Glasgow is a city of tenements, distinct from UK cities where – even in London – the self-contained house has been the preferred form. There are notable Glaswegian exceptions – pre and post-war housing schemes and earlier garden suburbs of villas and terraces – but the city’s streetscapes tend towards the uncompromisingly urban in character. In this realm the conventional private garden is a rarity, so Glasgow gardeners employ varying degrees of ingenuity to make the most of the limited spaces available to them. From window boxes and steps to the luxury of the strips of front garden, rarely more than a couple of metres deep, belonging to the proprietors of some ground floor flats, necessity is the mother of invention.