Introduction

My wife and I live in an early Victorian terrace house about one mile from the centre of Plymouth. The area is heavily urbanised although the small cul-de-sac in which we live is something of an oasis of calm. The house has a small back yard (now filled mostly with a conservatory) and two small plots either side of the front steps. The main garden is over the road so I have the problem of lack of permanent power and water. I first started work on the main garden about 10 years ago but it is only in the last two years that I have really developed a passion for gardening.

Adjacent to the garden is a steeply sloping plot of land that runs down to a busy street. The land had not been tended for many years and was being used for fly tipping and other nefarious purposes. I tried to find the owner of the land (we thought either the Water Board or the Council) in order to remove a rotting and dangerous large lime tree but no one was prepared to take responsibility. I therefore decided to take advantage of the law of adverse possession where, if I maintain and use the land for 12 years, I can eventually gain title.

Work started in the summer of 2001 when I arranged for the tree to be removed (with the permission of the council of course). This cost a somewhat staggering £800! Early in 2002 I installed a gate and started construction of a fence around the land and the removal of all the rubbish. Four bags of hypodermics were removed as well as all sorts of other rubbish. I started planting later that year so have now had one full year for things to establish. I had to install paths and steps for access and also had a considerable amount of work preparing the soil.

This new plot of land is about 50 metres long and up to 10 metres wide. It slopes to the North West so gets no sun in winter. Despite that the site is very sheltered and a ground frost is rare. I left a small gap under the fence and the cold air rolls out. The adjacent road and high population density provides a considerable amount of heat and in the winter of 2002/2003 I only had two mornings where there was any sign of frost on the ground. This mild climate has encouraged me to base my planting around semi hardy exotics.

The idea of calling it the hanging gardens was suggested by the comment of a passer by.