Garden Centre

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Public Service Gardening

This is the front garden of a neighbour of mine. It’s definitely at its best at this time of year, with a stunning array of spring flowers and bulbs. I’m never quite sure what to call it: two rocks don’t exactly make a rock garden and certainly can’t be dignified with the name ‘rockery’ and ‘alpine bed’, while it’s a fairly accurate description always makes me think of that Citroen advert where all the Germanic things happen (duelling, bratwurst, buxom serving lasses with blonde plaits and immense cleavages, Berlin opera house) and then they tell you the car is actually French – Alpine Bed sounds like the suspension system or something, to me.

Anyway, the point isn’t what you’d call the flowerbed, so much as the pleasure it gives me each time I walk past. It’s a riot of colour and shape and beautifully maintained, although it will be nothing but muscari in a couple of years if my neighbour doesn’t get ruthless with that particular invasive bulb. And that’s why I say it’s public service gardening – my neighbour can’t sit out in it with a well-earned icy drink, or sunbathe in the middle of it (well, I suppose she could, but it’s on the main road and she’s a lady in her sixties so I don’t think she’d be up for it) and she can’t really even show her friends and family around it with pride. So really, she puts in all that work for passers-by, which is generosity personified.

Labels: alpine bed, rock garden, spring flowers

The All Seasons Gardener at 1:11 AM

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