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Post by Deleted on Sept 4, 2006 14:10:35 GMT
Hi all, In last week's Irish Times property supplement there was a reader's question asking how to insure their re-vamped front garden which had cost € 30,000 (I think this is about £ 22,000)  . My mind boggled: I doubt that our garden cost more than € 500/600 - and most of that was on paving slabs for the patio! For the rest, the main expense was sweat. Plants have been raised from seed and cuttings, or bought cheaply, we laid the patio ourselves etc. What do you all think? Is it mad to spend €30,000 on a garden - or does it make sense if you've got the money (I quite admit this thread is probably provoked by sheer envy) ... cheers ... |
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Post by piggingardener on Sept 4, 2006 14:20:47 GMT
Blimey!!! That's more than my house cost I've probably spent a fair bit on my garden over the last 10 years or so, but certainly nowhere near £30K - I wish!! PG |
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Post by 4pygmies on Sept 4, 2006 17:09:31 GMT
OOOOHHHH, this makes my blood BOIL!!!! It's just SOO against the whole spirit of gardening.(Oh blimey, I think it must be that time of the month - seem to have been ranting for hours....). Why must everything have a retail value?? Gardening is about choice, freedom, health, spiritual wellbeing, (oh NO, she's an old hippie...), environmental awareness, love of growing things etc etc....it's NOT about money! I can't bear that rubbish about enhancing your property's value. The things that give me most pleasure in my garden are seeing plants have been grown by me from seed, blossom and which come back year after year. I have a little flower garden which has a path I'm building from "found" things - 2 days ago I found a big pile of bricks just dumped by the road in the Forest, now they're waiting for me, my wheelbarrow and a day off so I can get another 3 ft of path laid. It's taken me 2 years so far - if I'd just gone out and bought it all new there'd be no satisfaction at all. If someone really has spent £22,000 on their garden - good grief,what a waste! Maybe they could have done it for a lot less and sent the rest to a worthy cause.....(personal opinion only! Don't all shout at me...)
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Post by Main Admin on Sept 4, 2006 20:44:40 GMT
Well said 4P I have no idea how much I have spent in the garden and I don't really care, I stoped smoking 7 months ago so the way I now see it is my fag money either goes into the something for the house or the garden, the expence is not an issue, though having said that I have picked up a lot of nice cheap plants.
It is an expensive hobby to get it started from scratch but I'm sure as time goes on and the garden becomes more established then the cost will drop too.
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Post by jlottie on Sept 4, 2006 22:20:44 GMT
Obviously been reading too many adverts in GW  I'd hate to keep a running total on my garden and allotment its what I want and when I can manage it, usually in that order. |
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Post by Chuckles on Sept 4, 2006 22:36:55 GMT
I agree with you whole heartedly 4p, I love growing things from cuttings and seeds etc either from my gdn or others peoples, it's very rewarding and well worth the wait. I will and do use second hand materilas trelliss, poles, fencing, bricks, stones etc. We holiday in Portugal and one year we found some lovely tiles amongst some rough ground and also some tiny little cobbles that had been dumped, this is the result of our find. We did have to buy the wooden poles mores the pity.   I have also grown a rose from a cutting from one I found growing wild close to the beach, it must now be at least 5yrs old and is a beautiful monster  |
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Post by 4pygmies on Sept 5, 2006 5:55:42 GMT
Oo, now that looks fantastic! A very fine path indeedy and what a wonderful rose for free! I don't think my path is going to be of quite the same standard somehow - I don't seem to be able to get it level - and I live in flat norfolk... .must have a crooked head! And wooden poles are environmentally sustainable - so that's OK!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2006 6:34:53 GMT
Hi all, In last week's Irish Times property supplement there was a reader's question asking how to insure their re-vamped front garden which had cost € 30,000 (I think this is about £ 22,000) . My mind boggled: I doubt that our garden cost more than € 500/600 - and most of that was on paving slabs for the patio! For the rest, the main expense was sweat. Plants have been raised from seed and cuttings, or bought cheaply, we laid the patio ourselves etc. What do you all think? Is it mad to spend €30,000 on a garden - or does it make sense if you've got the money (I quite admit this thread is probably provoked by sheer envy) ... cheers ... Perhaps the reader was a lottery winner ;D |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2006 11:26:32 GMT
Well, I guess two things are obvious: some people have more money than sense - and members of these boards are a sensible lot! As others have said, nothing can beat the sheer buzz of growing something from a cutting or seed - as I write this, I'm looking out of the window at a cutting-grown solanum jasminoides and a seed-grown passionflower, and no amount of money could buy the satisfaction (well, actually, rather revolting smugness!!) ;D ... cheers ...
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2006 11:27:42 GMT
... and, sorry, I forgot to say, BusyBee, your garden looks fantastic  |
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Post by sweetleaf on Sept 5, 2006 12:53:41 GMT
I love recycling old things into new and beautiful uses, I have a ww2 ammunition box that gets planted with bulbs, hostas and gardeners britches, a pond which was made of recycled materials, a telephone box stores pots in the winter and I hope to plant a grapevine in there ......(good idea or not?) My OH brought me a roman-style pillar,( made of fibreglass) and I`ve trained rosa rugosa up it, it doesnt look fake until you touch it, lol.... almost everything in the garden is recycled or found, new things just look toooo new! I love the path Busybee, I wouldnt have been able to lay it that well your garden looks great! The current trend of instant gardening would not suit me, there is no "story" being told, no evolution to be proud of. I blame the rash of "weed it and reap" style TV programming.  |
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Post by Plocket on Sept 5, 2006 14:50:52 GMT
OMG HOW MUCH?  ? I splash out on special plants but that's just crazy! |
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2006 17:57:35 GMT
I agree with everbodys' comments! I love looking at my garden and thinking that I did it all myself!
I'll bet that the people who spent that obscene amount of money on the garden don't know a thing about gardening and have no intention of finding out how to maintain it either! I think its a wicked waste!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2006 3:06:17 GMT
Although I know it isn't I've always had the thought at the back of my mind that gardening is free. I know it's not logical, so don't ask me to explain it. It's really nice when something doesn't cost anything other than your time, like cuttings and self-seeded bits and bobs, and something, bought as a bargain because it needed TLC, revives. This is not to say that 'proper' HRT doesn't also have it's place, though!
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. My mind boggled: I doubt that our garden cost more than € 500/600 - and most of that was on paving slabs for the patio! For the rest, the main expense was sweat. Plants have been raised from seed and cuttings, or bought cheaply, we laid the patio ourselves etc. What do you all think? Is it mad to spend €30,000 on a garden - or does it make sense if you've got the money (I quite admit this thread is probably provoked by sheer envy) ... cheers ...
? I splash out on special plants but that's just crazy!