A little yard, totally enclosed by a brick wall apart from a gate into the alley behind. It was almost all paved except one bit where there was a one-foot wide flowerebed, a toilet at the back, a dustbin fitted into the back wall and for a period of time a little henhouse where cockerals were kept.
This is the first sort of garden that George was accustomed to and it backed onto the house where he was born and would live until he was six years old. It was a very far cry from the gardens that he would later own and treasure so dearly.
George first developed an interest in gardening at school and it soon became one of his favourite subjects. He disliked the stereotype subjects such as History and Georgraphy and so his weekly lesson outdoors tending the school gardens was a very welcome diversion.
In fact, as fate would have it, it would be many more years before George was able to rekindle this hobby and tend his very own garden.
When the family moved to their second house in Speke, George's dad had a garden about ten feet by ten feet at the front, but then quite a long one that was about twenty-four feet at the rear. Everything was grown there. There were flower beds and lawns and then behind the shed there was jumping beans, runner beans and cabbages. In the front garden there were Golden Rod, Lupins and Night-Scented stock.
The family also had a plot of land at Hale, just outside Liverpool. In those days it was countryside and it was very fertile. George remembers digging it and getting his fingers into it. He says that he planted many things when he was young and then picked them and had 'spuds' and such like.
