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The established Garden.

The established garden is the reflection of the owners personality, how do you tell your children that.

Sitting in the conservatory eating sandwiches Monday yes it was sunny, my Daughter told me the garden wanted a make over? “err why” you cannot see any of the fences for shrubbery and the paths are getting narrower. “Err yes” but tell me who wants to see fences? Our fences are nice and new and now they have added even more decking. I looked after her garden for years and no, you could not see the fences. Then came Dave, his idea of cutting back is to a foot below ground and anything over twelve inches high gets beheaded, I am sure in another life they called him Henry. All new fences with concrete posts raw and bare, not to my liking although Daughter is minimalistic in everything.

Short but definite answer was I like it, Mum and I made it, it stays as it is, any one getting a hedge cutter out will find it turned on them and they will be reduced to dust. In other words it reflects my taste not theirs and so it is with each and everyone of us though how do you tell them, those followers of fashion. Their Garden like the Kitchen and Bathroom have had more make overs than the so called celebrities, who needs it.

Frank.

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  • ClaringtonClarington Posts: 4,949

    I knew someone whose lounge was almost always in a state of decorating! It was just insane not to mention a complete waste of money. I know what I like, and once the house is decorated I have NO intentions on doing it again for a long time! If I want a change I buy new cushions and move the picture frames around.

    But just yesterday a friend (in America) was telling me her neighbour STRIPS the garden three times a year completely uprooting not just ALL the plants but the wood bark chippings so that it is "fresh" for the spring / summer / autumn season.

    All the old chippings and plants are chucked straight into the bin - not even saved for next season. I only wish I had the money to do something like that so that I could spend it on established apple trees!

  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190

    And anything that encroaches onto the grass and kills it is a bonus.

     

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • PalaisglidePalaisglide Posts: 3,414

    Sorry Lyn, Being fully detached and getting very long in the tooth my two lawns are a godsend in work saving. The daughter likes those then a Herb Garden and what she calls the rain forest, the grand children love that and the Gnome searches I set up for them, well you have to hide them somewhere!!

    Phillipa, my problem is not weight though I love things being hidden then coming into view as you progress along the paths, you want surprises. I got one last week when I found the Deutzia in full wedding gown bloom, one minute nothing next minute a blaze of white. My last Peony well and truly staked is coming into bloom, the oldest and best, a mass of red. That to me is a garden the hidden bits, turning a corner and being pleasantly surprised, standing in the conservatory and seeing it all in one eye full is not for me, note tell Daughter when she returns from Cyprus.

    Frank.

  • PalaisglidePalaisglide Posts: 3,414

    Philippa, Capability Brown did Vista and I am not a lover having seen many of his creations, much prefer the winding paths and open spaces appearing from behind wooded areas. It probably comes from being a soldier, we never liked wide open spaces, bit of a bind when they sent me to the Desert.

    Podgy would have been true five years ago but careful diet got me down three waist band sizes, chocolate now makes me ill so I indulge in a little Scottish fire water with some gentler water now , purely medicinal of course.

    Frank.

  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117

    A change is a good thing if you feel you no longer like what you've created, but I would never just chuck plants out. I have loads of fences here and they're horrible and are being covered. I don't know why anyone would want to look at them in preference to plants. What I find funny is when people see lots of planting they automatically think it means lots of maintenance. The opposite is often true. Lots of greenery - in the form of shrubs in particular - saves  lots of weeding, and is beneficial to everyone, especially wildlife  image

    I think we're always tweaking our gardens and if something doesn't perform well then it can be moved or given away. Design in gardens reflects social change - it's been that way for thousands of years - but no one should dictate to someone else regarding what they like to plant in their own plot. Advise perhaps, but nothing more..image

    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • I had a church member that was 93 years of age and was living on her own. Her niece wanted her to move into a nursing home and on every possible visit tried to persuade her. My church member listened politely and then said 'Darling, I'll give it some thought and moved on to another subject.' She might not have been as young as she once was but she was as sharp as a pin. She had absolutely no intention of moving and died at home as she wished. So, the solution is to politely listen and never agree to anything they are suggesting. 

  • rosemummyrosemummy Posts: 2,010

    interesting thread, we moved to a house where the previous owner was a plant lover, and, i've found out, a lecturer a horicultural history, so very well stocked, but we obviously do not share the samt taste in plants, except the peonies and i wish they were pink not red,!

  • pr1mr0sepr1mr0se Posts: 1,193

    We all garden in our own individual style - and there is no "right" or "wrong".  However, the desert that is acres of decking/paving, the bare fences that are the full stop on the horizon - they destroy the joy of the garden imo.

    My garden is vastly different from when we first moved here.  The beech hedge (never again!  What a nuisance and what hard work that was) is gone.  The fences have been softened by clematis, honeysuckle and a few self-sown contoneasters.

    The rotting apple trees are no more, but the vegetable plot is productive; the rather odd bit of soil that surrounded a magnolia stellata has been extended to an ericaceous bed (an absolute picture of colour with rhodos, azaleas etc), the vast swathe of lawn has been visually broken up with an island bed, and the swimming pool is now a pond, with a waterfall and a lower pond feature - not designed as a wildlife pond as such, but full of frogs, toads, newts, dragonflies, fish and many unidentified water critturs. 

    It pleases us - and suits our lifestyle.  And that's what a garden is all about - the space that reflects us, and suits us.

    And as for the planting?  Well, a lot of it is full of memories:  mum's ice plant, aunt's Elephants' Ears (no - not hers - bergenia image), a couple of roses given as Silver Wedding presents, hardy geraniums from a dear friend, phlox from a cousin . . .  not Chelsea, but Mine!  And I wouldn't change it for the world!!!

    That said, we hope to move to a smaller place (it's taking a while, the housing market being much slower in the West country that in the Home Counties) but my precious plants are divided and potted up to go with me;  a new challenge awaits!

  • Hi Frank! - I reckon it's got something to do with our age..................!      and we belong to the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" brigade.  Why make changes simply for change's sake - and when you get past a certain stage in life, fashions don't matter either.

    If - oh if - I had rolling acres of parkland to play with, I'd love the sort of vista you get with some stately homes, but even then there's often a rose garden or something small-scale too.  My own garden is surrounded by fields, so I make do with that - actually I'm looking out over a huge area of potatoes at the moment - you'll be eating them one day soon in the form of crisps (or is it frozen chips they're going to end up as.........?)   By this time next year the field will be grass again - it needed re-seeding anyway as the sileage made last year wasn't the best quality, hence the need to plough & deal with it.  The potato people are doing part of the job!  Once the crop is gone, they'll cultivate/re-seed and then - apart from the cattle which used to graze there - my view will return to what it has been in the past.

    I can't see the whole garden at a glance - it's in three parts right/left/rear of the house - &  the smallest part of the garden is hidden behind the garage/storage shed and that's where I have my little veg plot. The local rabbit population has exploded this year (potatoes instead of their usual space?) & many of the bunnies have taken up residence in my shrubberies.  They eat  (or sample) - any-and-everything, so there's not much chance of things like the odd few summer bedding plants surviving.  The only things they've not managed to destroy are those in the tallest planters/pots which are too high even for a rabbit on tip-toes.  The dogs are enjoying things though - but I'm not exactly thrilled to have to remove (as I did earlier today) a dead baby bunny which they were squabbling over in the hallway.  The other day one of the dogs brought a dead rabbit in & put it in his bed in the kitchen.  Oh well...........  whippets were bred to catch rabbits, weren't they!

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