Garden

Dave and Steve - just two of our garden gnomes

During my twenty one years of blogging I have discovered one sure thing about bloggers - they're a nosy breed. A few weeks ago now, the legendary North Florida blogger Mary Moon asked if I would share some pictures of our garden. By now, she probably imagined that I had forgotten about her request - but I hadn't. Today, I nipped out to capture some images of our long, thin suburban garden.

When we moved here in 1989 the garden was a neglected, overgrown and unloved wasteland of long grass, brambles and forgotten brick-edged pathways from the nineteen twenties. There wasn't even a fence or gate or anything at the bottom of the garden which backs on to a communal lane.

The previous owners - who were British "Scrabble" champions - clearly weren't in the least bit interested in gardening and the lack of a fence at the bottom of the garden probably seemed unimportant given the lethal barrier of tangled bramble briars there. No intruders would ever do battle with that.

It was a wild domain in which neighbourhood cats could sun themselves, foxes could copulate and flying  insects were untroubled by interfering humans.

Then I arrived and within three weeks set to. I hired a heavy duty petrol-driven strimmer, made bonfires, used "Round-Up" and tamed the jungle. The next thing I did was to make a little brick path that I pictured leading from the lower part of the garden to the top  part. There would be shrubbery borders to each side of the path. 

At the bottom part of the garden there would be a lawn and in the top part a vegetable patch. The very size of the garden was the thing that swung it for me when we decided to move here. It is 45 metres long - I know this because I once measured it.

Our garden is not neatly manicured and still has a degree of rough, unkempt wildness to it but that is how I like it.

In her retirement, Mrs Pudding has become much more interested in gardening and is often out there nowadays, showing keen interest. In the past - when she was nursing and being a homemaker, she was rarely drawn out to work in the garden. It was mainly a place to hang our washing. I must say, I rather like the fact that she now finds a lot of pleasure in growing things, tending plants and noticing the changes that Nature oversees.

In cities, many people do not have private gardens so I think we are very fortunate in that regard. I am  not going to label my pictures. I think that together they speak for themselves. I present our English garden in the suburbs of a Yorkshire city in May 2026...