I bought my house after just two viewings. I had clocked the stone terrace and longer-than-usual garden. I noticed how the house filled with light from its many windows. What I failed to see was that my new home had only three usable windowsills, and all but one of those were in the basement.
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A good wide windowsill is the next best thing to a greenhouse. It is where most of us not blessed with conservatories and outhouses germinate our seeds. In my case, everything from cosmos to cucumbers has previously been nurtured there. Each spring, every available windowsill in my old flat was the scene of much green activity. The existence of such spaces was essential for getting warmth and daylight to my precious young seedlings. Quite why the lack of such architectural furniture in my new abode escaped my notice, I can only put down to the excitement of finding a property that felt like it could be home.
Last year, in desperation for suitable space, I ended up with seed trays on the kitchen floor
So, each spring, I have no choice but to do the windowsill shuffle, moving light-loving seedlings around on the meagre space available, so they all get a turn in the sunlight. I sometimes forget about them, only to find my bonny sunflower seedlings have, in the space of a couple of days, sprouted hair-thin white stems that collapse from trying to get enough spring daylight.
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It might also have been prudent to check the pH levels of my garden soil before I moved in. Had I known more details of what lay in wait, I wouldn’t have lost so many early plants, my rhododendron would have flowered more than once and I could have saved myself a lot of heartache. But I was more concerned with attending to the clapped-out central heating system than spotting the garden’s impregnable clay soil.
There have been some utterly delightful surprises too. Finding my basement lightwell to be the perfect location for ferns in an otherwise ‘difficult’ space. Discovering another hidden area – a tiny courtyard – that provides such benign conditions in winter, there is little need to bring tender plants inside. There is also a flat roof that offers the perfect conditions for potted conifers and azaleas, and a wall so hot I can ripen aubergines outside in a good year. I have learned about these spaces slowly, mostly through trial and error, and in many cases trial and success.
I quickly designated a long thin room to be my kitchen, as it had excellent skylights and was filled with light during the day. Had I thought it through, this would have been a much better winter garden or conservatory – the perfect place for growing an indoor vine and citrus trees in pots and, yes, for seed-sprouting. Instead, I have a kitchen that is so hot in summer I can hardly bear to switch the oven on. I still think about repurposing this room, pulling out the cupboards and fridge, and putting plant stands in their place, swapping the shelves for trellis and growing a bougainvillea where the extractor fans are. I do this each summer, though so far only in my dreams.
I still think about repurposing the kitchen, pulling out the cupboards and fridge, and putting plant stands in their place
To get round the lack of suitable plant-rearing space, I purchase ready-grown seedlings from trusted suppliers. If you do the maths, you’d never buy plants this way, but it’s the answer for those of us lacking a greenhouse to commandeer each spring. What arrives are jumbo seedlings in fine fettle, with thick stems you’d never achieve at home. It just feels, at least to this amateur gardener, like cheating. You cannot change the aspect of your garden but you can alter the way it functions. Wanting an area for shade-loving plants, I planted a Magnolia yunnanensis, an Amelanchier and a small group of acers to shade a little section of the garden. It is now successfully underplanted with wood anemones, primroses and hepatica.
Where my soil didn’t suit the plants I wished to grow, I bought large pots and coppers, filled them with ericaceous soil and gave a home to a Pinus mugo and azaleas. We do our best with what we have. I’m still learning about the spaces I have at my disposal. My little cellar has turned out to be perfect place to over-winter dahlia tubers, and my terrace is so hot in August I can ripen ‘Marmande’ tomatoes outdoors and grow basil from seed.
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It took me a long time to consider window boxes as an acceptable location for plants. With age, I have learned to love this extra green space, even to look forward to changing their contents each season. If they weren’t so visible they would make a much-needed space for propagation, nicely protected by the warm walls of the house and easily accessed for watering and TLC. If they were at the back of the house instead of the front, the deep boxes would be perfect for starting sweet-pea seedlings.
I get frustrated with the lack of growing space but, equally, I enjoy being resourceful. Last year, in desperation for suitable space, I ended up with seed trays on the kitchen floor directly under the skylights. Within a week or three, a collection of marigold ‘Indian Prince’ and assorted nasturtiums got their early start. However, they turned the kitchen into an obstacle course and subsequent outdoor plantings in the warmth of April soon caught up and fared better than those cosseted indoors. Not every seed needs to be worried over. Sometimes they just do their own thing.
To this day, I still stare in wonder at the first sprouts poking through the soil. The emergence of those tiny points of green, those signals of hope and light, is a joy of which I will never tire. I just wish I had room for more.
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