As proponents of community gardening have long recognised, gardening can be a fantastic way for people to make connections, encouraging people to bond over a shared love of green things.
I saw this happening in a big way on my last allotment, where people from all walks of life & a huge range of cultural backgrounds would while away hours discussing the merits of different sweetcorn varieties, swapping cooking tips for the different veg they grew & having a laugh together in the morning sunshine. Of course, there were also some snide mutterings about the weeds on plot 34 etc, but in general it brought people together in a way I haven't witnessed elsewhere.
With this in mind, I've decided to write a set of posts on the rather lovely gardens in my local community, starting off on my street.
It's a street of terraced houses, so we all have limited space. The first garden I'm posting about is Katherine's, who has crammed in a shrubbery, box-edged fruit & veg beds, espalier apple trees, a shady fern garden under an ivy-clad pergola, a greenhouse and a summer house all in a space roughly 12 meters by 4 meters.
looking down the lush & leafy garden from the house
Looking towards the house with the blackcurrants & redcurrants on the left. The box bushes edging the bed give them a touch of formality.
You can see the zig-zag layout of the beds & the grapevine on the right. Behind me there's a little greenhouse with a flourishing kiwi vine growing over it.
Thank you Katherine!
