Gardens of your childhood

[Vivienne14]

I loved spending time in the garden even from an early age. It was a means of escape into a world of your own, away from all the stresses of family life. In our Kingstanding garden I learned not only to grow and look after plants but also to watch the tiny world of insects. Sitting in the sunshine watching the ants go about their chores or the butterflies flitting from one plant to another was another, enticing world.

This love all started early with water play. No fancy pool or buckets for us, just a baby bath filled with water and some bits and bobs from the kitchen.

It wasn’t just the back garden that became a playground, but the front lawn too (remember those before they were all dug up to make way for the car?). To my friend, Andrea and I, we were at the seaside in our fashionable bathing suits (yes those horrendous elasticated things that were very uncomfortable).

Soon my interest became more serious with helping Mum to keep the garden nicely trimmed. But with the occasional time off for a little sunbathing




But sadly, in the years to come both front and back gardens were left to their own devices, becoming overgrown and neglected. Next to me is the remains of a cold frame where I once kept a hedgehog. We fed him on apple pie! Mind you it was heaving with fleas and mysteriously disappeared, probably due to parental intervention.

However, this all gave me a good basis on which to tend my own gardens, a love which has stayed with me. Mmm, now time for a nice cuppa in the sunshine! Viv

 

[oldMohawk]

Me and my sister in our garden which was full of flowers.


Me and my sister a few years later


I'm not in this pic but I remember the aviary which was soon to be demolished and replaced by an air raid shelter and a chicken shed.

 

[Vivienne14]

Shame the aviary had to come down OM. A nice addition to the garden, but needs must. Looks like you had some rustic decorative fencing too, my Nan had that, very popular in the 1930s/40s. Most fencing seems to have been the type that was made of stakes tied together with wire. Maybe panel fencing didn’t exist until after this time. Viv.

 

[Tinpot]

For those of us that are older the photograph in the yard or garden was the only way we could record our life at home. It was the only place a box camera would work. Lots of family memories recorded in the garden.

We used to make tents with a cover over the clothes horse. Sometimes we would put on shows singing and dancing. Collecting rose petals to make perfume. A chance to be with Dad and plant seeds etc. Picking runner beans and blackberries. Watching the starlings flying into town in the late afternoon.

 

[Vivienne14]

That’s interesting about box cameras Tinpot. Many of our photos were taken in the garden, so I expect that’s why.

I have lots of memories of plants we had; hollyhocks whose dead flowers made a slippery mess on the ground when it rained, the fascination with ‘London Pride’ (never found out why it was called that), the little pimply, spreading sedums, and lots of tall irises. These were all plants that needed very little attention. I think most gardens had them.

My dad grew vegetables when I was young. He grew the standard ones like runner beans, potatoes, cabbages etc. But would often try something more adventurous (for the time) like celeriac and tobacco. He used to take me up to a shop on Warren Farm Road near the junction with Hawthorn Road to browse and buy seeds. They came in brown or green paper packets.

Most front gardens had privet hedges, nicely shaped and clipped. Our front garden had it on all sides. The smell of it still takes me back to those days.




And no garden was complete without some crazy paving. We had a path in the front garden leading to the front door and a crazy paved area at the back, which today would be called a ‘patio’ but ours definitely had no such name in those days ! Viv.

 

[jmadone]

Me and my sister in our garden which was full of flowers.
View attachment 169021

Me and my sister a few years later
View attachment 169022

I'm not in this pic but I remember the aviary which was soon to be demolished and replaced by an air raid shelter and a chicken shed.
View attachment 169023

Dad had an aviary in the back garden. He had both Budgies and Canaries but later just concentrated on Canaries. He was a member of the South Birmingham Cage Bird Society and I can remember going with him when he entered birds into their shows which were held in the upstairs function room at the Bulls Head pub in Hay Mills. Sadly no photos remain.

 

[oldMohawk]

Another childhood garden photo of me and my sister ... a bit creased. I was surprised how many of my family photos were damaged before they came into my posession ... one of the problems with paper prints.


A photo taken on the same day was in much better condition.

 

[ChrisM]

Here's a picture of me at a few months old in ours in Streetly. The first and only genuine (i.e. not colourised) colour photo of me at that age. Nothing remarkable about that, normally, but it WAS the summer of 1936 and so I suppose that makes it a bit unusual.

(With my elder brother and sister of 1922 and 1927 vintage respectively. Sutton Park on the horizon).

Chris

 

[ChrisM]

And my sister again, possibly on the same day because she's wearing the same dress and the sun's still out.

(Sunny days but with clouds looming for those who cared to see. Less than three years later the bird table on the right would have been moved and, where it stood, Dad would have been excavating a huge hole which would soon become our air-raid shelter. Perhaps my earliest memory is of peering down at him whilst he constructed the walls).

Chris

 

[ChrisM]

Fast forward 6 years - July 1942. Same people, same garden, it's just the quality of the film which has gone backwards.

Dad loved Russell lupins. And so did I. In that drab, black and white world, they took my breath away.

Chris

 

[Vivienne14]

Had forgotten about lupins Chris. We also had them. I loved to see them in the garden. Lots of varied colour and height. Love the pagoda swing too.

The lawnmower I’m pushing in the photo I posted earlier must have been a Webb. Not sure if we owned it or borrowed it. I think it’s most likely that we borrowed it because I don’t remember ever seeing it stored anywhere.

They were local mowers according to Graces Guide which, in this advert points out that they came with a grass box. The one we used never had a grass box, so it meant finishing the job by manually raking up the grass. This was fed to my rabbits and guinea pigs. Here I am holding Mandy. She was not a happy bunny, she regularly bit me or any other person she took a fancy to. Viv.

 

[ChrisM]

Yes, Viv, we had a Webb just like that. A Wasp I think. Hard work and I was quite an age before I could manage it. Was always told to keep my fingers WELL CLEAR. (Just like with Mum's mangle outside the kitchen door). And look at the price, nearly ten pounds. I don't know the date but it's almost certainly a heck of a chunk out of an ordinary man's weekly wage.

Chris

 

[Brummie a long time ago]

No front garden . Front door on to pavement. Back garden was a bit barren, it had been scraped back to earth. Later it was lawned over to protect poor little me from damage, and flowers planted.


Behind me is the wall to the 'boneyard', a meat processing facility mask: smell all of its own). For orientation, I am facing Fazeley Street. Between the fence and the wall a shed was later put up, where I learned to do 'things' with wood and also with wires.


The industrial building with the windows top right is in Barn Street. I am tricycling towards Fazeley Street.

My deep understanding of gardening (yeah right) was born in this environment. Various moves had better gardens, but the die was cast. Luckily I married an enthusiastic gardener (other boxes were ticked as well), and now we have space for experimentation. I can still only admire in amazement though, my input is limited to digging.

Andrew.

 

[mw0njm.]

sadly we had no garden at our back to back.in nechells but when we moved to phillip st aston all we had was a big slab of concrete the top of the shelter. and millers window looked into our garden so dad put up a high fence. when we moved again to a nice house in shard end with a garden.we had a webb push you guts out mower like vivs. it skidded over the grass more times than it cut it. but it was worth it to have a garden at last

 

[Vivienne14]

I can imagine the joy of having a garden for the first time Pete, a space to play and enjoy the seasons. Sadly not everyone was fortunate to have a garden as a child. Even us children in my street took it for granted and usually played in the alleyways and street despite having gardens. The street was much more of an adventure for us and away from the parents ! But if you wanted peace and quiet, there was no substitute for the garden. Viv.

 

[mw0njm.]

true viv dad was thrilled.more so than us children to get a garden he planted veg one side and flowers the other side.we still spent most of our time getting up to mischief elsewhere out of sight of mom and dad

 

[ChrisM]

Dad was intensely proud of his garden, created by his own hands in a burst of enthusiasm following his move from Croydon Road, Erdington with its little back garden to the vast open spaces of rural Streetly. From little more than a ploughed field in September 1931



To a maturing, colourful paradise five years later, in 1936, with all its structures - swing, Wendy House, ornamental pond, pathways, rustic-work, concrete "crazy paving" and all the planting....... The view from the house



And back again towards the house



And another view - pond, Wendy House, swing - and catmint, everywhere, just like the Russell lupins!



I was so lucky to have this to play in from as long back as I could remember. It went through a few minor changes as the years went by but he, too, was able to enjoy it for a further 38 years after these colour pictures were taken. I still have no idea how he achieved it all in so short a time.

Chris

 

[mw0njm.]

Dad was intensely proud of his garden, created by his own hands in a burst of enthusiasm following his move from Croydon Road, Erdington with its little back garden to the vast open spaces of rural Streetly. From little more than a ploughed field in September 1931



To a maturing, colourful paradise five years later, in 1936, with all its structures - swing, Wendy House, ornamental pond, pathways, rustic-work, concrete "crazy paving" and all the planting....... The view from the house

View attachment 169100

And back again towards the house

View attachment 169101

And another view - pond, Wendy House, swing - and catmint, everywhere, just like the Russell lupins!

View attachment 169102

I was so lucky to have this to play in from as long back as I could remember. It went through a few minor changes as the years went by but he, too, was able to enjoy it for a further 38 years after these colour pictures were taken. I still have no idea how he achieved it all in so short a time.

Chris

how beautiful

 

[Vivienne14]

I’d have loved your garden Chris! The Wendy house with its tiled roof is adorable. That would have been my dream. Over time they become, not only houses, but dens and shops (and in the case of my daughter’s Wendy house it became a cat hospital for a stray, injured cat until it was taken into a cat home. Our dog at the time was not happy about it moving in!).

The luxury of having a garden that isn’t overlooked is perfect too. In our Kingstanding house we were perched on a ridge. The ground beyond the bottom of the garden dropped down considerably, and although there were houses built there, they weren’t visible. So it meant our view was completely open across to Great Barr. On a clear blue sky day you could imagine this was the seaside and Great Barr in the distance was another country across the water. However in the winter it was very exposed, but did a good job of drying the washing on a dry windy day. Mum had an extremely long prop, these sometimes broke. The washing line was attached to a tall stake at one end and looped up through a pulley near the bathroom window. I wondered (but never found out for sure) if this was to help with washing laundry in the bathroom by directly pegging it out from the bathroom window and moving it along using the pulley. Viv.

 

[ChrisM]

Strange, that, Viv, we were on a ridge too, hence the name my parents gave to the house - Windyridge.

My playground extended into the ploughed field behind - still farmed then but later buried under what is now Kingscroft, off the Chester Road. Beyond that, another field, "the Riding School Field", built on in the 1950s by McLeans. And then the Thornhill Road houses and Sutton Park. As I said Streetly WAS rural then.

The Wendy House - this probably shows the day of its unveiling, in 1934 or 1935. (It was kept secret during its creation as it was just Daddy, at it again and now building a toolshed for himself. Wonderful thing, even having its own working fireplace and chimney).

The proud new owner posing in front of it.

(Have a lot more stuff like this but I'll shut up about it now.......)

Chris

 

[Vivienne14]

Wow, Tudor beams and leaded lights. Your dad must have thoroughly enjoyed creating the house. Looks wonderful! Viv.

 

[pjmburns]

For those of us that are older the photograph in the yard or garden was the only way we could record our life at home. It was the only place a box camera would work. Lots of family memories recorded in the garden.

We used to make tents with a cover over the clothes horse. Sometimes we would put on shows singing and dancing. Collecting rose petals to make perfume. A chance to be with Dad and plant seeds etc. Picking runner beans and blackberries. Watching the starlings flying into town in the late afternoon.

Do you mean a camera like this?
Clearing out my late Father's flat I came across this. I have no idea of it's age but am fairly sure he took it with him in the army when he went with the British Forces to Palestine in 1946.
It brought back memories of a holiday in Cliftonville (I think) where I was allowed to use it to take my first photo - a blurred shot of my Mother writing postcards.

 

[ChrisM]

It looks like a 1939-1943 model which would tie in with the Palestine adventure, Janice.

(All or most of my pictures would have been taken by another 1930s Kodak model, this one a folding one with bellows. And a pain to operate. It produced large negatives - 120 size - which gave remarkable definition if all other things were equal - which they often weren’t! As for the subject, it all trained one to hold a fixed grin for what seemed like an eternity.

Chris

 

[Vivienne14]

I was looking at this photo in connection with another thread. It was taken in our back garden in Kingstanding in 1953. I've only just noticed the Union Jack attached to the front of the bike. This tells me the photo must have been taken around the time of the Queen's coronation - 70 years ago. I wonder if any youngsters will be attaching flags to their bikes next week ?! Viv

*

 

[rosie]

We always used the back gate at Gran's house. Grandad grew pinks both sides of the path and their perfume was wonderful. He grew Honesty too and I liked to separate the brown dried pods to reveal the transparent part.
rosie.

 

[MWS]

Most of the gardens seemed to have an apple (or pear) tree when I was younger. All 3 of my nans' houses did and my great aunt did and we regularly went scrumping locally in the autumn. I suppose it can't have been much fun to have groups of kids invading your garden.

Hardly know anyone nowadays with one.

 

[Richard Dye]

Most of the gardens seemed to have an apple (or pear) tree when I was younger. All 3 of my nans' houses did and my great aunt did and we regularly went scrumping locally in the autumn. I suppose it can't have been much fun to have groups of kids invading your garden.

Hardly know anyone nowadays with one.

Yes, we had an Apple tree, very green and sauer I always thought. My mother always wanted to wait until they got bigger, then they always got filled with worms. When they dropped onto the lawn and rotted in to brown mush. My father gave up on the lawn and garden for that matter, we only had a wilderness!

 

[mw0njm.]

my gran had 2 pear trees and a apple tree, the pears were small but sweet. lots of blackberry and apple pies,as we grew the novely wore off and we never bothered with them.
i have a apple tree in my ground i dont eat the apples the birds wasps and grubs see to them