modern gardens (1 Viewer)

the increasing of patio sizes, conservatories, upcv, jetwashing those clinical looking white flags, shrubs are unfashionable lets get it paved. no wonder house sparrows are declining. sorry i am feeling grumpy. give me a nice old fashioned overgrown cottage garden any day of the week.

Rob Stroker said:

the increasing of patio sizes, conservatories, upcv, jetwashing those clinical looking white flags, shrubs are unfashionable lets get it paved. no wonder house sparrows are declining. sorry i am feeling grumpy. give me a nice old fashioned overgrown cottage garden any day of the week.

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Could not agree with you more rob. A lady near to where I live, cannot understand why she does not get the birds in her garden as she used to get. A few years ago she had the large lawn taken up and replaced by those awful pebbles, it's like walking on chesil beach. Also the amount of people who jetwash now has increased so much, theres decking, patios with plants now grown in pots taking over from the old dense shrub borders. The habitat of the house sparrow is being taken away & it is a shame for they are such a lovely little bird to have around. I have between 25 & 50 visiting my garden at times during the year & at the moment they are so busy, there great to watch.

Rod.

worth pointing out there's no reason you can't have a modern looking design which is very good for wildlife though (although admittedly most aren't). Just needs a bit of thinking about. Most coverage of wildlife gardens in the media is all the same revolving around "patches of nettles" and big piles of logs and the like.

I'd really like to see a piece where they say create a very small, modern looking garden with wildlife friendly features.

thanks rod for your understing, isarurus, why does gardening have to be fashionable.

Rob Stroker said:

thanks rod for your understing, isarurus, why does gardening have to be fashionable.

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Hey Rob.
The answer to that question is; it doesn't. My point was more that there are some people who want wildlife friendly gardens with dense shrubs etc - brilliant for birds, insects etc etc; some people now want a fashionable minimalist easy to maintain "outdoor room" (insert other groundforce cliches here). I'd like to think its not too difficult to find a third way accomodating those people who want something easy, washable etc. but still helping wildlife. I think that sometimes the easily available how-to advice on wildlife gardening must be completely alienating to these people rather than showing them the baby steps that can do a little bit of real good.

A bit of forethought from the people who do these gardening shows rather than shilling the latest b&q decking would do a lot of good.

A good hedge works wonders for sparrow visits but these are getting removed at an alarming rate.

It really upsets me too when I see people "improving" their gardens. Just the other day we had a neighbour remove a couple of trees to make way for sunbathing.

Yes - I'm with you. I'm in the process of reverting my garden back to a cottage garden. I'm planting shrubs and bushes to bring in the insects which will ultimately lead to more birds. It just takes time.