quite a problem, those piles of stones, as they were moved from place to place as we dealt with the ground where they were piled. I could not see how we should ever use them all.
The high wall that screened us from the road was finished in typical Somerset style with stones set upright, one tall and then one short. I have never discovered the reason for these jagged walls and I don’t think they are at all attractive.
I asked my local builder and all he could suggest was that it made a nice finish. I can think of more attractive ways of solving the problem without such a lavish use of big stones.
There was great scope for planting between the stones and Walter suggested I could get busy on the top of the wall while we decided what to do with the rest of the garden.
So I bought a few easy rock plants and sowed seed of valerian and alyssum, aubrieta and arabis to clothe those jagged rocks. The great heaps of stones were at that time right up against the wall and I had to clamber up them each time I planted anything, and later when I wanted to water my little family. The watering was usually done after dinner, and those were the days when one donned a long dress and satin slippers for this social occasion—which one didn’t have to cook.
I can’t think how I avoided turning an ankle as I had to clutch my skirt with one hand and use the other for the watering can while the stones rocked and tipped under my weight. By degrees, of course, we got rid of all the stones.
We gave away cartloads to anyone who would fetch them, mostly farmers who tipped them near farm gates to defeat the Somersetshire mud. We used up the best of them ourselves in time. We little realized in those days that as our schemes progressed we should buy far more than we ever had in the beginning.
Since those days I have had all the upright stones removed from the tops of our walls, and flat stones laid horizontally instead. I always thought the uneven finish very ugly and in times of stress when I have been casting round for more stones to finish some enterprise I have grudged so many large and even stones doing no good at all.
Gone are all the little treasures from the top of the wall; instead clematises clamber about and climbing roses are trained over the top of the wall so that the world outside can enjoy the blooms as well.
The rock plants, or descendants of them, are now growing in the wall itself. By tucking them into every available crack and crevice I can bring the wall to life long before the plants get going in the border below. Great cascades of white and lavender, yellow and pink prevent the wall from looking cold and bare in the early spring.
We Made a Garden, by Margery Fish, Publisher: Batsford (19 Dec 2011)
