Proof that gardens can be created out of the smallest, strangest spaces, here are a few snaps taken on a summer’s walk along the Regent’s Canal towpath in the heart of London.

The canal carves a nine-mile watery path through Little Venice, past London Zoo and through Camden, onwards to the Thames and the ghost of the docks. All along its towpaths are tied brightly-painted narrowboats, their cheery English names emblazoned in fairground typography.

The narrowboat community can be sensed through the pride they obviously share in their portable little gardens. Shared waterside seats, storm-lights and climbers occur all along the canal-sides, and lush displays – of flowers, veg, herbs and sometimes quite mature shrubs – are crammed into containers of every size and type.

Vignettes fashioned from flotsam and flora show how even the most restricted spaces come alive under an artistic eye for detail.

And I do love the idea of hundreds of tiny gardens that, when their owners fancy a change of scenery, float silently away.

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