My main problems with the Magic Garden are that I always have bigger ambitions than the space can contain and I always think I can do more in any time period than there really any possibility of doing. I used to have an allotment until I had to admit that I didn’t have the time & problems with my spine were creating difficulties with tending it. I love fresh vegetables though so I still attempt to grow them in pots, & troughs. I have some success particularly with said crops, kale, garlic and potatoes. on the patio. I also am very successful with runner and climbing beans - to be honest I’m better at growing than eating these.

Even in winter I keep the troughs full & pick salad throughout the season.

The patio space is almost entirely used by my pot, container and unplanted acquisitions although my faithful old rocking chair is much used Bsides the troughs with my vegetables & herbs, I also have troughs of geraniums, fuchsias & lobelia; rather a lot of fruit bushes - a topic for the future.

I have a wee forest of bushes & ‘trees’ that are in pots - mostly not as an ideal solution but as the only way to have things like my monkey-puzzle, seen in the background here. Even if its not very tidy & I lack places to put patio furniture, I rather like my collection of plants as well as taking pride in how much I can get into my garden.