Small town gardens

Back to window boxes. For once you get a glimpse of one of my own.  Here is the large two metre long tricky window box in our home in London.  I have given up trying anything fancy – I am away too often.  It faces south, is on the second floor of the building, and is almost impossible to water as there is a long crack in the window box structure.

I only found that out when I watered the window box for the very first time a few years ago and received an outraged visit from the neighbour in the house below. Oops.

So succulents it is.  And it’s fun. It is a type of plant I would never have considered planting as I tend to plant on a much later scale.  These echeverias are from the deserts of central America. So it is odd to see them here in the north.  I find them in garden centres in the ‘strictly indoor’ areas.  But they take the cold, and the drought and the neglect.

The only trick is to plant lots. I’m always looking to cram more in.

And speaking of crammed. Here is the gorgeous bijou garden outside a house in Highgate. I did a massive walk from Primrose Hill to Muswell Hill this week – one and a half hours of tramping across Hampstead Heath and up through some lovely villages in north London. And back.

I am always on the lookout for blue plaques which show who lived in these handsome homes.  And Mary Kingsley’s house in Highgate was a winner.  One of my favourite explorers, a true Victorian heroine, and as a special bonus a really beautiful garden in front of her house.

It is very simple – a box parterrre, phormiums as the centrepiece in each square, and surrounded by ferns.  I hope there are bulbs as well in spring.

I must remember to walk this way again next month.