salad days

I’ve lived in London for more than 25 years, first in ‘short life’ and, more recently in a small street level council flat. In each of these places, I’ve had a share of a back garden although I’m ashamed to say that (in spite of having a degree in Botany) I’ve done very little gardening until recently – originally because I was plain lazy and more interested in going out, then because I shared my house with keen gardeners who took over things.

Now, my share of the back garden is a 4m x 4m plot and I’m glad that, a few years back, before my back got to be so bad, I got around to clearing, digging, landscaping and planting. Rather pretentiously, I originally had the idea (borrowed from Japan) of the English landscape in miniature – pool, brook, hillock, predominantly native plants with a hawthorn and wild rose hedge on two sides with ferns, birch, oak and willow. Typically, the result is considerably less refined than this, though most of it’s there, with a babbling brook spiralling from the top of the grassy knoll into a pond. A few exotics have crept in: Gunnera, Passion flower, olive and fig trees and it regularly gets battered by foxes and ravaged by slugs and snails – an Angelica lasted a few days before being reduced to a stalk, lupins, delphiniums and goji have gone a similar way. Attempts at growing butternut squash and tomatoes failed and the yield of strawberries and blueberries has been minimal.

This year I decided a different tack to escape the slugs and snails and planted a windowsill trough with basil, parsley, butternut squash, nasturtiums and a cheap pack of mixed lettuce and wow! So far, so good – I have an explosion of lettuce that is difficult but delicious to keep up with consuming. If you’ve a sunny windowsill, secure your trough safely and keep watering – highly recommended!