8 July : Clare College

The herbaceous borders in the Fellows' Garden at Clare College, Cambridge are a masterpiece of garden design. It was raining on Sunday when we walked around so there were very few visitors and we could study the intricate planting. It takes extraordinary skill and experience to combine plants that will complement each other in colour and form and the achievement is so fleeting, so vulnerable to weather. I wish that I had spent more time in this garden when I was studying in Cambridge, I would have learned more than I did in the libraries.