As a child we had a fairly large garden and I remember my mother spending hours tending plants and growing vegetable. My grandfather won awards for some of his horticulture - although his habit of pumping the contents of the septic tank over his plot has given a lifelong hate of tomatoes.
Moving on 50 years and while I have a small garden which faces north west it is mainly laid with concrete and paving slabs. So I have over the last few years amassed a series of pots and troughs and got a lot of pleasure from spending a few hours in the sun. I'm no Percy Thrower or Monty Don but I enjoy what I do.
Here are few photos taken over the last couple of days.
A pot grown apple tree coming into blossom for the first time after I was given it last year
A bit of colour in the front garden, although I have lost the label with the name of the plant!
I enjoy growing salad crops - and this trough saves my back! Newly seeded with carrot and radishes. Potatoes starting to sprout in the three bags in front. The trough in the background will be seeded with lettuce and rocket tomorrow.
One of the easiest fruits to grow are strawberries and I have invested in some new plants this year after having the same for the last three years and last year's yield was starting to tail off.
The tree is a lime (fruit) tree. It is a couple of years old and suffered this winter after I was away when we had a surprise frost. However on closer inspection it is starting to come to life again.
New this year are raspberries
My local garden centres is closed with large stocks of plants liable to go to waste. So they quickly set up a makeshift home delivery service and took 250 orders in around three days. I ordered a number of plants for three hanging baskets, which I spent a couple of hours planting this afternoon.
My office looks out over the garden so I can sit back while at work and see the plants flourish (or otherwise!) and watch the bees and butterflies flitting across the flowers. I have definitely done more out there this year than in past ones. Although it was on the cards as I had starting ordering new troughs, compost and baskets back in January - which turned out to be fortuitous given the current circumstances.
All very satisfying. I have also sown some annual seeds in tubs to provide some colour later. If successful I'll post the results in a few weeks!
Click on the map to explore geographics
