Gardening in the shade. Caroline's corner garden

I wanted to make a garden where there is almost no soil and only two hours of sun a day. I remembered Lanning Roper, the American writer and renowned gardener, living in London in the 60s and 70s who made a garden just from plants in pots. I have tried to do the same, keeping the plants to those that thrive in the shade. This is the third year. I have named it Caroline's Garden and as she likes flowers I am trying to find more of them that will thrive in this corner. On the left, below the hosta, is a Japanese anemone that is growing well.

The drawback is that in order to save the pots from cracking in the winter, you have to wrap each pot in two layers of bubble wrap which is a tedious job and then you have to look at the plastic shrouded pots all winter which is an eyesore.  Otherwise you can bring them into a greenhouse and keep them above freezing, but no higher than 40 °F because they must rest. If the financial gods are with us in the autumn that is what we will do.

Bella Pollen, writer

Three things you do not expect at a book party: superb food and drink, speeches lasting less than five minutes, (and only two of them), and plenty of places to sit and talk to people. All this happened at Bella Pollen's book party to celebrate her sixth book, a very entertaining memoir with illustrations called Meet Me in the In-Between. 

Though, perhaps the least likely fact about the evening might be that I had only met the author once before. And that was in 1983, the year I took this photograph of her in London.