Gardens with the greenery taken out equals the Ground Force legacy
By Michael Smith (Veshengro)
While a packet of wildflower seed costs less than a fiver, DIY sheds prefer to sell pricey patios and block paving.
Day in day out I am brought to tears almost by the sight of the front gardens houses, including old ones, that once had lovely front gardens, ruined by a slathering of rough asphalt and thus devoid of life.
Asphalt, decking, patios, sheds, summer houses, and many more. There are so many ways greenery can be landscaped out of existence. Few of us can afford to move to a larger house, so people are squeezing extra value from every square yard of land: erecting sheds for extra storage, laying patios for outdoor dining and block paving driveways, and even creating, what is being called, 'outdoor rooms'.
To most of us, lawns, flowerbeds, and vegetable beds spell work. A patio, on the other hand, can be laid and then be almost forgotten. You still have to maintain it in some way if only to brush slippery moss from block paving.
While there are indeed some low-maintenance ways of gardening that keep the vegetation and soil intact – mixed hedges, wildlife ponds and wildflower lawns among them – these are not the kind of approaches pushed by the garden centre chains, DIY sheds and supermarkets where most of us do our shopping for the garden.
Why? Because that's not where the money is. A packet of wildflower seed costs under a fiver, and some organizations even will give you a few packets for free. On top of that this is also not the kind of quick fix that most people are seeking.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to make your garden into an "outdoor room" but it depends on how you do it. In addition to that you may also wish to consider the growing of some vegetables for your family in your garden.
There are ways to maximise green space and encourage wildlife: smother walls and fences with climbers to make homes for nesting birds; put green roofs on sheds and garages; and where you do have to lay paving, leave space for low-maintenance shrubs or opt for water-permeable paving.
Greener gardening requires us to have an eye for the long game, and that's a hard sell to many consumers. It may not be on TV any more, but the legacy of the instant garden makeover show Ground Force lingers on and that with a bad odor.
What is important today is that we make our gardens places to enjoy but also places that wildlife can enjoy, which are a green oasis for us and the birds and the bees and everything in between, and also a place where we can grow some of our own food.
You can grow some of your and your family's needs in vegetables in even the smallest of spaces as some people certainly can vouch for.
I recently met Mark Ridsdill Smith of Vertical Veg, who lectures on growing vegetables in almost the smallest of places, and his home is proof that you can green the smallest of backyard by growing food for your kitchen. You can, as I do, mix some flowers in with it and even a vegetable planter can be a pleasure to behold.
© 2011
