Me and My…

This series is simply a portrait of a person with an item that is special to them. -Daryl Gordon   

Fran Henke with her Sussex Trug

Sussex Trug is a practical basket woven for gardeners since the 1500s. Thought to have originated in Sussex on account of the abundance of chestnut coppice and willows, the ‘common or garden Trug’ holds up to a bushel in volume. The “trog” from which its name came, was a wooden vessel hewn from solid timber in the shape of the round coracle boat that the Anglo Saxons used for their daily business. They were heavy, but the Trug is light, easy to use, ideal for carrying secateurs, gloves, seedlings, cut flowers.  Trug structures are made from coppiced sweet chestnut wood, hand-cleft then shaved using a drawknife. The body is woven with five or seven thin boards of white willow, also hand-shaved.

When my husband Ian, aka The Assistant Gardener, encouraged me to write my first garden book 47 years ago, I started researching historic gardens, saw pictures, paintings, engravings with Trugs left casually on the grass or by a perennial border romantically filled with flowers. Always wanted one, but our life was rustic, no gardening in long frocks and floaty straw hats like the illustrations.
This was a 47th anniversary gift from my husband. Owing to circumstances beyond our control, I never had an engagement ring. Since the garden has been a big part of our lives, I requested a Trug for this anniversary. He searched for the right size, stable handle and feet to suit my limitations.
Our Hastings garden features an old willow (Salix tortuosa), so the Willow Trug is right at home – storage place when not in use for my suede elbow length (rose pruning) garden gloves from the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria shop and favourite secateurs. In my 80th year, at last organisation and class.

Fran Henke

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