To think people can make more of an effort with their gardens

[Lovelybitofsquirrel3]

Due to circumstances changing I moved from the family home (owned, not by me, by family) to a council estate a few years ago.
Generally people don’t bother to plant anything/haven’t bothered with their gardens. There are hardly any bees, butterflies or insects that visit and I’m finding it depressing. A lot of people haven’t bothered with their gardens.
I planted potatoes last year which were never pollinated, and one or two bees visited, I don’t know where from and they died quickly.
I’m not looking for excuses as to why people don’t plant but surely it’s simple to buy a few packets of seeds and turn over some turf.

I have just moved back from living abroad for 20+years.We had a very large garden and I did for many years grow our own veg but TBH it was very hard work and most of what I grew was cheaper to buy. Every year something failed or got eaten of course it was nice to eat your own veg but it was very demanding.
We have a new build and on the same small estate we have affordable living brand new homes like ours. The difference between the two is massive, the council have planted lots of shrubs and tend to them but the back gardens are something else. The council have turfed and fenced them TBH I was gutted when I had to pay for mine to be done as it wasn't cheap.
After having a huge amount of land to keep looking nice we went for an easy to look after garden, we have lots of pots and plants which I have bought at the likes of B&M in their 'sick bay' for very little money climbers etc. Lavender has brought a lot of Beas into the garden and slowly the garden is coming together with very little time or effort. As for people not being able to afford to buy cheap plants or seeds due to the cost of living most mornings across the road from me I see a delivery driver deliver a Mc Donald's breakfast !! They don't work for whatever reason. I maybe wrong but I think because they don't own the property they have very little interest in it .
We wont be making this our forever home and hopefully will be able to afford to move to an area that people do take pride in their homes and gardens.

I don't know if I dreamt it but I'm sure that a retailer is going to stop selling non wildlife friendly bedding plants and swap to flowers that attract bees. A lot of bedding plants in places like aldi and lidl are shit for nature.

It’s also to do with builders, in the new estates near here all the old established trees and hedges (some 100+ years) were ripped out and a few sad new trees - all the same age, same height, same sort planted in a spindly row.
the result is..well depressing. At least there are trees, but the variety and age of the other ones was somehow relaxing and really pleasant to look at. These look like they should have a broken supermarket trolly under them.

This is really useful, thank you!

Maybe they can't afford to spend money on their gardens and are busy working and raising kids?
Other people just don't have the same priorities as you do.
We're lucky with our front garden it had lots of shrubs when we bought it so we just trim stuff, a bit of weeding and keep both lawns mowed. Very little gardening otherwise.
We would love a bigger garden in the future when the DC are older and we have more time!

My neighbours hire people in to keep their garden nice. Which is fine if people can afford that.
I love my garden but it isn’t what I want because of the time and physical skills needed to put that vision in place. I can’t put up a pergola or shed single handed, i haven’t got the skills or strength or money to hire someone to do it for me.
However I have got a few shrubs and trees that look and smell nice and my bulbs are emerging.
I have a huge hedge that I have to pay to have cut each year and I have to save up to do so.
As with anything people who like gardening will prioritise money for it, those who don’t won’t. Working full time means you’re also reliant on what the weather is like on your days off too to get things done.

No. It's not this. People were always busy working and raising kids, that is the one thing that has not changed.
It's aspirations that have changed.

Could be as simple as they are not interested. To be fair, I was never interested in gardening. Now early fifties and in the last couple of years we’ve planted our garden and I now love pottering around with our plants and flowers.

It is an expensive hobby though, it is not just a case of a few seeds, that’s rubbish!

My garden is full of bindweed and needs weeding every bloody five minutes. I'd happily let the whole thing rewild, I actively loathe gardening. I'd rather clean the toilet.

People run cars and eat meat which are both a lot worse for wildlife than not planting a lavender bush, and I do neither, so...

I annoy my neighbours on one side by allowing weeds to grow, letting my grass get quite long before cutting it, letting weeds grow in the grass etc (I only have a tiny garden). I don't care. It is 100% the best way to encourage our native insects, and my garden shows that.

In summer, I have loads of bees, butterflies and in the evening the bats all swoop around my garden. Another neighbour even asked me what I did to get the bats and butterflies, and I explained - and they have now let buddleia grow in a corner! Can't see them ever allowing their lawn to become unmanicured, but small steps!

You can do it, OP! One small step!

I do plant other things - I love foxgloves, lupins and poppies of all kinds, and I grow tomatoes in bags and lettuce/herbs in pots. But being a lazy gardener does not mean a dearth of insects - the very opposite.

I did notice there were fewer bees and butterflies in general last year, OP, and they came later than usual. It may not be your neighbours - it may be the weather.

If you lived like that then you would have more sympathy

And I never said "everyone" is affected. In fact I never even ascribed an area to it. You did that.

I just pointed out there was a COL crisis and a rise in food bank usage. Both of which are facts.

Another thing I meant to say - pesticides. Overuse of pesticides is one of the main reasons pollinators like bees are in such massive decline. That's people using chemical sprays in their gardens and also huge swathes of agricultural land being blasted with chemicals that kill insects. They kill pests but also kill bees. All chemicals we use on gardens are bad ultimately and will kill more creatures than we intend it to - even synthetic fertilizers kill micro-organisms in the soil, which are absolutely vital to plant health - without them the soil is just dead dirt. There are non-chemical alternatives to all these things. Aphids can be removed from plants with a damp cloth for example - or ants will eat them. I'm trying out comfrey organic fertilizer this year. And no way will I be spraying chemicals anywhere in my garden - claims that they are harmless are bullshit.

No excuses here. I hate gardening. It's tedious and boring. I dislike being out in the heat, the cold, getting dirt under my nails, to watch the seeds I plant not sprout and the seedlings die, the carefully weeded garden beds regrow the exact same weeds in a few weeks.

When we bought our home DH pulled up the weed infested garden beds and we put lawn from fence to fence, and that's enough plant life for me. All gets mowed, room for the kids to play, and no blasted garden beds to maintain.

Aphids can be removed from plants with a damp cloth for example - or ants will eat them.

A littlr warning that while ants eat aphids, thry fucking farm them. Actually tend to them on the plants in ther "farms" to ensure good aphid harvests.

Some people can’t afford it … but also , some people don’t like gardening and just don’t want to do it .

I keep my garden tidy . But I don’t plant or grow anything really . During the summer when I have time ( term time worker ) I do tend to put some flowers in pots and it looks lovely and I feel proud , I also do enjoy pottering around in the garden for a day or so doing it. But then, I go back to work and the days are flying by with no time spare and they get neglected and die. Then I repeat the following year !

I do agree with OP in terms of the front garden looking nice- it’s nice to see and it’s sad when you only have one or two looking nice - not necessarily plants , flowers etc but it “technically” I guess it doesn’t take much to just keep it tidy ( I just have a drive , no grass etc , so I just - or DH actually - keep the weeds from between the cracks and have a few all year round plants that take no effort at all to keep alive ) BUT when you say council estate I’m imagining one that’s not that nice - in terms of not new builds etc , maybe flats ? In that case you’ll probably find the people there don’t have pride in their homes, because they aren’t there by choice or is it maybe a deprived area where people aren’t struggling to get by and as a result don’t have the mental energy ( or money ) to spend time on their gardens .

I agree with you, I got fully into it this year and it did us good seeing a nice garden out of the window but when some plants started failing I got very discouraged, ideally I’d like some free help this year to keep it going

because I physically and mentally can’t these days.

i have zero support and still working. I’m exhausted.

another way that im now a failure.. can’t garden!

I do put food out for the birds. That I can just about manage

I agree that people should take a tad more effort, OP. It’s good for the spirits and good for wildlife. Most people can, they simply won’t.

*into it last summer I mean

I mean, it doesn't actually sound like OP is doing much either except throwing old potatoes in the ground?

My grotty neigbours work full time and spend silly money on wine, weed and takeaways. I jolly well judge them for not spending the odd £20 or hour on their garden. They've also got dirty plastic ivy that drives me mad. With a small amount of effort they could have some wildlife in there.

It's all very well people saying how much they adore their concrete gardens and making silly irrelevant comments about ballet lessons, but the massive decline in vegetation and flowers in the UK also means a massive decline in pollinators, with potentially catastrophic effects on our food security. Somewhere between 75% and 90% of European crops rely on insects to pollinate them, so we don't have insects, that's an awful lot of food we'd be losing. And as several PP have pointed out, wildlife thrives in untidy gardens and not so much in the manicured ones, so it's not even a case with people with gardens have to be out there working on them every single day. A lawn with long grass supports much more life than one that's mown every week. Buddleia grows like heck and hardly requires any work, and is brilliant for bees and butterflies, and several PP have mentioned lavender, which is also great for bees.

You don't even recognise how privileged you are. Neither B&Q nor any garden centres are in walking distance or on a bus route, where I live. So no isn't easy or cheap to just 'pop' there and buy a shrub (how much is a shrub?), and the spade to dig a hole for it, and the bucket for watering it, and bring them back with kids in tow, then do the digging and planting then do daily watering, also with kids in tow. It's not hard or expensive, for you, but not everyone is you, a person who loves gardening and has the means to get to a shop which sells shrubs and the means to buy shrubs.

I planted bee friendly flowers last year. I ended up with a honey bee nest in my house that ended up costing the best part of £500 to remove, and a 1.5m radius area in my garden that was inaccessible due to the aggressiveness of the hive. I was lucky to get the removal that cheaply (some quotes were over £1000), given they had to come in and remove brickwork and floor boards. My kids and I were unable to go out for fear of being stung. Yes, I ended up with a decent crop of crabapples compared to the previous year, but it's not an experience I'd like to revisit. I've been a tad put off having my garden bee friendly this year.

Oh and the wet weather meant all my strawberries were eaten by masses of slugs everywhere, as were most of my more ornamental flowers. I have a bird feeder, but the pest control people told me those also attract mice and rats, so I'm reluctant to refill that for the time being.

I'm slightly less inclined to work on my garden much this year, beyond trimming bushes and de-weeding. I work full-time in a stressful job as it is and I look after two children by myself. I don't need the additional stress.

@Nameychangington Supermarkets where you buy food sell cheap plants (Lidl and Aldi are great for that), you can get seeds from the vegetables in your fridge, you can grow potatoes from their skin and lettuce from the leftover bottom bit, you can dig a small hole using old cutlery - I'm sure your kids can figure it out.
You're more privileged than at least half of the people living in the world today just by being born in this country, having the social support and opportunities many don't.