A month or so ago I learnt a large lesson……to back up my computer files.
My computer and hard disk were damaged and all my written work and photographs were deleted and lost forever.
Now everything is backed up!
My web-site is void of photographs for the moment until I can get my camera out and re-visit some of the gardens I’ve designed and had built and take some more.
Hopefully in the near future…..keep checking!
YESTERDAY’S GARDENS……
Gardens have undoubtedly changed over the years, styles, fashions come and go. Societies change due to outside forces and with that requirements for their gardens alter. The biggest example, of course, during the wars when all gardens became vegetable patches minus their iron railings.
It wasn’t so long ago people worked their gardens and made the garden work for them. Their back garden provided food, vegetables and fruits, flowers for the house, a lawn for entertaining. Recycling and composting was a necessity, you re-used what you could.
I have lovely memories of my Grandfathers garden and him working in it, or sitting in his chair at the bottom of the garden when the day was finished. His 1930’s house was surrounded by what would be considered a large garden by today’s standards. The front garden was of good proportions screened by a hedge and full of roses. The long back garden was split into various areas, vegetable garden, fruit garden full of gooseberries, raspberries, plum trees, lawn area, compost area and shed. I would spend time picking fruits, digging potatoes, gathering sweet peas and eventually playing on the lawn when the work was done eating a fruit pie made from our pickings! Happy Days reflecting what a garden should be…..
With the importance of what we eat at the forefront of our thoughts lets go back to working our gardens, they can with commitment produce good organic food for us, flowers for the house. as well as looking good and providing us with that ‘outside room’ we crave. Growing vegetables and fruit, perhaps keeping a chicken or two can be a family hobby, children love ‘planting and picking’, learning as they go along becoming horticulturists of the future.
Whether you have a big or small garden you can grow vegetables and fruit, you don’t need a big vegetable patch remember you’re only trying to feed your family not the street. Fruit and vegetables can grow amongst shrubs and flowers in the border, in containers or customised vegetable boxes. Grow what you like to eat, and attracts youand start with small projects. Go on buy a packet of seeds and some good compost, grab the children and find an old container in the garden and give it a go.
PAUSE FOR THOUGHT
Disappearing Front Gardens… A Contribution to Flooding?
This summer saw the worst floods for many years.
Disappearing front gardens are a contributing factor to overflowing drains, therefore flooding. Gone are the traditional front gardens with a lawn and flowers beds and in there place a concrete platform for car parking. Leading on from that, the council erect a dropped curb removing the grass verge and or any tree in the way. In summary, all green gone replaced by grey concrete.
The result rain pouring off your drive out into the main drain putting untold pressure on an already overloaded drainage system. Absent front gardens also have other negative effects on the environment
Did you know a concrete front garden;
Absorbs heat during the day and releases heat during the night into your bedroom causing you to use fans and air conditioning units increasing your carbon footprint.
Can cause structural problems, with no water going into the ground shrinkage occurs causing cracks in walls and even houses leading to expensive repairs or worse, walls collapsing.
House prices can drop if a street adopts paved front gardens, shrubs, flowers and trees disappear not only from gardens but from verges as councils install dropped curbs.
Can increase asthma, plants and trees absorb dust and fumes balancing the atmosphere.
Nature is affected without plants and trees, wildlife have no homes and food chains breakdown as well as natures way of controlling pests and diseases.
You do not need to concrete the whole of your front garden for one car – you don’t concrete your whole back garden for one shed. In fact you don’t need any concrete to park a car. The easiest solution is gravel, it is permeable allowing water to past through it and into the ground. Look for locally sourced or recycled products, shrubs and flowering plants can be planted through it softening the overall look adding scents and colour. If you have a drive on an incline use paved tracks for the wheels of your car, the rest of the garden can be treated as you wish, you can plant certain plants like thyme or creeping jenny underneath the car they will still thrive. Cellular paving , recycled plastic ‘honeycomb’ matrix cells filled with locally sourced gravel or recycled glass or by products of the ceramic industry make a good, strong parking area. You can also use a similar product for reinforcing grass in recycled plastic.
A traditional front garden with good planting can provide screening and privacy for your property and give you a green and/or colourful outlook from your sitting room. Planted with the appropriate plants it can also be good security, no burglar will want to climb through thorny shrubs. As well as adding value to your property a well planted front garden can soften and enhance your property and street. Plants and flowers make a good home for wildlife and encourage insects into your garden, providing a natural control for pests and diseases.
Above all a traditionally planted front garden will contribute to lessening the threat of flooding to your home and environment as well a adding some plus points to your property and street. We all have to contribute to change – and changing your front garden or thinking through different ideas before paving or concreting your parking space seems a fairly small sacrifice to make. But one that could start making a big difference to our lives and lifestyles.
Garden Grabbing
It seems our gardens are shrinking, and or disappearing at an alarming rate, 30,000 gardens were concreted over last year ready for new houses to be built.
Small houses with large gardens are being sold over to developers to squeeze in as many houses as they can often with disproportionate sized gardens, all in the name of profit. Is it that home owners have forgotten the importance and pleasure of a garden or is it a case of all modern houses have the same sort of garden to offer therefore dumbing down the importance of external space?
Gardening is reported to be the UK’s number one hobby, if that’s the case then why are we accepting smaller gardens with less plants and more hard landscaping?
Gardens and gardening have huge plus points for everyone. They can provide a great social area, inviting friends, neighbours round for cooking, chatting and entertaining. Spend the weekend de-stressing in the garden, pottering around losing yourself in the garden is the best free therapy I know. The whole family can get involved, children learn all aspects of science, oxygenating ponds, germination,pollination, composting and wildlife habitats, they will also know where vegetables and fruits come from if you choose to grow them. The whole family can get all the physical exercise they need whilst breathing in fresh air – better than any gym I know!
Our gardens, our ‘outside living room’ have to grow, giving us all a green space to view and use, providing habitats for wildlife and improving our surrounding environment. An all important environment for future generations, think 25 years ahead, we will be living in an urban jungle without trees, birds singing or colour to lift our moods.
Above all gardens are part of our English Heritage, a heritage we should be holding on too encouraging our younger generation to embrace and enhance.