hat changes there have been since Graham and I started gardening here at East Ruston Old Vicarage some 50 years ago. We were thought mad to even of making a garden in an area with prairie-like fields, almost nonexistent hedges and very few trees, all within spitting distance of the North Sea in north-east Norfolk. A cold and inhospitable place, they said, but was it? And is it? Walking around various lanes near the Old Vicarage, it became clear to us that provided they had shelter, plants deemed to be half-hardy could thrive. This was demonstrated by a large, colourful drift of osteospermum, a South African daisy, growing under a hedge on a south-facing bank by a local cottage. Cheekily I begged a cutting and was rewarded with a handful of stems all of which had adventitious roots. Hey presto, we were off
