I am lacking my London backyard however contemplating that Brexit, each plant wants a licence to journey – Telegraph.co.uk

In my fairly modest front garden, there, to the right, by the big old stone wall and the vine, is a pool. That sounds excellent, doesn’t it? Especially as in the summers here the heat frequently climbs up into the high 30s. Other than– like the bamboo– my finest Esther Williams impersonation in flower swimming cap and water resistant eye-makeup would show up to any poor, passing soul. And there is another, more delicate problem. There is no getting around it. Believe me, I’ve tried. I’ve looked at it at every angle. The pool is uterus shaped.While this might

be very convenient for all of my full-moon witchcraft rituals, I usually like a little more privacy for them and besides, the candlewax and woad get everywhere. The pump is broken so it fills with rainwater, when rain there is, which then can’t get away. When we arrived in September, this suggested that I was, with no warning or training, the owner of the town’s most respected mosquito breeding programme, and here we are cursed with tiger mosquitos, which do not even have the courtesy to make a noise before damaging your pale, uncovered flesh. The late Rosemary Verey never had to put up with this. The swimming pool will need to go. Nobody can design out a uterus that uses up a quarter of their garden. That’ll be another 5,000 euros, thank you.All of this to do prior to I even get to the enjoyable part, which is the planting. This presents new difficulties. In my London garden, I was consumed with trying to get flowers to grow in the shade. Here I have the opposite problem, with 300 days of sunlight a year. However all of a sudden, those delicate flowers I coaxed into life in my city garden are too simple to grow. So simple that they’re on every roundabout in such abundance that I now think they may be repulsive, common even. I’ve been thinking of purchasing– at more eye-watering expense – a cloud-pruned olive tree as a centrepiece for the middle bed, now I see our veterinarian’s workplace has four of them in their car park and I stress they’re the Mediterranean equivalent of privet. Into my garden notebook go my dreams: Lavender? Mimosa? Wisteria? How many citrus? Is Russian sage too much of a roundabout plant? Is it too hot for hydrangeas?Truthfully, this is all a

type of displacement activity. More than with photos of my old house, when pictures of our London garden appear unexpectedly on my phone, something catches in my throat. I can’t bring myself to change the photo of it that’s the banner on my Twitter account, all thymes and rosemary tumbling on to brick paths and arches of pink Constance Spry roses.We planted that garden from scratch over 20 years earlier, and it

became the backdrop to some of the happiest moments in our lives. So many Sunday mornings included weeding empty glasses from the flower beds and cigarette butts out of the gravel after another party. And I miss my plants, a lot of them presents from buddies, cuttings and slips from their own gardens. We couldn’t bring any of them with us, as given that Brexit you require an expensive licence for each one, and I require every 5,000 euro I can lay my hands on at the moment. So we distributed anything in pots around north London, often to the very same individuals who provided to us. It makes me pleased to think of them thriving in their new homes, with old friends.Time passes quickly. Last autumn, knowing I would not have the ability to plant a proper garden yet, however also that life without flowers is an unpleasant thing, I threw a hundred or two bulbs into a lots big pots and put them like sentries up the steps to the front door. Now the daffodils are a foot high and the tulips poke through the soil like so might little bit green beaks. I know that as much as I planted them to cheer myself up, as a place marker for future possibilities, a front garden is something you likewise give to other individuals. They deserve a lot more than a uterus pool and forest of bamboo. Watch this area( through the railings). Have you began a new life abroad? Inform us about your experience in the remarks section listed below