My gardening heritage

Whilst on holiday in London recently I decided to visit the house I was bought up in from the age of 5 ....... post war council housing estate in south east london.     I was curious to see if the garden my dad had built was still there.  It was and here are a few pictures.  It was a mamoth construction so i hadn't really expected that the new owners would be able to dig it up even if they had the inclination to try.  The lady who lives there now was really welcoming and so excited to let us round the back for a look around.

Above is a picture of the front garden,  it had a pond with a bridge over, wishing well by the side, filled in now, there was once a waterfall.   How 70's is that!

Out to the back, a large paved area leading down to more crazy paving with raised beds, another pond with waterfall, wishing well,  ending at the back ....... the nerve centre of all operations, the shed.

It looks tiny from this view, covered in Ivy ..... but after 40 ish years it was all still there and sturdy as a rock.... they don't buildem like that these days!

My mum tells me that when they dicided to take on the task,  they ordered as much crazy paving as they could afford, it was smaller than they had expected and not being able to afford more, they collected what ever they could from where ever they could.   If my mum saw some on the street, she'd pop it in the pram and bring it home!.  Granite squares were used to build the raised beds ......  My dad had noticed that contractors were digging up an old cobbled street in east london, a word in their ear and the cobbles were his.   Take a look at the garden and be amazed at how many trips he made to get those cobbles home on his moterbike through the balckwall tunnel!  As he'd had half the street, the contractors insisted he take the street name, carved into a block of granite and now cemented into one of the raised bed walls.   Unfortunately I didn't realise that while I was there and so missed the opportunity to photograph that bit of history .... next time.