One of the things that folks really love about their colonies is gardens. It’s so rare to have one in the city centre, and so valuable – particularly in 2020! Most colonies have their gardens right up to the door – or, in the case of most uppers, up to your downstairs neighbour’s windows! Ours are a bit different…

Because we don’t have external stairs here our gardens are separated from the houses by our paths. This has positives and negatives. I think it’s better for us upper folks – my garden is really quite private! For the downstairs folks it does mean they’ll never get that nice feel of a kitchen opening directly out to a garden though. First world problems, eh?

Our gardens vary HUGELY by size around the square, and in how much light they get. Most colonies probably get a square, of around 4-5m in each direction, with a stair in it for half the people. The folks in the middle of our Street get a bit that’s probably about that size, but on the outsides of the block we get a LOT more! I believe mine is about 6m wide and 15m long – which is bloody massive! It’s also fairly southwest facing, which means the far end gets morning sun and the patio nearer the house gets it in the afternoon and evening, at least from about March to October.

When I first got it almost the whole length was lawn. As you can see, not the world’s most verdant thing ever! For the first few years, I mowed it, but honestly it took me a long time to feel like I had any kind of ownership over it. I really hadn’t gardened since being a grumpy teen, being forced to pick up leaves and grass clippings by my dad. Bless his cotton socks, not very inspiring. On reflection someone has definitely planned that garden at some point though – stuff happens through the season. It also has a great shed and an Anderson shelter! I do have plans for it…eventually.

After a few years I realised that the lawn (and mass of raspberries that were growing through it) was a bloody mess. It was at a stage when I had a bit of time, being between jobs, but no money, being between jobs. I came up with what I still think was a fairly cunning temporary solution – bark!

As you can see, I laid out my line, made a nice curve, and went for it. Fun fact: turf is UNBELIVEABLY heavy! It seems fine in bits, but an evening ripping it all out nearly ripped me up.

I knew I was doing it cheap and fast, so I didn’t bother with a membrane or anything. It smelled great, and actually lasted okay for a couple of years, which was all I really expected. Once I was in a position to do something better, a load of the bark was still useful enough to put down in beds, so hey.

The other thing you might notice there is the lovely pink thing – my camellia. It’s glorious, isn’t it? My neighbours and I all love it, because its flowering is a sure sign that spring is coming. Thankfully whoever planted it set it up right, so I’ve had to do very little beyond prune it each year – my kind of gardening.

I didn’t manage to do much with it in my first couple of years of working in Dundee but by 2019 I felt the energy to upgrade the patio. In 2020 I’ve done even more stuff…but that might be for a different post!