Goal Posts
The other day I was talking to my editor about some new goal-posts that has been built and installed and ready to use in the garden, once the ground became less soggy. The sponge-like ground would likely be ruined if the football came out for a kick-about now, so we are waiting for those longer-lighter-drier days to come. It won't be long, we get a couple of minutes extra daylight in the morning and evening every day, and it is now light until after the 5pm "hometime watershed", so playtime in the garden is just round the corner. Can you believe that Christmas was over six weeks ago? - time flies when you're thinking about the garden.
So it got me thinking about how we have used the garden in the past and what might be in store for later. We've had everything from Wendy Houses to Chicken Sheds, Sand Pits to Duck Ponds, Badminton Nets to Pitch n' Putt - and reading that makes it sound like we are talking about some huge tract of land, but in fact this all took place in the back garden of a standard 3-bedroom semi.
Every fad or fashion has been explored - solar lights CHECK, oriental lanterns CHECK, bamboo edging CHECK; we have camped in tents, harvested crops and hosted parties and barbecues. There have been tree-houses, swings and guinea pigs (I drew the line at micro pigs) - all in the garden.
We don't regret any of these purchases or activities however short lived some of them might have been, as it has always been fun at the time and has meant more time outside to enjoy the garden. The children have played and learnt from a whole host of different activites.
Later this year we are going retro again, with some decking going into an underused corner of the garden. I am hoping to install this myself and have started to draw a plan of how it will look.
We are going to chop a tree down (next winters fire wood) and a purchase a small table set ready for afternoon tea.
So my point here is the garden is not just for growing plants, weeding, cutting and trimming - it's for living. Treat your garden like another room of you house. So clear the junk, take inspiration from things you see and give it a go! Change it, adapt it, decorate it and use your garden.
