Possibly because they like to spend time outdoors but actually don't have the time to manage flower borders and lawns. I know when I was working it had become more and more of a challenge to keep our largish garden under control, and we don't have kids to factor in or the long working hours that many are expected to put in these days.
Not having the time to commit to creating the home equivalent of Sissinghurst doesn't mean they hate gardening.
Money is also a factor. There were no garden centres when we bought and no such things as plug plants. Kindly neighbours with established gardens were very generous with divisions of perennials and shrub cuttings.
You're not kidding! We had our garden stripped back to bare bones 3 years ago. We were left with a crab apple tree and a couple of bamboo (one of which we have since removed). I haven't (dare not) worked out how much we've spent on plants and I think we're still only about 1/2 way to the completed article.
My neighbours work part time VERY locally,he cuts the grass, she does nowt. We spend a lot of time cutting brambles ivy,, hedges and various tree branches over hanging, from there, The front, grass and dandilions. I dont have Sissinghurst either. Up till retiring last year I had a commute of nearly 100 mile round trip, my Husband does 80 miles a day. We have had larger gardens, are aware how expensive and time consumming they are, when my kids were young (4 of them) I worked long hours, and spent an average of 20 hours a week gardening, just to keep it tidy. It was quarter of an acre, was chatting to someone at work one day, said it took me a couple of hours just to cut one lawn, she asked if I used nail scissors, I said no a petrol mower, which was true, I was lucky, my late Father down sizing gave it to me!
Your description of your neighbours sounds a bit like one of ours. He spends far less time in his garden now he has retired than when he worked full time. When we had our garden stripped they also removed a number of trees from his garden, along with some brambles and then rotovated the lot. Since then he has barely touched it. He's put in a couple of rows of raspberries at the top and planted spuds at the bottom. There is a section which must be well over 50 feet long where the weeds are worse than before it was tidied for him.
It's not a case that he can't do it any more. More a case that he spends nearly every waking hour playing golf.
I can't spend a lot of time in my garden because I'm working in the NHS and also setting up a private practice but I am quite organised and do small jobs when I have time to keep it in order, maybe an hour a night.
It does annoy me thought when people with massive gardens don't do ANY gardening including mowing like my ex next door neighbours whose rogue shrubbery pushed down my fence from the weight of it...and the weeds invaded big time.
At least if you've got a nice big garden for the kids or dog or whatever and only mow and make sure you're not invading then that's ok.
A lot of us have had extreme neglect next door and it's no fun at all.
Posts
Possibly because they like to spend time outdoors but actually don't have the time to manage flower borders and lawns. I know when I was working it had become more and more of a challenge to keep our largish garden under control, and we don't have kids to factor in or the long working hours that many are expected to put in these days.
Not having the time to commit to creating the home equivalent of Sissinghurst doesn't mean they hate gardening.
Money is also a factor. There were no garden centres when we bought and no such things as plug plants. Kindly neighbours with established gardens were very generous with divisions of perennials and shrub cuttings.
You're not kidding!
We had our garden stripped back to bare bones 3 years ago. We were left with a crab apple tree and a couple of bamboo (one of which we have since removed). I haven't (dare not) worked out how much we've spent on plants and I think we're still only about 1/2 way to the completed article.
My neighbours work part time VERY locally,he cuts the grass, she does nowt. We spend a lot of time cutting brambles ivy,, hedges and various tree branches over hanging, from there, The front, grass and dandilions. I dont have Sissinghurst either. Up till retiring last year I had a commute of nearly 100 mile round trip, my Husband does 80 miles a day. We have had larger gardens, are aware how expensive and time consumming they are, when my kids were young (4 of them) I worked long hours, and spent an average of 20 hours a week gardening, just to keep it tidy. It was quarter of an acre, was chatting to someone at work one day, said it took me a couple of hours just to cut one lawn, she asked if I used nail scissors, I said no a petrol mower, which was true, I was lucky, my late Father down sizing gave it to me!
Your description of your neighbours sounds a bit like one of ours. He spends far less time in his garden now he has retired than when he worked full time. When we had our garden stripped they also removed a number of trees from his garden, along with some brambles and then rotovated the lot. Since then he has barely touched it. He's put in a couple of rows of raspberries at the top and planted spuds at the bottom. There is a section which must be well over 50 feet long where the weeds are worse than before it was tidied for him.
It's not a case that he can't do it any more. More a case that he spends nearly every waking hour playing golf.
I can't spend a lot of time in my garden because I'm working in the NHS and also setting up a private practice but I am quite organised and do small jobs when I have time to keep it in order, maybe an hour a night.
It does annoy me thought when people with massive gardens don't do ANY gardening including mowing like my ex next door neighbours whose rogue shrubbery pushed down my fence from the weight of it...and the weeds invaded big time.
At least if you've got a nice big garden for the kids or dog or whatever and only mow and make sure you're not invading then that's ok.
A lot of us have had extreme neglect next door and it's no fun at all.