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For the milestone that is my 10th post I'm remembering my manners and introducing myself to you all.
Apologies for not saying hello earlier.
Anyway, I'm a married bloke who's pushing 60 and living in the bit of Essex that overlaps with London. Handy for commuting, you know.
I'm originally from the Wirral, where mum and dad were both keen gardeners so that's where I had my first experiences of growing stuff in the family garden. I had no special interest as a kid but I do remember the pleasure of sowing seeds and watching them grow. Virginian stock, candytuft, clarkia, stuff like that. And picking the tomatoes in dad's greenhouse, I remember that too...
As I grew up I forgot about gardening, went to Uni darn sarf, after graduation there were no jobs oop north so I got one in London, where I've worked ever since.
My first adult experience of gardening was when I shared a flat in Ealing which had a garden. The other blokes weren't interested in tending it, so I ended up getting a lawnmower, converting an old schooldesk into a cold frame (take off the legs, replace the lifting lids with 2 sheets of window glass) and growing this and that. Helps pass the time at weekends before the pubs open, eh.
Time passes, I settle down with a nice Essex girl and we get our first house together in Hainault. My first real garden! The previous owners hadn't been gardeners, so I dug up the privet and rotovated the back, sowed a lawn and planted a lovely hedge of Iceberg roses down one side and mixed borders down the other.
By the time the two kids were born, we had moved to a larger, end-terrace house in Ealing. Again, the garden needed doing from scratch but now I was really getting into it. I dug my first garden pond, put up my first greenhouse and got an allotment down the road. Like most people I suppose, I didn't realise quite how much work an allotment is, what with getting on top of the couch grass and endless watering (it never seems to rain enough down here in the summer, not like when I was a lad on the Wirral). Still, dealing with the challenges and becoming self-sufficient in potatoes was really satisfying.
Once the kids where nearing secondary school we decided to move to somewhere with decent state schools and more space, so we ended up in West Sussex commuterland. My biggest garden yet, it had room for a vegetable plot so no need for an allotment any more! Again, the previous occupants hadn't left much to work with apart from ground and sky and leylandii, so I had the pleasure of designing and creating from scratch. Patio, paths, 2 ponds, stream and wet garden, bridge, lots of flowers.
Fast forward to present day: kids grown up, Mrs H's nephews and nieces starting to have kids of their own, back to Essex and downsize to another end-terrace. This one's small garden had been laid entirely to paving and decking, the only greenery was coming up through the cracks in the badly-laid paving during the 9 months the house had been lying empty. By last summer I had got rid of the last bit of concrete, designed and laid the hard landscaping and planted some hardy stuff while the weather leaches away the remaining nasty chemicals in the ground. So the smallest garden I've ever had is now up and running! I'll stick some pictures up when I've worked out how to do it.
Finally, yesterday I emailed the council to get onto the waiting list for an allotment. Can't wait!
Lurking on this site I can see I've a lot to learn from you guys about nearly everything, but hopefully I can still chip in on an occasional "been there, done that" basis.
Apologies for not saying hello earlier.
Anyway, I'm a married bloke who's pushing 60 and living in the bit of Essex that overlaps with London. Handy for commuting, you know.
I'm originally from the Wirral, where mum and dad were both keen gardeners so that's where I had my first experiences of growing stuff in the family garden. I had no special interest as a kid but I do remember the pleasure of sowing seeds and watching them grow. Virginian stock, candytuft, clarkia, stuff like that. And picking the tomatoes in dad's greenhouse, I remember that too...
As I grew up I forgot about gardening, went to Uni darn sarf, after graduation there were no jobs oop north so I got one in London, where I've worked ever since.
My first adult experience of gardening was when I shared a flat in Ealing which had a garden. The other blokes weren't interested in tending it, so I ended up getting a lawnmower, converting an old schooldesk into a cold frame (take off the legs, replace the lifting lids with 2 sheets of window glass) and growing this and that. Helps pass the time at weekends before the pubs open, eh.
Time passes, I settle down with a nice Essex girl and we get our first house together in Hainault. My first real garden! The previous owners hadn't been gardeners, so I dug up the privet and rotovated the back, sowed a lawn and planted a lovely hedge of Iceberg roses down one side and mixed borders down the other.
By the time the two kids were born, we had moved to a larger, end-terrace house in Ealing. Again, the garden needed doing from scratch but now I was really getting into it. I dug my first garden pond, put up my first greenhouse and got an allotment down the road. Like most people I suppose, I didn't realise quite how much work an allotment is, what with getting on top of the couch grass and endless watering (it never seems to rain enough down here in the summer, not like when I was a lad on the Wirral). Still, dealing with the challenges and becoming self-sufficient in potatoes was really satisfying.
Once the kids where nearing secondary school we decided to move to somewhere with decent state schools and more space, so we ended up in West Sussex commuterland. My biggest garden yet, it had room for a vegetable plot so no need for an allotment any more! Again, the previous occupants hadn't left much to work with apart from ground and sky and leylandii, so I had the pleasure of designing and creating from scratch. Patio, paths, 2 ponds, stream and wet garden, bridge, lots of flowers.
Fast forward to present day: kids grown up, Mrs H's nephews and nieces starting to have kids of their own, back to Essex and downsize to another end-terrace. This one's small garden had been laid entirely to paving and decking, the only greenery was coming up through the cracks in the badly-laid paving during the 9 months the house had been lying empty. By last summer I had got rid of the last bit of concrete, designed and laid the hard landscaping and planted some hardy stuff while the weather leaches away the remaining nasty chemicals in the ground. So the smallest garden I've ever had is now up and running! I'll stick some pictures up when I've worked out how to do it.
Finally, yesterday I emailed the council to get onto the waiting list for an allotment. Can't wait!
Lurking on this site I can see I've a lot to learn from you guys about nearly everything, but hopefully I can still chip in on an occasional "been there, done that" basis.
Reading your post, I had an image of Eamon Andrews walking on with a big red book and saying "Martin H - This is your life" 
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