SouthSunSpot

I’ve been a passionate gardener since before my teens when I was given a small cactus. I soon had a greenhouse full, and was also cultivating the neglected wasteland that was the very small mostly concrete backyard of the family home and business. I progressed through three further family gardens until Uni forced a break, including the disposal of my cactus collection.

In 1975 I had the first garden of my own, and am now on my fifth since then, with no plans for moving on. In almost all the gardens I have had to start from scratch, with little worth keeping from previous owners’ efforts. My preference has always been for gardens which are dominated by shrubs and tress, with perennials interplanted. With each house move I have taken with me the bulk of my garden by means of cuttings, seeds or seedlings, divisions, or even the original plant, but my gardens seem always to have been so densely planted that when taking even a Pantechnicon full of plants the remaining garden still looks full for the new owners.

I have experienced many different types of soil through the various gardens: town-centre dust, heavy acid clay, fertile free-draining loam, reclaimed beach, and now thin soil over solid chalk.

I purchased a greenhouse in 2005 and have been rebuilding the cactus collection, growing many from seed.

I have lots of plants to add here. I would like to catalogue my cacti collection but it’s a daunting task, perhaps something for the dark winter days when I can’t get out in the garden.