So interesting to read your thoughts on the front garden Meg! When we started our Front Garden festival years ago we used to talk about it as a treat for the street - so this notion/action of contribution resonates.
To treat the humans to a spectacle of some sort, a provocation, a sensory serving suggestion - but also the intangible things.....and create a welcome for other species in all the ways seems like a generous gift..
...to treat neighbours down the hill to slowed-down flooding - to offer some mitigation towards pollutants...to invite in worms and let leaves drop and senesce....
I'm sorry to hear about your critical neighbours - but you are critiquing them right back with your gardening philosophy - i love that.
We have a front garden and a back garden - after years of renting - and I feel so different gardening in the front than the back because of passers by and the performative aspect...all the things you are saying. There is sooooo much to say about Front Garden Spaces!!!!
SO much to say!! I could go on and on about the feeling of performance in the front garden compared to the back. I really love the premise of the Front Garden festival; you've got me thinking that maybe next year would be a great time to organise something like that around here!!
I love the idea of the front garden as a contribution. Front gardens make so much difference to the look, feel and life of a street. Hard standing and plastic grass suck the life out of a place, plants make it feel warmer and more welcoming.
I love reading other peoples' experiences too! I wish there were more, it feels like such fertile ground for discussion and sharing the complexity of growing in a public-facing way. Thank you so much for reading!
Sorry to hear your neighbours haven't grasped that we are in a dire biodiversity emergency. Keep renaturing and rewilding! It's our duty in these times 💚🐸🪲🐛🌿
Meg, I really love the way you share the pressures that we feel when we view community as so much larger than human and live like that matters. I think the outdated paradigms of the manicured, and basically dead yard, needs all the challenge that we can mete out, but we do have to live in neighborhoods with others who haven't woken up to that reality yet. Gentle education by sharing in conversation with others, and choosing to design based on the needs of a beloved endangered mammal is both regenerative and will serve lots of other beings, like the bees which are a harder sell. A beautiful sign about how the landscape is supporting the hedgehogs might also be helpful! I bet there are some available over there . . .
Our human role is so much more expansive than the small, morbidly selfish box that modernity dictated.
I hope we get to see photos of the transformation!
So interesting to read your thoughts on the front garden Meg! When we started our Front Garden festival years ago we used to talk about it as a treat for the street - so this notion/action of contribution resonates.
To treat the humans to a spectacle of some sort, a provocation, a sensory serving suggestion - but also the intangible things.....and create a welcome for other species in all the ways seems like a generous gift..
...to treat neighbours down the hill to slowed-down flooding - to offer some mitigation towards pollutants...to invite in worms and let leaves drop and senesce....
I'm sorry to hear about your critical neighbours - but you are critiquing them right back with your gardening philosophy - i love that.
We have a front garden and a back garden - after years of renting - and I feel so different gardening in the front than the back because of passers by and the performative aspect...all the things you are saying. There is sooooo much to say about Front Garden Spaces!!!!
SO much to say!! I could go on and on about the feeling of performance in the front garden compared to the back. I really love the premise of the Front Garden festival; you've got me thinking that maybe next year would be a great time to organise something like that around here!!
I love the idea of the front garden as a contribution. Front gardens make so much difference to the look, feel and life of a street. Hard standing and plastic grass suck the life out of a place, plants make it feel warmer and more welcoming.
Your plans sound fantastic. I do the majority of my gardening in a front garden so I love reading about others experiences.
I love reading other peoples' experiences too! I wish there were more, it feels like such fertile ground for discussion and sharing the complexity of growing in a public-facing way. Thank you so much for reading!
Sorry to hear your neighbours haven't grasped that we are in a dire biodiversity emergency. Keep renaturing and rewilding! It's our duty in these times 💚🐸🪲🐛🌿
Meg, I really love the way you share the pressures that we feel when we view community as so much larger than human and live like that matters. I think the outdated paradigms of the manicured, and basically dead yard, needs all the challenge that we can mete out, but we do have to live in neighborhoods with others who haven't woken up to that reality yet. Gentle education by sharing in conversation with others, and choosing to design based on the needs of a beloved endangered mammal is both regenerative and will serve lots of other beings, like the bees which are a harder sell. A beautiful sign about how the landscape is supporting the hedgehogs might also be helpful! I bet there are some available over there . . .
Our human role is so much more expansive than the small, morbidly selfish box that modernity dictated.
I hope we get to see photos of the transformation!