The view from your side of the fence
Jill Wells, by email
HOT TOPIC
Streetwise gardens
It was great to read the piece on guerilla gardening (Over the fence, August issue). This doesn’t have to be as militant as it sounds but can just be a gentle greening of small areas to make public places a bit more pleasant.
I was fed up with dogs using the tree on the pavement outside my house as a lavatory and the soil around it was pretty grim. So a lockdown project saw me use some old planks to create a raised bed around the tree.
I filled this with compost and plants that will survive hot, dry conditions. Now it attracts pollinators and adds some colour to the street. Neighbours love it and dogs avoid it. Perfect!
Emma, by email
My husband is housebound and, since we live in a flat and have no garden, his only outside view is of a small grassy area across from our flat marred by a parking sign. I recently decided to jazz it up a little. I purchased some plants with a National Garden Gift Voucher and early one morning a friend and I put together this little display before my husband awoke. I’m hoping to be able to do other areas to brighten his, and other people’s, days a little.
WE SAY: This is a lovely way to brighten up our public spaces, but always be sure to check with the landowner or local council before gardening on any land that does not belong to you.
Dad knows best
My late father was a keen gardener and in later years we always watched Gardeners’ World and would telephone each other after the show to discuss it in detail. He always said “you should take up gardening – it’s marvellous for the mind”.
In our last summer I spent nearly every day in the garden with him, taking cuttings and tending his plants. I found great solace in my own garden after he died and took on an allotment (right). He was right, as most dads are. It is great for the mind.
Cheryl Price, by email
Forget-me-nots
My mum‘s garden is full of people that she knew, as she always calls a plant by the name of the person who gave it to her.
A blue veronica is Vi Wheeler, with whom she worked. The splendid hydrangeas are Jan Humphreys – next door but one for 50 years. A yellow rose that blooms all summer is Hazel. Molly Stanley, another villager, is an old-fashioned pink with a knockout scent. And each year Brenda Molder, a big fuchsia, emerges from between the paving stones.
There are men, too. Grampy Compton, her father and my grandfather, is a cutting from the flowering currant that he brought to the village in 1935. And the ancient apple tree is her ol
