Six questions on gardening: Sheila Simmons

What is your earliest memory of yourself or some other person gardening?

My earliest memory of gardening was of my father growing sweet peas. We lived in a small terraced house in inner city Birmingham and our side of the street had narrow gardens divided by privet hedges. There was a lawn with a path and flower border on one side. At the end of the lawn was the sweet pea bed. Beyond that I can’t remember clearly except for rhubarb and gooseberries. My father grew his sweet peas as if for exhibition, digging a trench and filling it with manure, compost and a topping of soil. Manure was plentiful because milk was delivered by horse and cart so many of the residents would go out with buckets and shovels to collect what they could for their manure heaps.