Botanical- Government Approved Gardening- Horse Chestnut Tree.

The Horse Chestnut tree in the garden must be at least 30 years old. I think it came from Trafford Park when I was about 5, so even older than that. It has been in a pot in the back garden for all of its life except when it needed a bigger one. Every spring it wakes up and shows you its sticky heads and new baby soft green leaves. It has since broken free from its pot and has rooted itself in the ground. This is pleasing.

I have some babies grown from it in the greenhouse and it has been a challenge to keep them going as a certain squirrel called Des broke in and ate eleven of them. Reburied in place of the conkers where some empty peanut shells. I can't dwell on those days as it makes me get a bit hot and twitchy.