Thought I'd compare to older photos
Standing on the road looking up the lane
May 2017, two months after moving in and we'd just had the lane re-surfaced - it was in a very bad state and had had nothing done to it for several years. We shared the cost with one out of the 4 houses because one house was empty and the other people had just put their house on the market.
Not much difference in June 2020, grass is growing up the middle - pot holes have been filled in again since that first photo, all 4 houses sharing the cost this time. It gets in pretty bad condition each winter as the trees drip, holes are formed, which fill with water, which loosens more stones. Cars go up and down through the puddles, loose stone is pushed out and Hey Presto A Pothole!
3 photos from Summer 2017 and November 2018 the land opposite next door but one house, was covered with Golden Rod etc and Meadowsweet
The old pump base was hidden in a tangle
Now 2020 it's been cleared, leveled, tidied, grassed over and Rob has planted some Lime trees
(I know which I preferred!)
The bit opposite their house was cleared and newly planted by the new neighbours who moved in during 2018. She'd already reorganised all her own garden and spread out onto the lane....... this is what she started off with in 2019.
And this year June 2020. It takes her days each spring to weed and tidy
but at least there is lots of stuff for birds, bees and butterflies - unlike Robs' plain flat grass.
Below June 2020 Opposite my house between track and ditch I've left it wild! It's only a narrow strip, can't see any point in clearing it.
June 2020 There's still water in the ditch for the Moorhens. It will all dry up before the autumn and then fill up again through the winter.
Back Tomorrow
Sue
It fascinates me to see how different people in the same road/lane maintain their "strip". There is a narrow, gated, paved "lane" at the end of my daughter's garden in Manchester, between two rows of Victorian terraces. A couple of enterprising residents have set up a scheme whereby people contribute a very small sum each year and it is filled with large pots containing plants. It looks lovely and in summer they have community bbqs etc. One positive aspect of lockdown has been that being stuck at home has helped many people become aware of the beauty nature around them, esp in the towns and cities. I'd rather see a roundabout full of wild flowers, bees and butterflies than tidily mown grass!
ReplyDeleteIt's a very lovely lane, one way and another.
ReplyDeletexx
Lovely to look back at the before and after. Your neighbour has made a rod for her own back there, and while it looks pretty enough I am personally not a fan of gardens spilling out into nature like that. I would rather see it sown with packets of wildflower seeds.
ReplyDeleteShe has got quite a lot of borage, comfrey and ox eye daisies so some wild stuff - it takes a lot of work but gardening is her big hobby
DeleteWas that a communal pump for the cottages along the lane? If so, I bet you are glad you don't have to lug water home along the lane. One short lane with several different styles, it is lovely. Wild and natural is the one I favour, especially if I am the gardener.
ReplyDeleteYes the pump must have been there a while as the original 3 houses in the lane date back 200+ years. Where the water came from we don't know
DeleteI love to see the before and now lane. We have quite a lot of grass in front of the bungalows it is the councils job to look after part of it with a path going thro and the other part is little patches for private garden, my neighbour is very kind and mows my grass and I have one strip with gravel and 2 big pots with geraniums in and in winter I put daffodils in. It is all nice and tidy I would much rather be gardening in the back. I love to walk in the village to look at the different gardens. Hazel c uk🌈🌈🌈
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on preferring the wild flowers, although the cottage garden profusion of your other neighbour is gorgeous. I don't go for the mown grass minimalist look!
ReplyDeleteI used to garden for someone in the nearby village and was admiring half an acre or so of Rosebay Willowherb that grew opposite. The householder said they should be sprayed with weedkiller. I was horrified. They used pestkiller on the vegetables too. YUK. We garden with nature in mind here (that's my excuse for the overgrown bits I can't keep on top of!)
Like everyone on here it seems, I much prefer nature and her way than the cultivated, manicured human way. To me it's a bit like wood versus glass and chrome - nature for me every time.
ReplyDeleteGoing by our overgrown garden you'd soon conclude which we, the frogs, the mice and the hedgehogs prefer.
ReplyDeleteSuch interesting preferences Sue - we are all so different aren't we? I was sad to see one of your neighbours making her bit into a 'garden ' = yes good for butterflies and bees but I preferred it as it was before.
ReplyDeleteI think the natural look is best, waiting for whatever nature throws up.
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy to see this post. I've always loved your comparisons of the "up the lane" pictures. It is interesting to see how the area across the lane looks in different places. I think they are each lovely in their own way. I will be curious to see how it looks as the lime trees grow.
ReplyDeleteFascinating to see the changes. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI like your own little wild road verge as it reminds me of when we lived out in the country, and most road verges looked like that. There were so many weeds and grasses growing together that there was always something to see - it made a great haven for tiny wild life as well.
ReplyDeleteHow tasteds differ so...I'm always a natural kind of girl...x
ReplyDeleteFascinating to see how the lane has changed over the last couple of years.
ReplyDeleteWhile I can admire the neatness of the grass verge, that is a week in week out job that benefit no-one or nature. The garden spilling out is lovely and if she lets the more native and natural plants take over it will revert to being a wildflower patch as she loses the urge or the ability to maintain it in the future, so no harm done and beauty and activity enjoyed.
Your little 'wild' stretch which although to some would seem to messy, will be home and food for hundreds of little undisturbed creatures.
I have found here that our 'Nut Wood' an area we never go into and that has self seeded itself over the last few years, with a small pond that is merely topped up with rainwater as and when it rains, is the place that teems with bees, butterflies and all sorts of little creatures that drive Mavis, our Jack Russell mad as she can't get to them. She too chubby to fit through the squares of the stock fencing now!!