Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Oh come on Hamlet, you say that like it’s a bad thing.
One of the things I do as I walk through the world is peer into people’s front gardens. This seems reasonsable and unintrusive. Somebody (and I wish I could remember who) said back gardens are for yourself, front gardens are for others. So I feel justified in my prying.
It’s evident that some people are happy to show an eccentric face to the world via their front garden. As above and below:
I like this stuff, obviously. But I’m equally intrigued by the gardens where people appearto have done nothing and just ‘let nature take its course’ (whatever that might mean).
Once upon a time you’d have thought these people were wastrels of slackers, or people who were just giving an ‘up yours’ to their neighbours, but now we’re all in favour of wildness (or even rewilding), aren’t we? So it’s even possible to convince yourself that your overgrown garden has become a nature reserve. Mine used to look like this:
But there are always limits. Walking through Mark Street Gardens in Shoreditch t’other day I came across this sign:
Yes, we may love nature but we always like some kinds of nature better than others.
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