Blooming London
Before I lived in London, I was the kind of person who couldn’t even keep a house- plant alive. Ten in London, after an en- tire adult life of apartment living, I found myself as the keeper of a small garden in the back of our 19th century terrace house in Battersea, and a funny thing happened: things grew. My strawberries fattened into November, jasmine lingered in January, tulips popped in February and tendrils of passion flower laced across our back fence in the summertime, planted by some dweller before me. I wanted to take full credit for this bounty, but I had a feeling
London had more to do with it than I did. London and much of the UK has the
advantage of sitting at the receiving end of the Gulf Stream, a huge Atlantic Ocean current that brings warm, moist Caribbean waters across the Atlantic to the shores of the British Isles. Te UK’s northerly lati- tude also takes the edge off the searing light and heat of the sun that ruins many a garden – or mispositioned houseplant – in more southerly climes. In short, London is a forgiving place to be a gardener and to enjoy gardens, a place I came to think of as gardening for dummies. You almost can’t
mess it up or miss a bloom. In fact, I knew gardening was a big deal in the UK when I asked a male, twenty-something colleague what he was doing one May weekend and he replied: “I’m going to work on my garden.” Dipping your toe into garden appreci- ation in London is easy. Almost 50 per- cent of London is considered ‘green space’, and this year the city will become the first-ever National Park City in the world. London National Park City is a grassroots project that advocates for half of the city area to consist of green and
“London is a forgiving place to be a gardener and to enjoy gardens; you almost can’t mess it up or miss a bloom.”
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