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6 Bedford Avenue

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Owners - Pam and Rusty Houldsworth

My garden...? Well you could say it was a work in progress, or to be more accurate, a working garden. I grow my own vegetables from seed. I also grow flowers, but also cheat a bit and order in some of the ones I find difficult to grow. Potting on takes up a lot of my time and I can lose myself in the garden for hours, much to the amazement of my other half who cannot understand that - now I am retired - I do not have time for housework as well! I also make up Patio pots and sell them out at Car Boots, at much cheaper prices than any of the "Sheds" can do. Pensioners and others on low incomes can then benefit from and take pride in having a nice garden at an affordable price.

All this started off when I was ill, and a friend bought me a packet of seed and said you have a greenhouse, go and use it and give yourself something to do. Well, I planted those seeds, and it was almost three weeks later that I next went down to the greenhouse, and - in spite of me - those seeds had grown. I was hooked, and have been growing ever since. Friends and family all benefit from my hobby, which also helped me back on the road to recovery, and back into the workplace, which I had not ever thought I would ever be able to return to. All monies I make selling out my patio pots and surplus plants goes towards financing my gardening hobby, and also towards extended family finances, which makes me feel I am contributing something back to them for all the help they gave me when I was ill.

I have grown sunflower seeds for brownie and guide troops, for a school classroom competition, and have contributed plants to a school garden. I make up pots of potatoes for children to grow on, which helps them to realize where their food comes from. I take cuttings of shrubs, and propagate them on, not always successfully, but the fun is in trying. My garden was laid out by the elderly couple who owned our house before us, the Mrs being the gardener, and I have pretty much kept to their layout, only changing things when it was really necessary. One bonus was the gravelled front garden - no lawn to cut, but the bluebells, forget-me-nots and London pride pretty much keep me on my toes to keep the gravel clean. A lovely hedge surrounds the front and has worked well over the years we have been here, but unfortunately we now have patches of die-back, and this will need to be addressed in the long term if we are to maintain the privacy we currently have.

Gardens always change, and surprise you when you least expect it. I have had some interesting "gifts" from the birds, one being an enormous thistle which grew to over 8ft in height last year, this year, the self seeded young plants were all scooped up and re-potted, the thought of having more than one of those in the front gravel was more than I cared to think about. Another give from the birds is a big blousy red papery poppy which comes back every year, you may catch the tail end of them as they are beginning to burst from their pods now. But, come and look, and hopefully you will realise that you do not have to have an immaculate garden to be able to show it off, you never know, I may learn more about what to do with things, and you can see how plants can be good fun, as well as good to eat.

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On The Day

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