John and Jennifer Maudsley's beautiful garden

I have visited this garden before when it first open s part of the NGS about five years ago. This is not some large scale country estate landscaped by Capability Brown but an ordinary size suburban garden. Needless to say that what John and Jennifer have achieved is far from ordinary. They are an inspiration to anyone who has a back garden. The space is divide into three distinct rooms.

The hosta 'praying hands is in John's garden

I was struck by the magnificent display of hostas. In my experience unless you take extreme measures the slugs and snails embroider the leaves so they look like they are a bit of lacework. Not so with John's hostas. He tells me that he collects eggs shells all year and smashes them up and mulches his plants with them. The slugs don't like the rough surface they create.

I was taken with this Podophyllum called 'Spotty Dotty' which hides its flowers under its leaves

One of the other impressive features of the garden was its ingenious watering system which is plumbed in throughout the garden. John explained to me that 3.00am is ideal time to water as that is the optimum time for water pressure . Well he will not have to rise early tomorrow as the was a torrential down pour at 6.0'clock this evening. He certainly deserves a night off after all his hard workI decided not to take any photos of is 'third room' which was his vegetable patch. I have never seen such neat , weed free rows, so unlike my allotment. One thing we did have in common is that we are both growing 'heritage ' vegetables from the seed library of endangered varieties. John has a leek and I am growing a tall wrinkled pea called Gladstone.

and finally, especially for my daughter Katie, John is growing cucamelons. Katie is very enthusiastic about these fruits and has given me some. I'm pleased to report that mine look like John's.