Gardening for Passers-By
- To: m*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: Gardening for Passers-By
- From: t*@eddy.u-net.com (Tim Longville)
- Date: Thu, 08 Jul 1999 17:42:26 GMT
A slight twist to the thread...
Our house is a proper Victorian British 'town-house.' That means it
fronts directly onto the street, with only a space of about four feet
between (equally proper Victorian...) cast iron railings and the front
wall of the house. In summer, this space and the steps up to the house
are filled with plants in pots and tubs and, like everyone else who's
chipped in on this one, I've got used to and indeed enjoy being
stopped by folks when I'm weeding and watering - whether it's to
praise or criticise, ask what something is, or ask for a cutting or a
pinch of seed - and sometimes to offer a spare of a plant they think I
might like.
Even in summer growing plants in this situation causes a few problems
but in winter the problems are magnified so greatly that most of the
really interesting plants become impossible outside. The problem's not
cold but wind: salt-laden wind. (The house stands on the top of the
miniature cliffs above the tidal estuary of the Solway Firth.)
BUT (and this is where the twist comes in) we've also got two (proper
Victorian, again) bay windows and the house faces due south. So, in
winter, a couple of old scrubbed pine kitchen tables are dragged into
those window and filled with winter-flowering exotics, mostly Southern
hemisphere plants flowering in winter in the North: lots of abutilons,
lots of S. African and Australian bulbs, lots of Australian shrubs.
They're brought in from the greenhouse when they're about to flower
and then 'retired' back to it when their flowering's done.
On a cold and miserable December or January day, with the skies grey,
the wind howling and the rain or sleet lashing down, it's fun to see
people walking past skid to a halt and do a double-take, then, often,
grin and pass on their way looking just that bit cheerier. Lots of
people mention to us how much they enjoy our 'miniature winter
garden.'
Which in turn connects to the 'how big is your garden' thread.
Sometimes a couple of table-tops and/or a couple of windows is quite
enough to produce what's after all the main purpose of any garden,
regardless of size: pleasure.
Difficult to believe in that winter scene after our last few balmy
days, with temperatures in the 80s - gosh! now, now: don't laugh - for
us it's exceptional - yet enough of a sea-breeze to make it not too
sticky. Time to refill my glass and wander out to enjoy the sun
setting over the Solway - and my miniature summer tub-and-pot garden
and a little crack (Irish sense, I hasten to add: animated
conversation, simply) with the passers-by.
Tim Longville
