Gardening & Outdoors Gardening
Take Away Gardening
I’ve just spent the last few weeks hunting for somewhere to live – not easy when you are looking for a rental which ticks all the right boxes; sufficient bedrooms for the kids to stay, car parking and
permission for Ripley the hound to move in as well.
Luckily, I’ve found the perfect place; it even has the bonus of a nice little secure garden, the only downside being that the property hasn’t been occupied for some time and the garden is in need of some serious fettling. So, as an obsessive gardener, I now have a major dilemma – there is a lovely little garden right outside the back door, which is crying out for my attentions but it’s not actually mine. I’m really torn…
Apparently, 20% of UK households live in rented homes nowadays, so I feel that I’m in good company. However, the thought of spending lots of time and money titivating someone else’s property is a bit galling. As part of the lease agreement, it
is my responsibility to keep the
garden neat and tidy, but it’s pretty clear that my new project is going to need a bit more than a bit of casual weeding and pruning here and there. I’m already fueling up all my ‘big boy’s toys’ power tools in anticipation!
Fortunately, the garden already has some reasonable bones (well a path and a rockery at least) but the water feature died some time ago and has left in its watery wake a small army of frogs who are now lurking around in the undergrowth. I’m also pleased to report that it doesn’t have a lawn, so that’s one less chore for yours truly to worry about – although I must admit to having always enjoyed firing up a lawnmower and meandering around creating abstract patterns, a far nicer horticultural pastime than weeding, which I can only bring myself to do when the weeds are in the final stages of strangling all the good stuff. There are plenty of paved areas for plonking my garden furniture and barbeque on and it even has a small greenhouse – which, if it had been in ‘my’ garden, I’d have been planning to fill with all sorts of exotics. At the moment I’m using it as reasonably dry storage for my stuff, but I suspect that next summer there may be a few tomatoes ripening in there!
So, I’ve had to completely re-think my horticultural priorities now that I have a borrowed garden. On the face of it, all I really need to do is the absolute minimum and forget about leaving something that will be a legacy for years to come to future generations. It’s not going to be inherited by any of my offspring and I doubt the next tenants will hold it against me if I haven’t created something akin to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon during my stewardship.
However, I’m already fighting my inner gardening demons and I’m determined to achieve a modicum of
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success with this little piece of England – regardless of who owns it. I have a wide selection of pots and containers that I will bring into operation and create a contained and, more importantly, portable garden that I can move into its new quarters in around 12 months’ time. There’s something quite exciting about that prospect because you can grow virtually anything in pots – flowers, vegetables, fruits and herbs – and using a bit of creativity you can make some amazing visual and edible combinations. One thing I shall definitely be building, though, is a new home for the frogs – I can already hear the patter of tiny tadpole feet next spring!
Jonathan Wild, Tenant Gardener!
We are situated in Perry Park. The entrance to the park is in Church Road, just off the A34 Walsall Road, Perry Barr B42 2LR
If you think you would like to have a plot at Walsall Road Allotments we ask you to visit us first. Please email me, Betty at
vera.graham@
blueyonder.co.uk and I will arrange a time for you to visit. Alternatively, come along on a Sunday morning at about 11:00 and I will be happy to show you around.
To advertise please call 0121 371 0882
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