The old world mauve bougainvillea, hard to find today
“I love your garden, both on the ground and on the terrace,” says the new tenant. “I like to spend hours working up here or just sitting and chilling amidst the flowers. You guys really take a lot of trouble over the garden,” he adds, making all the effort worthwhile, inspite of it all.
The garden has always been part of our growing lives, no matter where we lived. It’s my greatest stress buster and can spend hours weeding and clearing in my son’s gardens in the UK and US. “ Missing you Ma this year,” they both say while they take me on a virtual tour to look at what’s flowering and that I fed well before I left!
Quis Qualis blooming profusely without humans adding salt to it's roots.
Three years ago I took a tiny rhizome of the British golden yellow Iris to the US from my son’s garden in the UK. It has grown so well in the US, that son has neighbours coming and asking how come its flowering when it's so cold. Then he has to explain that it's British and not the local Tennessee Iris! I have spread it across the front garden and the backyard for some colour and also because they grow so easily. Large clumps of them.
While I am there I empty out his pit of all the wet waste sunk in while I am there and which has decomposed over the months till my return. I take out all of it and feed it to the plants in the garden and leave. This nurtures them through the winter and in summer they burst forth with great vigour.
Exotic heliconia which I saved in my farm to replant in Hayes
The autumn leaves also are piled up to mulch through the winter snow and then it makes a great vegetable patch once spring arrives, to grow lady finger, tomatoes, peppers and even melons!
Both boys are used to the compost pit in Hayes Road, which fed the garden and our garden too in Castle Street. They filled sacks’ of the compost and carried them with their Dad and Gramps as they called my Dad and set up our garden in Castle Street. Infact we still have a 30 year old bougainvillea growing there which Dad had brought and planted as a hedge.
The stunning golden yellow Iris from the UK growing in Tennessee
This year, we carried sacks of compost to our new home in Golden Arch and have grown an absolutely beautiful garden there, where there was just dirt and neglect and pigeon poop. It is the prettiest part of the ground floor apartment which took just six months to turn around with tons of effort, by my husband and me.
The son in the UK is lucky, he gets free compost from their council, since they send all their garden waste and food waste to be composted there. When I visit I spend my time composting the hundreds of fallen apples which begin to rot in their rainy weather. The boys wait for me to come, as we work companionably together in the garden for hours, like they did with their Gramps chatting about everything and anything while we work. I advise, they advise me and it’s a wonderful bonding that we look forward to every year.
The Tabibuea Argentea outside Castle Street
What I love best about the UK is I can make hanging baskets filled with scented petunias or fuschias. Last year we made eight baskets which were so beautiful, David’s neighbour a few doors away, used them as decoration for her daughter’s wedding. The UK is a great place for gardening, better than the US.
Sweet peas I grew in the UK which gave me so much joy
Mums scented ginger grows in the UK and US, carried by me, but sadly the exotic heliconia do not grow well there. They have however put up a splendid burst of over 25 sheaths of blazing red flowers in the garden here and all because of the wonderful wet waste compost, which we make inhouse, for free.
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