martin wrote:
: "Flippin' deck
: http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/st...231770,00.html
: Jane Perrone delights in the demise of a certain garden fad, and has
: some advice on putting right its inherent wrongs
:
: Friday June 4, 2004
:
: A blackbird on the wing, taking in an aerial view of an average UK
: street, has probably noticed a colour shift in the past five years.
: Our once green and pleasant land has been invaded by a hideous scourge
: that poses a threat to all that is good about gardening: wooden
: decking.
:
: A story in today's Telegraph details how a retired couple from
: Northumberland objected when their neighbour turned his garden into a
: "wooden fortress" with the addition of a "giant deck". The story
: pushed all the right buttons for the average Telegraph reader -
: feuding neighbours, a former Royal Navy petty officer, an antique
: dealer, local planning officers and listed property. I found my own
: buttons pushed, however, by the idea that anyone could believe that
: covering over a perfectly good bit of garden with a large wooden
: structure where one is likely to spend, oh, hours a year enjoying the
: sunshine is anything other than an expensive folly.
:
: Decking is at the heart of what I call the "Ground Force approach" to
: gardening, the idea - promulgated by the likes of the garden makeover
: show's Charlie Dimmock - that the way to the perfect garden is a trip
: to the nearest out-of-town DIY megastore for an expensive pile of wood
: and a violent shade of woodstain. The result? A sterile environment
: that is useless for garden wildlife, becomes a slippery hazard after a
: few months of neglect in our watery climate and is often out of scale
: with its surroundings.
:
: The trouble is I am an allotment gardener at heart, a breed resigned
: to the ranks of the terminally uncool by EastEnders' downtrodden man
: of the soil, Arthur Fowler. Gardens shouldn't be viewed simply as an
: "an extra room" that can undergo a miraculous lifestyle makeover akin
: to slapping on a few coats of misty buff on the walls or buying a new
: sofa.
:
: Good gardens evolve. They aren't constructed overnight. When I see a
: garden, my thoughts turn to how many plants I could pack in to provide
: both colour and food for my kitchen and for garden visitors like bees
: and butterflies. I know it will take months to see my ideas through
: from preparing the soil, to sowing seed, planting out, weeding and
: watering. There's nothing productive or beautiful about a stretch of
: bleak wood - it's good for neither herb nor hedgehog.
:
: The good news is that decking - like all fads - is quickly joining
: laminate flooring, inflatable chairs and luminous socks in the ranks
: of fashion has-beens.
:
: If you've already fallen under the costly spell of Ground Force, think
: about redeeming yourself and your garden by renting an allotment
: (average cost: £10-20 a year), digging a wildlife pond (average cost:
: about a tenner) or planting a wildflower meadow (average cost: a few
: packets of seeds). The decking backlash has begun."
:
: AMEN!

Well said