My first move was to give the aged, ragged hedge the heave-ho. It was so close to our windows, it cast a shadow in our living room. I also questioned the point of living in a buzzy street with its independent shops and outdoor cafés, only to screen ourselves from this flourishing, friendly world on our doorstep.
Next, I had a larger flowerbed dug behind the front wall, to help capture run-off from the slate tiles under the bay window, which provide a walkway to the wooden shelving unit I had built for the recycling boxes (with only two of us at home, recycling effectively, we had no need for bins of Dalek proportions). I used the surface to display an ever-changing collection of plants. Window boxes finished the plan.
I make the schemes seasonal, so there’s always something new pushing through, and I love to experiment with cuttings and interesting bulbs. In spring, I bring out unusual tulips in containers, planted up each autumn in our small back garden – what my husband refers to as “the flower factory”, because it doubles as a holding pen for plants I move to and fro.
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