3:41pm Tuesday 9th March 2010
By Carl Brown
A UNIQUE garden with more than 300 different plants is the subject of a new book illustrating how to grow beautiful and vivid wildlife on the smallest of plots.
Journalist and avid gardener Martyn Cox has for many years cultivated his garden, which is at the rear of an ordinary terraced house and measures just 30ft by 15ft.
Mr Cox's unique garden features more than 20 fruit trees, including grapes, kiwis, figs, pomegranates, apples, strawberries, apricots, redcurrants as well as 10 different types of chillies.
Mr Cox, a freelance journalist who writes gardening columns for a number of newspapers and magazines, has written a book explaining how to make the most of small gardens.
Entitled Big Gardens In Small Spaces, the book reveals some of the secrets of his success.
Mr Cox said: “People think that if you have a small garden there is not a lot you can do, but there is.”
The father-of-two uses imaginative ways of cramming as many plants as possible into his garden, including using windowsills and fences to grow plants and reducing space used for compost, water butts and storage.
Mr Cox's garden, at the back of his house in Brunswick Street, Walthamstow, features a small pond, and a curved path to wooden decking.
The path in the summer is completely covered by greenery.
He said: “My children love it, their friends generally don't have gardens like this one.”
The garden was opened to the public last year to raise money for charity.
Mr Cox said: “Around 260 people visited, and many of them said they would never have imagined someone could do this to such a small garden.”
Mr Cox said people don't have to spend lots of money to make the most of their gardens, and flowers grown from seeds, which can be bought for a pound a packet, will suffice.
He said: “Having a nice garden can improve the quality of your life significantly.”
Big Gardens In Small Places is available now, priced £18.99.
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