Introduction

Aerial view of the garden

July 2019 saw London crowned as the first National Park City It is stuffed full of parks and gardens of all shapes and sizes. My little corner of the city backs on to an area managed by The Woodland Trust. When I throw the curtains open in the morning I see trees and, for much of the year, the sun peeking through those trees. A few of those trees are in our garden and the remainder do their very best to overshadow it and to consume every drop of water in the ground. The garden is my sanctuary. It is where I go to be still and grounded in what is otherwise a hectic and crazy world. On the best of days - those days when Heathrow is not instructing pilots to fly into a holding pattern - it is possible to sit at the bottom of the garden on the edge of the woodland and hear nothing but birds. In London that is an enormous privilege. Huge.

Over the last few years we have reclaimed the garden from invading ivy, tree saplings, weeds and more ivy. We have replaced hazardous cracked and uneven concrete paths with smooth level paths. We have made the best of the fact that the garden is on the side of a hill by creating a mini terrace, not from front to back, but from side to side. Our trees are now under control thanks to our fantastic tree surgeon who manages the balance between the fact that we are in a conservation area and the fact that our buildings insurers insist on the trees being managed. We are also getting the hang of working in harmony with the surrounding trees - pruning the worst of the overhanging branches and devising raised beds that don't fill up with tree roots every summer. I am constantly reminded, though, that were I to stop tending it, it would quickly revert back to its woodland state.

In short, this blog is intended as a garden diary, in part to help remind me of the progress of the year. It is also yet another attempt at regular writing - something that I always yearn to do but somehow find excrutiatingly difficult.  If I get beyond three posts then I will be thrilled.