Once again, I wish I could see some photos.

Flippin' deck seems to be an issue with some Britons:

A blackbird on the wing, taking in an aerial view of an average UK street, has probably noticed a colour shift in the past five years. Our once green and pleasant land has been invaded by a hideous scourge that poses a threat to all that is good about gardening: wooden decking.

Wooden decking is a problem? I wish I could see an example.

Comments

[Ian]

The isssue, promoted out of all proportion in my view by people whose only view of gardens is that they should contain plants - ie that you shouldn't actually _use_ them only look at them, is that decking is out of control.

They seem to ignore the fact that if it wasn't decking it would be concrete paving or weed infested, barren lawn.

The target for this ire is largely a TV makeover programme called Ground Force which I'm pretty sure is shown in the US - they have done some programmes in NY and LA. There are some pictures here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/tv_radio/programmes/ground_force/factsheets/queens.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/design/des_ins/leaf_pages/27.shtml

[Adam]

Yes, the rise of decking is directly linked to Ground Force which transformed the decking industry from something that was worth a few tens of thousands of pounds per annum to an industry turning over millions in three or four years.

I'm not sure the problem is quite as much about plant snobbery as Ian suggest, but more to do with the fact that decking has become de rigeur even in gardens where it's just not a good aesthetic choice. It's become a fad, a trend in garden design which people follow slavishly, just because it's on the telly.

God only knows what the gardens of Britain will looks like in a few decades when this stuff starts to rot through neglect.

[Jeff Schmidt]

Perhaps it is a matter of proportion. I am assuming that the yards may be rather small and that the decks spoken of are consuming a large percentage of realestate that would have once been used for gardens.

[David Sucher]

Fascinating. And as was just said, like virtually everything else in life, it all seems "a matter of proportion." The "right-sized" deck is good; the "wrong-sized" deck is bad. No?

Of course I am one of those guys with "luminous socks" so what do I know.

[Adam]

A combination of that and the "quick fix" approach to gardening is what's irritating people, yes.

[Ian]

Not everyone wants to spend hours a week tending plants but still wants an attractive outdoor space. I don't honestly see what it has to do with anyone else whether I cover my entire rear garden with decking or with grass.

I know that in some US developments the Home Owners Association wields enormous power and could tell me how to lay out my garden, front or rear but thankfully we don't have that particular bit of privatised bureaucracy in the UK - and I hope it stays that way.

I saw a TV programme of a visit to the US by a British garden designer (a very good one) called Dan Pearson. He visited a housing development in the mid-west where the owners of a house had planted their front garden with native prairie style plants and had ended up in a huge row with the HOA because it was supposed to be grass. So not only were the HOA acting as 'style police', they were also telling him whathe should be spending his monmey on - by insisting he had planting which needed constant watering - his planting didn't need extra water - and of course he needed fuel for a mower.

I don't understand America.

[Ian]

Sorry - I'm not trying to turn the discussion into one about the US - just thinking aloud!

[David Sucher]

Yes Home Owner Associations get a bit imperious; but I'd be surprised if it's really that much of an American thing.

[Ian]

We don't have them. Gated communities are growing in the UK and I expect they will have something similar, but I don't see any home owners association in the UK getting away with what they seem to in the US. Management companies are common in Ireland but I don't think they operate in the same way being basically responsible for grass cutting etc. I have no idea what the position is in Australia, which is I suspect the most like the US. Spain is another country who seem to havve an equivalent, called 'Communities' but these seem to be set up after the development by residents and I don't think it is compulsory to join.

[David Sucher]

Ian,
Don't you think that there is the functional equivalent?
In any case, while there are no doubt egregious examples of HOA over-reaching, people do voluntarily buy-into these developments; so they get what they pay for. And if enough people do not like the struct rules -- and many of the rules are indeed dumb -- thet can change them.

[Ian]

My point is that the controls exercised by HOA are way in excess of anything in the UK planning system (assuming that is what you mean by functional equivalent). As far as voluntarily buying in, as I understand it (from The Voluntary City) the vast majority of new developments have these HOA and all have the same sorts of rules. It doesn't appear to be possible to buy a new property without also buying into an HOA.

[Adam Tinworth]

Ian's right on the mark. There really isn't anything functionally equivalent in the UK right now.

The closest I can think of is some recent residential developments which come with a commitment to keep your house painted in certain approved colour ranges, but none of those stretch to the same degree of control over, say, gardens.

[deutsche inzestgeschichten photos]

deutsche inzestgeschichten photos
http://deutsche-inzestgeschichten.inc-diary.com/