My Other Garden.

Welcome to my other garden. Like any garden it has evolved beyond all recognition over the past 60 years with many plants outgrowing their initial allotted spaces and now requiring constant pruning. For many years after our family moved here in the mid 1950's most of the rear garden was set out for vegetables which my Father tended with a passion. Now that he is wheelchair bound he makes suggestions and issues the instructions which my Mother does her best to comply with amongst all her other duties as a full time carer. 

So every week when I visit my parents if we are not heading off somewhere in the car then there are always a few jobs on Mum's gardening list.

For the past three years I have been looking after the veg plot from soil preparation, sowing, weeding through to harvesting. It is not a vast area but it usually produces a reasonable crop of potatoes, runner and broad beans plus cabbages and tomatoes for my parents to enjoy. For some unaccountable reason the broad beans haven't performed very well this season but we managed to pick a few pods today. In between jobs I just had to sample a few Raspberries, nearly the end of an excellent crop, from the canes next to the kitchen window! This year I gave them a few Strawberry plants from my own garden stock and they have cropped nicely and are now producing youngsters ready for next year.

The soil is very sandy so any rainfall just soaks away very quickly but shrubs such as the Hydrangea's are putting on a fabulous display in both the front and rear garden. Elsewhere there is plenty of bright colour from the Allium sphaerocephalon reaching out for the sun from underneath many of the shrubs, Eschsholzia (Californian Poppy) and the Marigolds.

So back home in my own, smaller and more shaded garden, on heavy London clay, the colours (below), with some exceptions, are a little more muted. FAB.

Linking to Outdoor Wednesday.