The English are passionate about their lovely and ubiquitous gardens.
In London, city dwellers count their blessings when a town house or apartment building includes access to a shared or private back garden, locked away and hidden from passersby. But that doesn't mean they let the front stoop go to waste...
If a walk around London on a sunny spring day proves anything, it’s that Londoners will maximize any patch of front yard, rooftop garden or few meters of balcony to create a verdant oasis in the middle of the city. To help celebrate Outdoor Home month, here’s a little photo tour of some miniature English city gardens glimpsed from sidewalks around town.
- Kristin Hohenadel blogging from rue Vieille du Temple, Paris, France. She can be reached at kristin @ apartmenttherapy . com
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Comments (12)
Love that first image! It looks like it could have been shot in Albert Square!
We have friends who just moved to Northampton. They tell us that it is not about a front or back "yard". The references are to the front and back "garden" regardless of how small the handerchief sized plot is!
EVERYTHING is any garden in consistant in word, approach, appreciation and deed!
WOW to the second photo- those plants are amazing- and the stainless planter!! Are those yucca's?? Anyone know?
Kate Fox has a BRILLIANT chapter in her book "Watching the English" all about Brits and their psychological need for their gardens. As someone who lived in London for 4 years it resonated as completely accurate and hiiilarious--any Anglophile must read it, lol.
Can any of you identify the big bush with blu-lilac flowers in picture 8? I'd love to have it on my terrace!
I think we are a bit weird about our gardens/yards! The Kate Fox book is very funny! And it seems to be that way regardless of class, age, gender etc, even if they are tiny. The examples in the slideshow were beautiful if a bit too tasteful to be a representative example - this is after all the country of ubiquitous garden gnomes and plastic herons! [Shudder!]
As most of these photos were taken around Notting Hill and Holland Park they show one side of Londons gardens - the properties in these areas tend to be expensive and still full houses rather than all divided into flats - so you do get a better quality of garden in these areas - the portobello road residents are especially proud of their gardens
and that "sidewalk" design is actually that persons front patch and is a typical traditional Victorian tile treatment as seen in thousands of front gardens and hallways in Victorian terraces up and down the country
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland ie the rest of the UK are every bit as passionate about their gardens as the English.
Just want to point out that a third of this small and subjective collection of London garden photos including the opening shot were taken in North London, around Tufnell Park.
I second the "what are those in the flower box above?" Anyone??
And you've made me wish I lived in London even more than I already did.
jennifer in sf and canadian in swiss
Both of the plants in the the flowerbox are succulents, the spikey one is mother-in-law's tongue also called a snake plant, and the purple/black one is something related to the Aeonium arboreum, I have a tiny hybrid I found at a home improvement store, but you can order them online . . somewhere. Sorry I can't be more helpful in that regard.
I have a mild fascination with these plants and my collection is getting out of hand, last count fifty-four, but that was before they started propagating themselves. Yay for weird Dr. Seuss plants!
Thanks erinhc!