Re: [Re: secluded vs open gardens]

On the Greek Islands (sorry about that again, but this is a Medit. Plants
site) a gate seems simply to serve to prevent you walking into someone's
kitchen by mistake.  If you intended to, well that's all right, because the
question of "other people's property" is not one which bothers your average
xenophilic Greek islander.

In Britain, if I remember rightly, it's more complicated. The front garden
mostly has some sort of low barrier  at least to distinguish it from the
others.  All is for display and approval and passers-by may comment on
anything in it, if they can catch the eye of the gardener (which will mean
that he wishes them to), but must do so without treading on an inch of his
property.

The back, however, is totally out of bounds and you have to have become an
honorary friend through a complicated ritual known only to the British before
you are allowed in.  Even if you are the next-door neighbour you must pretend
not to know about, and not comment on, anything which goes on behind the high
fence, although the entire garden is visible to you from your upstairs
windows. 

I think that covers it.


  





Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz> wrote:
> Glenn Breayley wrote:
> > 
> > Moira writes
> > 
> > >I am like you in part, in that my back garden is very private and only
> > >seen by invited guests, but like a majority of NZ suburban gardens the
> > >front is quite open, omly separated from the footpath by a low wall of
> > >pierced concrete blocks, so that all who pass can look in
> > 
> > Perhaps you could mention the very strict NZ bylaws on what fences are
> > allowed along street frontages & their maximum height. This makes for a
very
> > different urban environment than many other places in the world &
influences
> > the whole nature of garden design.
> > I remember in my boyhood - in NZ - all suburban streets had a concrete
> > footpath seperated from the road by a grass verge & council provided
street
> > tree. It made for very leafy suburbs. Of an evening people would go for a
> > walk after dinner & examine others front gardens for new ideas &
> > associations.
> > Is that the way things are still done ? Its a very civilized way to live.
> 
> Glenn
> Where exactly in NZ did you spend your childhood? This mention of very
> strict by-laws about fencing had me very puzzled. I live in Lower Hutt
> where anything seems to go from high wooden or block fences down to
> nothing at all (all in the same street!), and the same seems to apply in
> any other town I have visited.
> 
> In fact I was sufficiently intrigued to ring the local Concil offices
> and enquire. The only regulation I could find was that if one wanted a
> fence more than 2m high one needed planning permission - was this
> perhaps what you were thinking of?
> 
> There are of course some further considerations for fencing _between_
> properties, but this is largely a matter of liasing with the neoghbours
> affected.
> 
> The provision of footpaths and grass verges with trees still applies
> though. The council supplies the tree (Ours is the cherry 'Shimidsu
> Sakura'), but the householder is expected to tend their own bit of
> verge. One person I know tested this by refusing to mow his front, but
> the council would only bring their mower round twice a year, so he
> finally got sick of the "Hayfield" outside and capitulated!!
> 
> The tree is also largely under one's care also. In its early days we had
> several times to defend ours against passing children who would swing on
> the still frail branches or (worst of all) snap new shoots just for the
> fun of it) Ours lost two potentially major branches early on to a casual
> small boy, who had snapped them off before I could stop him. I had to
> later train a shoot through from the other side to restore the balance.
> Fortunately the tree is becoming quite sizable and the kids seem to have
> either grown older or just lost interest.
> 
> Moira
> -- 
> Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
> Wainuiomata (near Wellington, capital city of New Zealand)


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