Pete and Dorothy were married on 14th March 1959, and had two children, Vivien and Deborah.

After demob from the RAF, Pete found it difficult to settle back into office work, and in 1961, soon after Vivien was born, he went into Horticulture. The family moved to Stevenage in Hertfordshire soon after, where Pete joined the Parks department.

department, where Pete rapidly climbed the horticultural ladder to gain the RHS General Certificate (see picture above)

Pete very soon combined his knowledge of plants and wildlife with his love of writing, and was soon writing for horticultural magazines and journals. From Stevenage Borough Council, Pete, Dorothy

and four-year-old Vivien moved to Great Offley, where Pete was appointed Garden Steward for Offley Place Residential College Rural Studies department...

This is where Deborah was born...

  It was Dorothy who suggested that Pete combine his horticultural knowledge, writing abilities and artistic talents, to illustrate his own articles...

 This led to the publication of his scraperboard drawings on the front cover of The most respected horticultural journal of them all, Gardeners Chronicle. (See above, below and on the left).

Pete's Scraperboard Drawings.

The The picture above appeared in GARDEN NEWS. the others in GARDENERS CHONICLE

Above: The Old Garden Gates at Offley

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From Offley Place, Dorothy and Pete moved with their two little girls to Blackpool, Lancs, where Pete joined Blackpool Parks Department, and formed 'The Flying Squad', so named by Parks Director Norman Leech, as they travelled around the town in a Lister truck, creating new projects, and dealing with sudden emergencies...

...and Pete and his squad created a woodland garden near the golf course... 

 Above is the woodland garden that Pete and his team created in 1967

  ABOVE: Vivien poses next to candelabra primulas in Pete's woodland garden.

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For more about Pete and The Gardeners Chronicle,

CLICK HERE

 Below: Dorothy with Viv and Deb in the newly-planted Salisbury Woodland Garden, Blackpool. This was the last photograph Pete took of Dorothy.

ABOVE is an example of Pete's Blackpool Carpet Bedding in progress

Tragically, Dorothy died of a subarachnoid haemorrhage on 23rd June 1967, leaving Pete to bring up Vivien and Deborah on his own...

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