poliphilo: (Default)
poliphilo ([personal profile] poliphilo) wrote2007-06-03 12:43 pm

Things change...

The view from our bedroom window has changed.

Sameena-next-door has dispensed with her garden and is putting down a pavement.

I remember how lovingly Nelly-next-door used to tend her flowerbed. I saw her working out there just days- maybe it was just hours- before she died.  It makes me wistful.

[identity profile] sorenr.livejournal.com 2007-06-03 12:05 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't understand why so many English people tend to pave the front garden. If you don't want to do garden work, why not plant a shrubbery that will cost a fraction of the pavement and require little more attention? Not all plants require weeding and watering and preening and whatever... Gratuitous pavement belongs outside the garden wall/fence/hedge!

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2007-06-03 12:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Our front yard- what there is of it- is planted with stuff that requires zero maintenance and which grows back every year.

Oh, that..

[identity profile] elegysostenuto.livejournal.com 2007-06-03 12:47 pm (UTC)(link)
..is sad, I think. I much prefer the green of a garden. Perhaps they will decorate it with container plants.

Re: Oh, that..

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2007-06-03 01:39 pm (UTC)(link)
"Perhaps they will decorate it with container plants."

That would be nice.
ext_37604: (Default)

[identity profile] glitzfrau.livejournal.com 2007-06-03 01:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Paving over front gardens is really detrimental to the environment, as well as inaesthetic; not only are you reducing biodiversity, but you're causing floods, because rainwater can't run-off into the soil, and instead overburdens the drains system. I'm sad looking at that. Also, that looks like evil Indian sandstone, but I might be wrong...

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2007-06-03 02:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah well, there's plenty of biodiversity in our front yard. I was out there just now, picking dandelion leaves for the rabbits.

[identity profile] pondhopper.livejournal.com 2007-06-03 02:02 pm (UTC)(link)
That´s sad.
They might have at least left some space around the edges for flowers. But as somebody said, maybe they´ll do container gardening. There´s nothing sadder than a barren concrete (or tiled) space in front of a house, for me anyway.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2007-06-03 02:27 pm (UTC)(link)
There'a a house we see on our way into Manchester. It gives straight onto the pavement and the owner (legally or illegally-who knows?) has fenced himself off a tiny plot and filled it with tubs. We see him watering his plants or sitting on the front step enjoying the view.

[identity profile] pondhopper.livejournal.com 2007-06-03 05:53 pm (UTC)(link)
My kind of man!
:)
I can´t fathom living with a bleak view of the pavement.

[identity profile] mummm.livejournal.com 2007-06-03 02:21 pm (UTC)(link)
Give her time... perhaps it will be a lovely patio. :-)

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2007-06-03 02:28 pm (UTC)(link)
That's what I'm hoping.

[personal profile] oakmouse 2007-06-03 07:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Sympathy. We had a neighbor once who paved her front yard and then painted the concrete green. :-p

Here's hoping this lady puts in a container garden...

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2007-06-04 10:02 am (UTC)(link)
Green concrete- that borders on the surreal!

Containers would be good.

[personal profile] oakmouse 2007-06-05 01:24 am (UTC)(link)
It was quite surreal, yes. Especially after she fenced it in for her dog, and then refused to let the dog into the yard after all because his claws scratched the green paint.

She was strange.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2007-06-05 08:13 am (UTC)(link)
I feel sad for the dog. I guess it was trying to tunnel out.

[personal profile] oakmouse 2007-06-05 08:16 pm (UTC)(link)
I certainly would have, had I been her dog. It was a big dog, a Viszla (or however you spell that), sentenced to life in a small house with a tiny concrete yard. She seldom walked him, and mostly let him out of the yard so he would go poo in the neighbor's yard. Luckily for the dog, she decided he was too much effort to care for, and gave him away. I hope to a better home.