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Sandrock Road

I lived in a house-share in Sandrock Road, Lewisham for nearly 5 years, during which time I got well and truly bitten by the gardening bug. The initial motivation was to tidy the garden up for my cats! Because I was renting and could never afford to spend much on the garden, I got pretty interested in gardening with annuals. A few cheap packets of seed was all that was needed. There were some minor disasters. Sowing sunflower seed direct and ending up with about 8 plants (slugs and squirrels ate the rest) was one. However, callendula, alyssum, iberis and other old cottage garden favourites seemed to love the dry soil in the old flower beds. Further up I just cleared the ivy back and attempted to keep nature at bay.

It's fair to say I miss this garden. The absolute best bit of it was how steep it was, and how secluded one could feel at the very top, lurking in the old Anderson shelter. Initially this corrugated air raid shelter was only a myth. It couldn't actually be seen. There were rumours that a family of foxes had made it their home. The trouble was, that you couldn't actually get up the stairs to it, it was so overgrown.

My pal Gavin came round to help out, it was the only time I ever had any help in this garden. My housemates were not keen to get involved!	Finally, the anderson shelter is visible.	I mowed the lawn with a strimmer; the only powered tool we had at the time.

Mid-summer year one (?); calendula, alyssum, iberis.	This was the year after, I think.
The view to the right of the main flower bed, showing hebes, nasturtiums and some very dodgy looking trellis...	What to do if you have felled lots of small trees and find an old shopping trolley at the back of your garden... have a bonfire!