In the last interview that Miroslav Macek gave to TO magazine, he spoke at length about, among other things, his beloved garden, which he built in Celtic style near his birthplace in Zábřeh, Moravia. “2,400 square meters of land, lawns, a 45-meter rock garden, plus a vegetable garden that my father took care of, seventy-six black and red currant bushes, an enormous quantity of cherries, pears and apple trees, sour cherries, lingonberries, and so on.” Macek described his garden.
And it is no coincidence that the late politician decided to build a Celtic garden. He has Celtic ancestors on his father’s side. “And I’m pure Frank on my mother’s side. Also the mother’s name was Franke and her ancestors were Vikings from the west side of Norway who came to the Loire Valley and then to England around 1660.” explained Macek about his origin.
His beloved garden is made so that from above it looks like a snake with a red beech in its center. “Around its branches there is only a narrow passage through which you can go to the other half of the garden. And since we live here permanently, I made the garden so that when we sit with a glass in the evening in the garden or on the terrace, there is a view between the trees. And in it, the Big Dipper is projected in the night sky for us all summer,” said Macek. “I have to take care of it all the time, because some of the trees are already in their third year. As soon as they grow, I already have another tree planted. I jump one and in the meantime another one will grow,” he added.
Macek even admitted that he sometimes talks to his garden. “Yes, I’m talking to the garden. When I need to make a larger cross-section, I apologize to her that it just has to be. You can tell most of those plants. I write about it in the last detective story. There is a chapter on mutual shaping. How a person shapes the garden and the garden shapes him at the same time,” described the late politician.
And Macek also liked to show off the garden on his Facebook profile. “However, a beautiful garden has its downside: branches, twigs, twigs and leaves ready to be taken to compost or 3 hours of hard work,” he wrote on one of the photos.
Pleasure and a lot of work
Although the garden brought peace to Mack’s soul, it was also a lot of work. The original garden was full of vegetables and fruits. “For four weeks, I made syrups, compotes, pickled, canned, cut, harvested up to seventeen meters of apples, pears, 80 kilograms of gooseberries. One day I realized that I was getting enough and decided to build an ornamental garden instead, because I assumed that it would give me less work. Macek described.
“I have invented a type of garden which I dare say is nowhere in the world, at least I have not yet seen it: It is not a French or an English garden, but a Celtic one. For example, there are large stones in it, which are almost invisible because they are overgrown. However, the basis is beeches, hornbeams, pines, and in addition lower rhododendrons and some more exotic shrubs. A total of 1,100 trees and bushes,” added the late politician.
He was especially proud of his wisteria. “It’s wonderfully cool here all summer long. But every year six meter long branches will grow from it. Which means he has to get his hair cut six times a year, which I now face again in the spring. It’s a spring performance test for me. I’m standing up in those twelve meters on the corner with the scissors and I haven’t fallen yet. And it’s better than any fitness center.” said Macek, adding that he works for ten hours only on the tree branches in the spring.
Macek liked a lot of plants, but it is said that from the beginning he disliked herbs, which he considered to be weeds. Only his wife Petra, who showed him what excellent salads can be made from them, changed his opinion. “Dandelions, nettles, you name it, and we eat it from spring to fall. Now we have about a hundred and twenty square meters of bear garlic here,” said Macek.
They helped him build the garden
Macek created the design of the garden himself, but he invited a gardening company to help with the construction itself. “They have been looking for cultivars for me for two years. I was extremely lucky that there was a gardener here, unfortunately he is now dead, who was such an enthusiast that he even traveled to the Himalayas and various parts of the world for cuttings and twigs and grafted them here onto existing rootstocks.” Macek said.
“Because a lot is brought here from Holland, from Italy, but it’s on bases that don’t last. So people plant it and after two years it dries up. Whereas here I have grafts from the Himalayas, wonderful things, various curious things, which that gardener grafted for me.” he added.
