The Joy of life in miniature

Gardening doesn’t always need to take place in the great outdoors, but as a child  not only was I inspired by the small plot my grandad gave me to grow annuals but I spent many a happy hour planting flowers and vegetables, without leaving the comfort of my family homes kitchen. I didn’t even need to get my hands muddy, or get up from my chair.

When I was small, there were few things I liked more than being taken to the local toy shop to spend birthday or Christmas money or even the money I had earned from my paper-round. 

My collection of Matchbox cars was already well on the way to being complete when I became quietly obsessed with Britains Floral Garden which appealed due to the fact that for 2/- ( YES FOLKS TEN PENCE !! NOW I FEEL OLD !!! ) I could afford the small packets of cellophane-fronted Floral Garden boxes containing tiny, flattened plastic plants, to which you had to attach even more microscopic flower heads, after separating them from what is technically known as a ‘sprue’.

They could then be ‘planted’ into sturdy brown plastic ‘flowerbeds’ by pressing them into holes with a tiny spade- handled planting tool, at which point they would miraculously ‘grow’ into upright plants, or if you pushed too hard, disappear through the holes. There were asters, gladioli, sunflowers, lupins, delphiniums, rhododendrons, shrub, climbing and standard roses, and garden accessories such as tiny mowers, rollers, lawn sprinklers, hoses, a swing seat and a dovecot.

The collection grew, adding vegetable plots, shed, greenhouse and row upon row of glorious runner beans, marrows and cabbages and sprouts ! Whole gardens could then be created..mown and striped lawns were a must ! Beds were formal or sweeping and curved and of course always surrounded by brick-edging ! The style of garden must have been modelled on a typical suburban plot of the 1950s, and was probably the sort of thing Percy Thrower would have liked, with hollyhocks, mini conifers, rockeries and crazy paving, and even a glorious rock pool ! The only things missing were a Monkey-Puzzle tree for the lawn and a few Pampas Grasses....to be continued..