"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!