garden trends you wouldn't want in your own garden?

[DaringAquaViewer]

a fruit plant

Both roses and crysanthemums are very on trend..

Why? It’s an excellent use of a garden, we have a large patio as said, it is in a large garden, we sit out there often, a garden isn’t just for working in and peering at through your windows.

A large patio or other seating areas (summerhouses etc) within a garden isn't at all the same as the 'outdoor room' idea where it's all about the furnishing and barely about plants (let alone wildlife) at all. I can understand why people do this if they've limited indoor space and not much time, but those sterile yards aren't gardens.

I don’t really agree I’m sorry. I think you’re talking bout extremes, I’d consider mine an outside room, it’s a sofa set, rugs, dining set, gazebo etc, but I also have a huge amount of plants, not just in the garden but the patio is full, literally, we spend a lot of time in the pots.

same as my friends they have some lovely “outdoor rooms” but they still have gardens full of plants, and all round their patio.

Yes its legitimate if you are busy and aren't actually interested in plants. Gardens are for people who like them. Then all of the garden follows the "what can I grow". If you think first "what sofa can I fit in here or where do I put the BBQ" then you aren't a gardener!

The gardener would look at the BBQ and the sofa and consider they were taking up valuable space for plants!

Again I disagree, as said we have a large garden, I’d consider myself a gardener, as would my husband himself. We can still have a sofa and a bbq. Gardens aren’t just for planting and gardening, they are also for relaxing in, socialising and enjoying, the two things are not mutually exclusive.

in fact after working hard in the garden there is nothing nicer than relaxing out there with a glass of wine, we often have dinner outside in the summer, always morning coffeee late spring to early summer, and we have plenty of BBqs.

i find it quite ludicrous to claim you’re not a gardener if you have a sofa set or bbq,

Who decided you got to set the rules for Actual Gardener status?

my thoughts as well.

Aw come on all the gardeners I know are like that! They are fascinated by plants! Isn't that the point of it?

Also it was a bit tongue in cheek - it's the Bob Flowerdew test

You can be a gardener and have a sofa...it's the extreme where it's just interior design outside that's a bit sad.

I thought the Bob Flowerdew test for a real gardener is that you need to be nominatively determined?

Of course you can, else the poster would need to notify Monty don he’s out of a job.

Yes it's all about perception. Have a sofa in the front garden and you are apparently that's not very poor gardening...

I think my point stands. If you are thinking about plants first, then you are a gardener, if you think about sofas, bbqs etc first then in reality, you are the outdoor room person. It is a different focus

I think that is a bit of a snobby view TBH. I love gardening. I find it very relaxing and therapeutic. I also like to sit outside and enjoy being in my garden, so there is nothing wrong with having some nice seating to sit in to enjoy the garden.

A garden can be many things:

1. An outdoor room
2. Simply to grow plants, including fruit and vegetables
3. A combination of the above
4. Somewhere for children to play
5. Somewhere to hang washing out

somewhere for the birds to nest and eat

huh? Generally you think about both. And look at the garden holistically.

Yes!
We have a bird feeder with a camera, and it gives us hours of joy.

Was that a response to the OPs question of things you don't want or an addition to the pps list of garden elements?

First plants then everything else! That's gardening. If I started from the principle that I needed to fit a sofa in it, that's a different idea altogether. You are building the space around that as the dominant need.

I don't think it's that odd because you see it all the time. I don't think it snobby, just true. Gardens have many functions, but the plants and what can grow well there is the starting point

I'd quite like a sofa in my garden... except I know I'd be rubbish at actually using it. I can always see things that need doing. If I want to relax in a garden it needs to be someone else's!😂

I have no idea what youre on about. So will stop responding. Unless you’re starting from scratch designing a garden planting scheme on bare earth, then you think about noth, and the furniture is a once and done for many years, plants is constant. Honestly you’re making no sense with your weird rule.

Surely, you work with the garden you already have? The hard landscaping in our garden was there when we moved in. The garden is well designed and suitable for planting and having outdoor seating on the patio.

A garden full of potted plants or plants that need lifting and keeping warm in winter. I want stuff in my garden to mostly look after itself so pots that need watering every 5 minutes in the summer are never going to survive and i could never be bothered to lift stuff. I hate fake grass too, horrible stuff.

We have quite a big garden and have a patio with the dreaded grey plastic fake rattan sofa where we sit out and have breakfast in the summer. We also have a pond with frogs and newts and lots of wild flowers and some awful weeds - ground elder, bindweed, docks, brambles, nettles, which I am always battling. We have fruit, strawberries, raspberries - why wouldn't you want that? Unless you don't like fruit - have you seen the price of soft fruit!! The garden is the best part of our house IMO.

no it was a response to the post immediately above