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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?
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?
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