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  • How much do you care about appearances?

    Do you go in for the pottager look, with ornament an aim alongside utility? Or, are you at the other end of the spectrum, worrying only about utility and not caring how you achieve results?

    I guess I'm somewhere in the middle. I would like a pretty garden like you see in the magazines, with beautifully-crafted raised beds (or even matching raised beds. We've got two link-a-bord beds and the rest made from timber and they're not all the same size.) But, that's not going to happen!

    I use spare lengths of board to hold down the fleece, and nets/fleece aren't all trimmed and neatly pegged down. Also, we've got black landscape membrane down, although we're slowly covering it with gravel. I'd like to get more of the weeds around the edges of the beds (outside the walls), but there are no weeds in the beds.

    However, some things are just.... unbearable to me. My husband is happy to do things like throw tarps over things heaped in corners. There are bags of concrete or compost or something out there under a blue tarp. I've told him we need to get another tool store box for the front corner of the garden.

    I don't think I could bring myself to use an old carpet on a plot. I'd rather spend money on something at a garden center. Old carpets are filthy and I don't want to touch them. Ick. And, it just looks a bit too much like fly tipping, even if the intentions are pure. And, once the carpet is picked up, I think it's very tempting to leave it folded/rolled/flopped over to the side where it looks even more like fly tipping.

    In a current magazine (Kitchen Garden?) there's an article about some editor hosting visitors from Africa and showing them around his plot. I'm sorry... I understand that old tires can be insulating and thus good for growing in, but having stacks of old tires covered in green moss just looks trashy. His water tank also looks trashy, with some sort of membrane around the edges. He says it contains goldfish to keep it clean and that's fantastic... but just a little cosmetic work could make the whole thing charming.

    I think part of my problem is I grew up in an American city with a lot of transplanted Appalachians. I grew up in a trailer park, in fact. I have a huge aversion to/dread of certain things that just say "trashy" to me. Cars up on blocks sort of things. I'm afraid that growing inside old tires is in that category. Covering crap with tarps is in that category. Carpets in the rain are in that category. Recycling mismatched timber, so long as it's tidy... not trashy.

    Are there things you just can't stand the sight of?
    Last edited by BrandNewDay; 17-06-2009, 11:15 AM.

  • #2
    At the moment I'm using the frames from some bunkbeds and an old wooden cot as bean and pea frames and greenhouse staging. I was given a glass shower door by a neighbour which now makes a nice leanto coldframe.

    Plastic barrels as water butts and planters, old buckets full of spuds, pop bottles for mini cloches.

    I use bits of old gazebo framing and off cuts of wood for netting support.

    It looks like a scrap yard at times, especially this time of year when everything needs support, but it all packs away neatly when not in use. There's some odd things lying around, but everything has a use

    Besides which, I'm a Yorkshireman and I hate spending money if I can make something for nowt
    Last edited by pdblake; 17-06-2009, 10:54 AM.
    Urban Escape Blog

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    • #3
      Oh, we do use plastic bottles to hold the netting over the stakes! That's not picture-perfect, for sure! However... it can be done neatly. Matching bottles, uniform stake heights, uniform spacing. That helps a lot, I think.

      I think if I put in a bit of effort to do that sort of thing, keeping an emphasis on tidyness, that it will make a real difference in appearance. I am going to insist on that in the future. I am not happy with the way some things are going in our garden at present and I think I'll have to have a talk with my long-suffering, hard-working hubby.

      I want to enjoy being in my garden. I want to look around and feel at peace to see all the growing, blooming things. That's easier when a bit of attention to appearances is given.

      I just saw something in a magazine - a reader wrote in to say "lookit how I've recycled my broken washing machine as a hen house!"

      The part of me that grew up in a trailer park and abhors the trashy shudders and says: "white goods outdoors are just. not. on."
      Last edited by BrandNewDay; 17-06-2009, 11:16 AM.

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      • #4
        I'd like to have a pretty garden as well.And I have it-it's pretty in my eyes-all the spaces that I was working on diging,sowing,watering,weeding...I don't tolerate stuff like the tyres(although a friend of mine tried to convince me to grow tatties in it).I haven't got raised beds-for some reason I don't like the idea.I can rearrange the beds every year depending what I'm going to grow.
        Yes,the garden always look nice in the magazines,tidy,not a sight of the weed.The only 1 thing that makes me wonder is why these plants in raised beds always look like they were planted there just before taking the photo?The sides of the beds-not a bit of dirt on them(which would be natural).No sign of any pests either...
        My personal opinion is-if you want to chase the magazine dream garden-do it.To me it's just a waste of time.
        I hope you're not getting the wrong end of the stick-I like and enjoy reading the magazines-but I don't follow them blindly.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by BrandNewDay View Post
          I just saw something in a magazine - a reader wrote in to say "lookit how I've recycled my broken washing machine as a hen house!"
          I made mine out of timber (you'd like it, it's a neat job), but if I'd had a broken washing machine and a copy of that article...well

          Oh, and I wouldn't use tyres either.
          Last edited by pdblake; 17-06-2009, 11:17 AM.
          Urban Escape Blog

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          • #6
            Originally posted by pdblake View Post
            I made mine out of timber (you'd like it, it's a neat job), but if I'd had a broken washing machine and a copy of that article...well

            Oh, and I wouldn't use tyres either.
            Glad to hear you've got some standards.

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            • #7
              i think it's much nicer to be a tidy or pretty looking garden or veggie patch - it's made it somewhere i *want* to be - i don't have a lot of time for it so it's taken a few years to look good and still needs a lot more work

              i don't want grotty old tyres or dirty water tanks etc - they do look horrible

              my allotment plot is still a bit of a mess with half of it covered in weed sheeting held down with bricks, old tree branches, bits of timber, and the other have partly planted and partly full of weeks - i still need a shed there and a small grass patch, need paths, compost bins and a whole lot more - it'll take time, but it'll look good in the end
              http://MeAndMyVeggies.blogspot.com

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              • #8
                Hi! My little plot is situated behind a four foot bank on the main road as you enter the village, so is on full view to passers by. I feel it is my duty to keep it as neat and tidy as possible (but also I'm a bit anal that way!). My raised beds, composter and cold frame were all made for me by Mr Teez and although they were all constructed from scrap wood, they are well made and arranged in an orderly fashion with bark paths between. At the end of the growing season (or maybe before next year) I intend to paint them all the same colour. It doesn't matter at the moment as there is so much growing that the beds are the very last thing you see!
                I cannot tell you how many people have come up to me and told me how lovely my "garden" looks. The owners of the houses which look out onto it have all said that they much prefer looking at my lottie than the empty, overgrown site it was before.
                Maybe if it wasn't in so prominant a position I wouldn't be so careful, but I like the compliments. Why shouldn't something functional be a joy to look at as well?
                When the Devil gives you Cowpats - make Satanic Compost!

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                • #9
                  Mine is a bit of a mix. I would like the garden and plot to be tidy but my inherent untidiness kind of mitigates against it. Dont like stuff in regimented lines, nature doesnt work in straight lines after all. The exeption to this was when I actually measured the spaces between my spud rows!

                  Thinking about it I grew up on a council estate and while I will use things that are useful over pretty I too cant bear the trashy look. Just snobbery I guess
                  Last edited by FionaH; 17-06-2009, 11:47 AM.
                  WPC F Hobbit, Shire police

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                  • #10
                    I like it to look neat and tidy but only really worry if I have gardeningy friends round to look, then I dash about like a mad thing tidying and picking up miniature weeds that only I can see lol.

                    I have more trouble keeping my flower garden bits look neat a there is sooo much of them. I am on a long term mission to gravel them and have pots instead.

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Creemteez View Post
                      Hi! My little plot is situated behind a four foot bank on the main road as you enter the village, so is on full view to passers by. I feel it is my duty to keep it as neat and tidy as possible (but also I'm a bit anal that way!). My raised beds, composter and cold frame were all made for me by Mr Teez and although they were all constructed from scrap wood, they are well made and arranged in an orderly fashion with bark paths between. At the end of the growing season (or maybe before next year) I intend to paint them all the same colour. It doesn't matter at the moment as there is so much growing that the beds are the very last thing you see!
                      I cannot tell you how many people have come up to me and told me how lovely my "garden" looks. The owners of the houses which look out onto it have all said that they much prefer looking at my lottie than the empty, overgrown site it was before.
                      Maybe if it wasn't in so prominant a position I wouldn't be so careful, but I like the compliments. Why shouldn't something functional be a joy to look at as well?
                      I think allotment gardners should all think like you do. If people are going to argue for more land given over to gardening, they need to foster a good image of allotments. Neighbors will certainly prefer tidy gardens to flytipped wasteland, but they won't see the difference if the allotments look like fly tips!

                      I'd love to see photos of your plot.

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                      • #12
                        Garden - tidy and neat

                        Lottie - tidyish but I love carrots in tyres. My tyres are black and not mossy.

                        We will eventually have bark at the lottie when we find a free source - for now the weed fabric will do. All beds are made from recycled wood and don't match but we aren't a show garden we're a working lottie!

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                        • #13
                          When we first started with an allotment, many years ago, allotments were supposed to look trashy! The sheds were an architects nightmare and the first 'greenhouse' we inherited from the previous tenant made me think of that film with the mad nanny every time I went into it. I did try to make it look neat and tidy and replaced the greenhouse as soon as possible even though I was repeatedly assured that there was 'nowt up wi it'. I've since swapped plots and the second one was more of a blank canvas (allotment speak for covered in brambles and bindweed) I was able to lay out the beds more as I wanted them, bought a huge tin of Cuprinol 'Ducksback' so that all timber, including shed and greenhouse were the same colour and left a large Dog Rose in place at one side, which now hides my compost-bins and water butts and provides a lovely display of hips in the autumn. Having said that I'm not at all bothered about it looking perfect, it has grass paths which are cut when we have time, but you can guarantee that if the grass is allowed to grow longer than 6 inches some hopeful off the waiting list will phone the council and say it looks abandoned - conveniently ignoring the crops growing in largely weed-free beds. Compared to how allotments looked in the past it is very neat and tidy indeed, but compared to how plots will look when people from the waiting list get theirs (probably inspired by something at Chelsea) then it's obviously a mess.
                          Into each life some rain must fall........but this is getting ridiculous.

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                          • #14
                            I haven't got enought time to make a picture perfect garden.
                            I don't think I want one anyway, I'm with pdblake on that one, free stuff is better, and if you can make something for nothing, all the better.
                            I do like it to look mostly tidy though, because it's not my garden.

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                            • #15
                              I suppose there's a difference in expectations between an allotment and your own home.

                              I do think that rubbishy allotments don't look nice, but being tidy and having healthy, thriving plants would make a difference in impression.

                              But, in my own home I do think it matters more to not look junky.

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