About Traditional Gardening

Traditional natural style gardening.

Right from the young age of 15 years i was already actively engaged in; and spending a lot of time in nature. Regularly going missing for long hours and sometimes days leaving my parents wondering where i was and what I was doing.

Camping out for days with my mates was common, either in farmers fields or even in the back garden was regular for me. Not much has changed really in that regard, now i still camp out for days fishing on rivers and peaceful picturesque  secluded lakes..

In my youth I would be out of the house early morning around 4am to go fishing, searching for birds nests, swimming in local lakes on hot summer days. Exploring woodlands and streams and building rock and wood dams, and even sailing down the streams in a tin bath, oh the good old days! 

In the local Woods was like a small Forrest; I would be climbing trees and collecting conkers to find the best ones and win the school unofficial conker championship.

Not forgetting a lot of time with mates making swings and even an aerial runway, made up of wire between two trees over a valley, a pully and a stick for handlebar. We would freewheel down to the lower tree and drop off before hitting the tree trunk, thinking back now, it is a wonder I am still alive, but enjoy some great memories. 

Wild pets and domesticated pets.
As well as the traditional budgies, dogs, and the like I learned to  hand rear from my hatched eggs that was lying around my home made bird aviary at the bottom of our garden, I had a pet quale that followed me everywhere, I had many tortoises too. 

Then I also had many wild pets such as rescued birds like magpies, owls, ducks etc, and others like wild hedgehogs that then led me onto breeding and keeping.

• Prize winning bird breading in garden aviary.
• Bantam hens breeding with fresh eggs eaten every day.
• Ornamental tree Duck breeding in home made pond and custom made boxes.
• locally caught fish keeping in garden  pond.
• Egg hatching and chick rearing in home made incubator. 
• Plant, seed and flower cultivation and growing, all while still at school at only 15 years old.

Born into a family of keen gardeners I have always been surrounded by a lot of house plants and busy parents always tending the garden. We had a home made garden pond with four colourful breading tree ducks, two Aylesbury ducks like small geese. We had a home made bird aviary with champion winning breading pairs of Zebra finches. all of which I managed to get to breed them and rear and feed the chicks. 

          Tree or Wood Duck   :               Aylesbury duck                :                    Zebra Finch

Home made bird aviary, free range chickens, duck’s, Quails and a fish pond.
I made the bird aviary, bred the birds, we had four bantam hens with a cockerel that crowed first light every morning, and fresh eggs every day. I made the hen coop, bred the ducks too, and made an incubator for hatching quale eggs that were just lying around on the floor of the aviary and successfully hatched ducks and quails and watched them hatch out the eggs all while still at school!

 Happy memories of the chickens that like the ducks roamed freely around the garden. Trying unsuccessfully to breed the ornamental tree ducks, I hit the library and discovered they needed nest boxes on stilts above the ground, with a ladder type run for the ducks to enter the nest box.

I read they are poor parents often disowning the ducklings, or would not sit on the eggs. so the ducks bred and laid eggs then the eggs were removed and put under the hens who hatched the ducks eggs successfully.

The cockerel flew up onto a wooden rustic arch every morning at first light, and crowed waking us all up, not popular with the neighbour’s though, but this was how I spent my days as a young lad.

Family Business of Florist shops and flower market stalls.
My sister had her own shop  as a florist in Hindley near Wigan called Four Seasons Florists, next to Hindley Library. My brother also had another florist shop in Manchester and a few market stalls as well. Mother and father also worked in these shops and mother was still helping out in the flower shop in her nineties…

During the busy days like valentines day, weddings and funerals all the family pitched in and we worked well into late night eating local pizza and flower arranging until all the orders were done. 

I was always around gardening, growing from seeds and cuttings, that often came from the Southport flower shows so that my parents got a hold of the best stock and genetics, that in those days you could not acquire from any other source. My father had built in his shed a large seed propagator the full length of the shed, with sliding glass panels on the top, with heated cable under the soil to keep the seeds and cuttings warm with good humidity, all home made as well!

So I learned from great direct experience about the best methods for rooting cuttings and sowing and propagating seeds successfully from a very early age. I later on developed a passion for camping and fishing, my other brother was a scout leader, although i did not join the scouts i did go on the camping holidays with them.

I experienced scary midnight walks on hills and mountains of Scotland and the lake district, swimming chasing trout with goggles and snorkels I loved it. My father got into growing mushrooms, something I took to very well, I have grown lots of mushrooms and am introducing this to my daughter Chloe.

I have enjoyed foraging and eating wild mushrooms then cooking them while camping which is a rare delight on a warm sunny morning as the sun rises with some bacon and eggs next to a lake full of ducks and wildlife. So that is my early background on creating with nature, and my introduction to growing and gardening, even before leaving school!  

Now I offer all these skills and more as a unique gardening maintenance service
in Wigan, Manchester, Bolton and surrounding areas.