(photos: Nicola Stocken)
We moved into this house in September 2004. The garden needed some work but unfortunately so did the house. Not having the finances or stamina to tackle both at once, we waited until the winter of 2007/2008 to begin on the outside.
The work took quite a few weeks as we stripped the site back to basics and put in a fair amount of hard landscaping. The first plants went in the ground in June 2008 - some salvaged from the existing beds, a few left over from my Chelsea garden three years earlier, and some additional structural and stock plants I somehow justified purchasing.
Seven years on and the garden is relatively mature. We have a host of child-friendly features from sunken trampoline, sandpit and playhouse, to mud pie kitchens and marshmallow toasting fire pits - as well as more traditional mixed borders, ornamental vegetable garden and clematis-draped gazebo.
The garden at 109 High Street is open by appointment with the NGS (National Gardens Scheme).
