So that has to be the place for my witches garden with all the herbs neccessary for making healing and refreshing teas, footbaths and magic spells. Here and there amongst the herbs are flowering perenials, mostly hardy geraniums and campanulas that enjoy growing in soils with high lime content. Here is a picture of strange geranium, that started life as a dainty pink striped little darling called G. sanguinum striatum but has since then developed a split personality. Morning sun and afternoon shade are not ideal tomato growing conditions, but since the other areas have even less direct sunshine, my tomato plants, physallis and squash end up being planted in containers next to the herb garden. You aren't supposed to put plants in that close to the house, but these manage to thrive on the small amounts of water that reach them there.
Winters here are very long, dark and cold, they seem to stretch on forever.
By the time the first seed catalogues arrive in January we are all desperate for the sight of something green and growing. Which makes resisting the lure of all those gorgeous seed catalogue photographs even more difficult. From the size of my annual seed order you would probably get the impression I had several acres to fill and not just a few shady metres. Containers have provided a solution, each year I fill pots, hanging baskets, urns, bowls and buckets with gravel and soil in an attempt to house all those spur of the moment impulse bought seeds, and each year the path to my door becomes more congested with trailing, hanging, climbing and creeping plants. My favourites last year were the wild sweet peas from Italy they flowered until late autumn with loads of small bicoloured mauve flowers and spread a delightful scent.