Davids stress buster -- his garden!
The garden when David first bought the house."Mum! We've bought our forever house in Woking, a leafy suburb of Surrey. Just 20 minutes from London. You'' have a lot of work to do in the garden," said David. Little did I dream that the house would be so neglected, smelling disgustingly of dog but the garden was an utter nightmare! A huge cypress dominated the large rectangular garden and that was the first ting David wanted out.
David bought a petrol lawn mower that he taught me to use.and I spent many hours making the lawn look like a beautiful green carpet rather than the jungle when I first saw it !The only thing that saved me was I knew the UK had no snakes so there was no fear of that. However taking no chances, I wore tall gum boots while mowing!
Roses blooming from the Elm Nursery
David being the sweet and gentle son that he is took me to the Elm Nursery down the road. "Choose whatever plant you want Mum and we'll plant it before you go."I needed no second bidding and chose the above beauty. As long as I stayed all the waste milk of curd of the babies was put to the rose and it. It still blooms and blooms its plate sized fragrant roses a decade later.
The old apple trees in the garden also fruited but one could see the trees were old and gnarled and needed a lot of nurturing. Infact we found the apples which grew from the neighbour's garden into Davids house had sweeter and many more apples!
The garden today
Then David being the perfectionist got a landscaper to redo the whole place and look at what he has achieved over the years! How we both love that garden and I take small plants from India to plant there. The Cheese plant and the curry leaf, Mummy"s white ginger, all flourish but indoors. After all they are tropical. The garden has been populated with hundreds of flowering and leafy plants which give it a typical English garden look. "Dad just loves his garden and he looks after it all on is own,"says Natalie. Spending hours on his days off I firmly believe that he should teach the kids to come out and help like my Dad did and so I could run my farm with little effort for over 35 years.
My yearly lunch for my London Bangalore pals.
For years we get tgther for lunch with David helping me have a good time. Then all of them go home with a bag of organic apples from his garden. Its wonderful to visit and have them all over and I cook my desi khaana which they all enjoy.
