Gardens with nothing in them?

[BigDahliaFan]

Would you not at least put a low maintenance shrub in? I mean not everyone wants full on Monty Don....but something?

My neighbours have a blank space of grass.
I've never forgiven them for cutting down a cute little lilac tree.

I think that’s fine to be honest. You may just have a really tricky plot. You haven’t resorted to plastic which is great.

I have had kids and been a carer and held down a job too. If it’s not your thing then fine but a lot of people in very similar circumstances manage quite easily to keep their gardens nice.

@lassi my idea of nice is a space that requires no maintenance hence the plastic grass.

Your comment about others choices being lazy or thick are unfair and not appropriate.

I think this is a pretty misinformed attitude to be honest.

People with things like executive dysfunction or chronic fatigue may not be “completely incapacitated” but living lives where gardening is not a realistic possibility.

A lot of people living with disabilities have to prioritize where they expend their energy.

Not everyone who chooses plastic grass is lazy and thick but in all honesty I believe a lot of them are. It’s catastrophic for the environment so throw in selfish too.

Grass and a few shrubs is fine. I always worked on the principle "throw stuff at it and see what sticks". As long as it's green, that's the thing.

My next door neighbour just has gravel. It looks like a huge litter tray…which is ironic, as her cat prefers to do its business in our garden!

My DP has severe and complex disabilities. Gardening is the perfect exercise. You can regulate how much you do and it’s conveniently placed ie just beyond your front door. Most of gardening is just pottering. Things like deadheading roses. There is clearly a huge amount of misunderstanding about the amount of work needed to garden and how physical it is and it’s really quite irresponsible to peddle this around, for what means I don’t know. It’s a bit like the people who say not everyone has a kitchen when the discussion is about cooking for children. These are the very extremes of most people’s experiences. Madness!

For anyone who might want to have a bit more interest in their garden but lacks time / money / knowing where to start, do you have a gardening friend who could help? If someone asked me to pick out two easy shrubs, a couple of perennials and some spring bulbs I’d see that as fun and would love to help. Alternatively you could pick some of the cheapest plants in the supermarket, stick them in and see what survives!

I love my garden, which is stuffed full of flowers. It's not usually too much physical work to look after it all, but occasionally it can be a workout. For example recently I had to dig up a flower bed, make holes and replant things, which had me sweating. At the moment I'm trying to tame some rhododendron bushes and it's taking ages, will be hours and hours on a step ladder to get them down to even around 5 foot tall. Lots of trips carrying the branches through the house to the garden recycling bin too.

Do you understand that executive dysfunction has nothing to with physical work?

Do you also understand that “just pottering” can be beyond the energy capacity of many people?

Do you also understand that any exercise can be counterproductive for people with some conditions?

I am sorry to hear that your DP has severe and complex disabilities. Do you understand that not everyone with disabilities is in the same situation as him?

They may well have different abilities and capacities in themselves. They may also have a different level of support and people around around them.

Some people with disabilities live on their own, so they may struggle with tasks that cannot be easily adapted, or making initial adaptations to a garden so that it is feasible.

You said gardening can be adapted for anybody. I’m not saying that it cannot be adapted for many people, just not everyone.

I just have grass and two chickens in my garden. I have zero interest in gardening - if someone magically turned up and did it all for me that would be nice, but I have no urge at all to do anything more. As it happens, I come from a family of very keen gardeners, in fact my parents grew/sold bedding plants commercially and I learnt to write by copying out plant labels. But to me it is just outdoors housework which I'm also not interested in

Grass and chickens isn't nothing though! It doesn't cause runoff problems and there will be lots of critters (albeit some forming your chickens' food)

Yes I understand all of that. I understand it very well in fact.

Well then show that understanding in the things that you say.

Rather than shaming people for being thick or lazy or both when they don’t conform to your standards.

i think it’s fairly obvious that there are caveats to these things @ZazieBeth

Give over with the ageist sarcasm, why don't you?

Think you either like gardens or you don’t.

I’ve always loved beautiful gardens but reticent about gardening itself (hate bugs) until we gutted ours in the process of making it dog proof. Turned it from looking like the set of a WW1 film to something quite beautiful in 18 m - I have two SEN teens, and one has had very serious MH issues, and having expected redoing the garden to be an unpleasant chore, found myself enjoying the mindfulness of having no choice but to stand in the garden for an hour and a half every evening last spring/summer to keep the new plants alive.

We’ve irrigated it this year, thank god, but the flowers, the bees/butterflies are glorious and it has dramatically improved my mental health… but it’s taken me 20 years of living in thus house to embrace my hitherto hidden gardener.

I live on the Kent coast and in my small town it is very rare for people not to look after their garden and make the most of them.

Most of the gardens I see have a lot of plants/flowers/trees in them as well as things like bird baths, bird feeders, little statues, solar lamps and of course garden furniture. The only empty garden I have ever seen is in a new built estate when I was house hunting....

I really don't think it has anything to do with age/being retired either.

I see lots of families with young kids who spend a lot of time creating a nice outdoor environment.

As was raised in the countryside so for me it is bonkers that people would just have empty 'gardens'...

Mine as vegetables in raised beds, herbs, fruit trees, flowers, compost bin, garden furniture, shed, solar lights, bird feeder, bird bath.

I am not anywhere near retirement by the way.

I enjoy gardening: it is a good physical exercise, good for my mental health, it makes sense to grow my own products and it is a joy to spend time outdoors with my pets when the weather is warm(ish).

It really doesn't have to be that expensive or time consuming either.

I got all my garden tools free from Freegle for example and you can buy seeds and plants in supermarkets these days.

I bought my first house when I was 22, it was a new build, so apart from turf in the front garden, it was empty.
It was trial and error to see what would grow well, but I had a boss who was an avid gardener and he was happy to give me advice and a few plants.
I’m 57 now, have a large garden and I love it. My old boss who is now in his 70s still has a fabulous garden.

This was actually me for a short while. We moved into a house with paving and fake grass, no plants at all. Both working full time in the office with a 90 min commute (including nursery pick up), with a toddler and then I was pregnant/wrangling a newborn. In terms of biodiversity it was terrible and it looked pretty bleak with no plants but it was extremely convenient and low maintenance. We only stayed in the house for 18 months and it wouldn’t have stayed that way, but we had other priorities at the time. I now have a flourishing garden, but it has been really hard to manage with chronic fatigue. Yes it’s therapy but sometimes I just cannot and then it’s a burden/guilt. Fortunately I’m not too precious about it and my mum loves to come and help out. Our neighbours have very few plants and use their outdoor space for entertaining (all paved) which is fine except their cat shits in my flowerbeds. So while I try not to judge others sometimes I feel a little provoked…

Hardly ageist to say someone not working in general has more time for hobbies than someone working full time/raising children etc.

And I did say I like gardening too at my big age of 32 sooo..

Everyone's private business.
Thanks goodness.
In my opinion, gardening is just an extension of housework and the land that comes with my house is an investment.
Full stop.

I think it is quite sad and a symptom of how short term people have become.

A nice garden is a pleasure to spend time in and good for the environment and wildlife.