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Ed Jenkins's Garden |
 Colourful SurroundingsI believe the design and architecture of buildings give us variety in our otherwise dull suburban surroundings. I feel that the facades of buildings are the hedgerows of suburbia. On this premise Brackyn Road becomes a somewhat drab and uninteresting world, especially for us who spend every day walking through it and living within it.With this drabness as my incentive I set about gradually reducing the greyness by cultivating the area fronting both my and my neighbours' houses, and changing it into a more interesting place, full of variety and colour all year round. I arrived in Cambridge in 1984 and although I liked the house I'd purchased, I realised the garden was going to use up all my spare time. Both the front and back were extremely unkempt with waist-high grass alongside extensive, uncultivated spaces. My work as a tutor in a Cambridge College demanded a great deal of my time and so the job of converting my gardens into pleasant, productive pieces of land was going to be a long tortuous one! Eventually, after a large amount of digging, removal of coils of cable, 'breeze' blocks and plastic containers, I'd managed to make a section suitable for vegetable growing, but the East-West aspect of the garden and the high adjoining fences put paid to this ambition over the first growing season! Gradually a variety of shrubs; Forsythia, Syringa (Lilac), Philadelphus (Mock Orange), Blue Spruce, Cornus (Flowering Dogwood), Buddleia (Butterfly Bush), Spiraea and Japonica (Ornamental Quince) were planted together with a winter-flowering Lonicera (Honeysuckle) to help form a hedge at the bottom end. In addition, borders were dug, into which a variety of Grasses such as Stipa 'tenuifolia', Ferns such as Polystichum Setiferum (No Spores!), and Polyanthus and Spring Bulbs were planted. In 2003, after thinning out many of the shrubs, I decided to re-design the back garden. The straight concrete path, which dominated the scene, was converted into a patio-type space containing a Bench and Rockery (Alpines), with strategically placed stepping-stones placed as a lead through an Archway towards a 'Water Feature' and the newly thinned Shrub area at the lower end. This has now matured into a very pleasant space; and is great for 'chilling out' on Summer evenings. Meantime after gradually adding, and ever widening, borders around the front lawn the front garden area has matured nicely with varieties of Helleborus (Hellebore), Anemone (Japonica), and Aster together with Kniphofia (Red Hot Poker), Alstroemeria (Peruvian Lily) and Fuchsia flourishing all around. With a large variety of Spring Bulbs flowering early in the year; this area now gives a splash of colour all year round and provides an extensive source of pollen and nectar for the insects Like every garden mine continues to develop naturally year on year and I feel my role becoming more of that of a custodian, just keeping growth in check, and providing enjoyment, not only for myself, but also for all those living around and nearby. Edward Lloyd Jenkins. 
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