Struggling without a garden.

[Isitrainingihadntnoticed]

Those with gardens, I envy you so much at the moment. I'm also still having to go to work in a hospital. In the days off and it's been sunny, I've been so desperate to get out! It's so fucking hard to cope with this when you have an apartment and no way to enjoy eating outdoors etc.

Late to the party, but @mrshoho I think you’ve misread the numbers in that article! It’s 250, not 17,250. Still a lot, but less than you’ve read it as. Hope that reassures you a bit

I think London is stricketer thensome places or maybe it is to do with crowds. Kids sit on the green near me. You can leisurely stroll in the park or take you scooter/trike. No sign of police.

Actually I have always thought most flats have communal gardens. And you could always go out when there is no one there or few people. Correct me if I am wrong? I live in London zone 3 and almost all the flats here have gadens

@desiringonlychild My flat doesn't have a communal garden and I am in zone 2/3

@Desiringonlychild nope. I live in a flat in Sheffield, with no balcony and no communal gardens whatsoever. It’s hard - I absolutely love the summer, I live for the sunshine - and it seems that practically everyone I know is out frolicking in their gardens while I’m stuck in here. I know jealousy is an ugly emotion, but I can’t help it. And like posters have said above, I go for a walk in the park, but I can’t just sit on the grass and feel the sun on my face - I have to keep walking and keep it relatively short, otherwise I feel like I am doing something wrong.

I moved in here to be with my partner, just a few months before lockdown. I had reservations about the lack of outside space - knowing how important being outside in the sunshine is to my mental health - but I thought, oh it’s fine, I’ll go to the park, I’ll be out and about in the city anyway. Blimey, was I wrong! I can’t bloody wait to move when all this is over.

My flat doesn’t have a communal garden. There is green space around it but it’s all public footpath/access for parking so has a steady foot flow of people who don’t live here walking through it to go to the shops/walk their dogs most of the day. Don’t live in London either.

@unhappyclap I guess it's also dependent on area. You are more central than me as I am solidly in zone 3 (next station is zone 4). So the issue is with people who live more centrally rather than just flats per se.. my area has a lot of flats but a lot of them are conversions. Those all have gardens but shared by 2 families (they should be able to work out a rota) and it's also unlikely both units would have young kids.

@unhappyclap @Lunawuna I see, that's really interesting as when I was buying I only really looked at flats in my area. The children in my development use the communal garden daily and have a paddling pool and a seesaw and space to cycle around.

I saw a few older residents sunbathing today.

@desiring No, they don't, and I live in London zone 2. Our street is made up of converted houses where some flats have shared gardens and for some only the downstairs has the garden.

Desiring, no. We were pretty central in London. Just creeping into zone 2 if I remember correctly. No garden, and the majority of flats there didn't have one either.

I think that lockdown emphasises this aspect of inner city living. It is largely why the London parks are so important to so many, and never more so than now.

I see people ask how difficult it can be to just stay at home. The answer in a lot of cases (without gardens etc.) is bloody difficult.

I’m zone 5/6. Even if there was a communal garden, I imagine it might be shut off or there’s no way to do social distancing.

@LilacTree1 my commuunal garden is definitely shut off. The freehold is also owned by the residents and what kind of precedent is there in English law to shut off a.privately owned garden. Also the garden is really big and at most there are 3 people in it at one time so maybe 10m distance between them?

@LilacTree1 *definitely not

Desiring we’re in a tower block so totally different. A green space belonging to it would be completely packed.

I wonder what would happen in leasehold flats though. If the freeholder said to close the garden.

A lot of this will be about legal liability I guess.

Def agree with most of the views on this thread, and am also feeling very thankful that I have a balcony (though obv would rather a garden right now). I think many with a decent amount of outdoor space don't realise how lucky they are (and I also don't get why so many of the people I know with massive gardens seem to be posting pics of family walks all over social media - use your bloody garden for gods sake!). And totally agree a walk is not the same as just being able to be in an outdoor space - my kids are missing playground and I'm missing sitting on a bench in the sunshine watching them play!

@LampHat 🤭🙊 oops yes I did misread! Think I am losing it! 😬

We're in zone 1, in a 2 bed flat without a garden or even a balcony. No communal gardens. DD is nearly 2 and I'm getting her out every day, we take long walks for at least a couple of hours for exercise. I feel quite lucky that we have lots of parks and public gardens or squares near me. I've been looking for green spaces on Google Maps and just finding anywhere near us that I can walk to (taking her in the pushchair). I'd get bored just going to the same park every day, especially without being able to use the playgrounds. I've quite enjoyed finding new places - lots of places I wouldn't normally have bothered walking to as they're quite small, but still quite interesting. DD enjoys exploring new places, picking up sticks and stones and finding squirrels and collecting leaves. I don't get much time to sit down in the sun, though I'm not sure I would be able to even if she were playing in our own garden!

I feel sad that she can't have play equipment, now that playgrounds are off limits. I was even looking at getting her a plastic slide or sandpit to have in the flat, but we just don't have space for it.

Most of the parks and gardens here are pretty relaxed about what you can do there - people take breaks to sit on benches and kids go around on their scooters and sit down, now and then. Sometimes you see people sitting down and reading, but it's all socially distanced. No sign of police or park keepers. DD likes climbing up to sit on a bench (and then immediately getting off again), or sitting on the grass to look at the daisies, and I also sometimes sit down to give her a snack. I've not had any problems doing that. There's one big local park which has the stricter rules about exercise and taped off benches - we only went there once and probably won't return as I found the atmosphere unpleasant. Do you not have any churchyards or garden squares nearby? I've found that they can be a much quieter and nicer environment to be in.

@Batshittery-
Didn’t mean to offend anyone.
The garden is too difficult for me to handle, which is why I barely use it.
I apologise if I upset anyone

I don’t think sharing gardens and rotas would be sensible unfortunately - it’s all about the virus living on surfaces and not touching where others have touched.. It’s not just about keeping your distance. Not a lot of people seem to understand that bit.

Would it be weird if I sat in a folding chair in my car parking space in the communal car park (gated off from the road)?

I am definitely glad we have our garden!! About six years ago we lived in a first floor flat, no balcony. I can't imagine being there now, we moved to our house before having children and we are using the garden all the time as DD is a toddler.

Being stuck inside with no access to outdoor space must be horrible and I feel for anyone having to deal with that right now, especially those with children. Obviously you can go for walks and stuff but it isn't the same as having a garden. I hope lockdown restrictions ease soon so anyone stuck in that situation can get out!

@Honeyroar you wash your hands after being in the garden. Pre covid, I always did wash my hands after being in any garden (even in those days when I lived in a family home and had my own garden). Tbh that garden wasn't so nice because it wasn't well maintained while my communal garden is really beautiful because we have a gardener who looks after it.

This is some advice from West Kent on communal gardens ; www.westkent.org/coronavirus/

If you have a communal garden or outdoor space, please make sure it is only used by one household at a time

Why should it be different for a privately owned development? Also it's affordable housing so they probably have a lot of units.

@Womenwotlunch it doesn’t seem to have bothered OP and I have a garden, so no harm done

I've been in annual leave at the mo it's been v hard while the weather has been amazing lots of outdoor exercise though to take the edge off xx

I’m Im hugely grateful for my garden, as I love growing things I could not live in an apartment. Also my elderly mum who has a small garden but as she has not left her property since 26th February - she is really feeling grateful for a bit of outdoor space. We have both been growing veg so we have a project to work on “together but apart”. Gonna see who can get the best crop!

OP, maybe in future you might enjoy an allotment...