A bit about me...

Ken Stockley

Gardening.co.uk member Ken Stockley was one of our September prizewinners for his contribution to the forum that month.

Ken has clearly been busy in his garden. He says: 'I retired through diabetes seven years ago...well, I had my HGV licence revoked and, at 60, it's difficult to get another job. At the time, I was living in a top-floor flat and an opportunity came up for a ground-floor flat with a garden, so I jumped at the chance. The garden was overgrown with nettles and just about every other type of weed you could imagine. My brother-in-law is an orchard manager, so he sprayed the lot with industrial-strength weedkiller. That left me with a blank canvas.

'Just below the surface is a 15cm (6in) layer of roadstone, laid on coke slag, which made it murder to dig, so I covered the lot with membrane and gravel. Nearly all my growing is done in containers.

'Since setting up my garden, I have entered two Housing Society competitions. Last year, I won Best Vegetable garden. They did not have that category this year, but I came second in Best Container Garden.

Home-grown beets

'About my garden, the judges said: 'When Mr. Stockley moved to this property a few years ago, there was no garden, just a huge patch of nettles. After he had cleared them he found that the soil was very poor and, apart from a small border at one end, he decided that he would have to grow everything in containers. However, Mr Stockley not only has a good show of flowers in hanging baskets and bags on the fence, but he also keeps himself supplied with an amazing variety of vegetables, salad and fruit all grown in containers. Garden centres should have a 'Stockley' section to show people how versatile containers can be. Perhaps he should write a book for those people who don't have a garden, but would like to grow fruit and vegetables'.'

Read more about Ken via Ken's Cabin and Ken's Garden blog.