Gardens - The Green Lungs Of England.

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I am an keen gardener now, but it's something I came to late in life. My son's friend is a professional gardener, and one day he brought some plants round and wondered if they were any good to me. They were surplus to his requirements, and he didn't want to see them wasted. I was in my 60s, and the extent of my gardening up till then had been to reluctantly mow our somewhat scrubby lawn, and that was only if I couldn't get my husband to do it. Anyway, I thought I'd give it a go, so I cleared a bit of ground, bunged them in, and waited to see what happened. I was surprised at the pleasure I got from watching them grow, and was delighted when they eventually bloomed. I was hooked. There was a time that most houses in England had a garden, no matter how small. I find it sad that the modern trend seems to be to build decking and patios where a garden would normally be. And extra parking areas take up garden space too. I can't help but wonder if all this contributes to the flooding recently experienced in this country. The water just runs off instead of soaking into the ground, and so overloads the drains and sewers. Gardens act as the lungs of England, and I do hope that enough people continue to cultivate them. They provide habitat for wildlife, insects and birds, and the world would be a poorer place without them. Photo is of my own garden in summer.