Is life nowadays all about image?

Maybe that says more about the people who said that than people in general. Surely most people understand the satisfaction from creating and maintaining a lovely garden than just it's instagrammableness?

I agree Aveline a very odd attitude indeed.
I don’t think our beige back garden desert impressed any friends or family we’ve entertained this year!!

Some weird people around, aren’t there ? I do our garden for me, not for other people. Our back is better than the front because it is very big and I like to wander in it and usually pull out a few weeds as I go. The front is a bit neater because it is small and easier to manage. I guess we are lucky because it is very private here and you can’t see into our property unless you go down the driveway. No one overlooks us.

My front garden is my show piece, and yes, I guess it's sort of for other people to see too. But I mean for them to enjoy and remember. There are some unusual flowers that people comment on. In fact, only last month I cut several offerings for someone who was doing the flower arrangements for her son's wedding and had admired what I have on view.

Oh, our front garden is much more boring than the back.

The front looks worse now as some patches of green grass are coming through, some lawn weeds have survived but one area which was a grassy bank looks completely dead.

What to do with it?

Our front garden is behind a high hedge and so we have no image to project. !

Firstly I must deadhead the pelargoniums in tubs at the front; this thread has made me feel guilty.

We obviously have no kerb appeal.

The only things that have survived in my North facing front garden are Box Not a bit of colour left anywhere. I need to have a rethink as we can't manage much these days anyway. It's tidy but not worthy of admiration or envy

That should probably be Boxus 🙄

You do get that impression at times but I think there have always been people who have put appearances first. Hopefully they’re still in the minority.

We don't have a front garden, just 2 side gardens.

Aside from that, this attitude has always been there. Hence phrases like 'Fur coat and baked beans', the importance of front curtains.

Being mainly an urban liver, my back garden has always been over looked to a greater or lesser extent by neighbours.

I've heard of all fur coat and no knickers but not baked beans 😀

paddyann54

We had a wee going away do for a lovely young couple moving on to be closer to their jobs.
We asked the immediate neighbours who are a friendly bunch,most who have been here for 30+years.
They know I do the garden but none have ever been in the back garden.
I was surprised when a couple of folk said “your garden is stunning ,but why do you do it when nobody else sees it”?
It never occurred to me that their carefully coiffed front gardens were only done because people saw them .Now I,m wondering is that how a lot of people think are back gardens less important to you than the ones on show at the front?
And …is that how people live their lives? Is Whats on show the only important thing ?

Are you near Glasgow?

When we moved there 50 years ago a neighbour came to kindly tip me off that my new curtains were "inside out". ????

I had hung them so the plain lining faced the window glass., and the patterned fabric faced the room where we could see it.

"In Newton Mearns we hang our curtains so the pattern material faces the street ". IOW, displayed to passers by.

I looked, and she wasn't lying.

MOnica. The version I know from my scouse roots. Is all fur coat an no knickers.
On the correct topic my garden is wild and woolly and as someone once said your garden always looks the same and that takes more work than you think

No, in my experience, this isn’t how most people live their lives, in any generation.

In my limited experience there’s always been those people who only do certain things for show.

What’s the expression, I think DM called them “Fur coat and no knickers” but I’m sure there was another one about “curtains” but my poor addled brain cannot compute!

My back garden is not overlooked, and it’s my own piece of heaven, I devote far more love and attention on it than the front - which is fine, but not a showpiece, I don’t enjoy working on the front as much, because I keep getting interrupted.

My back garden is full of holes and dug up flower beds, the price you pay for a 13 week puppy!

butterandjam

paddyann54

We had a wee going away do for a lovely young couple moving on to be closer to their jobs.
We asked the immediate neighbours who are a friendly bunch,most who have been here for 30+years.
They know I do the garden but none have ever been in the back garden.
I was surprised when a couple of folk said “your garden is stunning ,but why do you do it when nobody else sees it”?
It never occurred to me that their carefully coiffed front gardens were only done because people saw them .Now I,m wondering is that how a lot of people think are back gardens less important to you than the ones on show at the front?
And …is that how people live their lives? Is Whats on show the only important thing ?

Are you near Glasgow?

When we moved there 50 years ago a neighbour came to kindly tip me off that my new curtains were "inside out". ????

I had hung them so the plain lining faced the window glass., and the patterned fabric faced the room where we could see it.

"In Newton Mearns we hang our curtains so the pattern material faces the street ". IOW, displayed to passers by.

I looked, and she wasn't lying.

😂😂😂

I thought one reason for curtain linings was to stop the sun fading the fabric?

In Scotland's climate, I favour thermal linings for warmth. Sunfading unknown :-)

In bedroom curtains, I prefer thermal blackout linings to improve sleep in summer .

I've got a thing about people's headboards on their beds. You see the most expensive marine residences for sale where I live with panoramic views of the south coast and yet the master bedroom, let alone the other bedrooms always have disappointing if not no headboards on the beds. And, indeed, the beds look small and uninviting. I would have a luxury sleeping area with sumptuous cushions and a huge bed. Not that I have that, but why have a house worth millions with all sorts of gyms, cinemas, and pools and a poor sleeping area?

People priorities are very different.
I was going to add you only sleep in a bedroom

Our 'front' garden goes 3/4 of the way round the house! We live on a corner plot, and the house ( old cottage, built in 1878 ) is an irregular shape anyway.
Over the years we have widened the borders, and the native tree hedges are doing a good job of screening most of the garden, but I do admit to considering what something will look like from the street when I am adding a new feature such as a rose arch, or a new border. ( I am guilty of forever 'pinching' corners of MrLP's lawns to widen the borders!).
Passersby often stop and says how much they love to look at the garden, as it changes over the seasons. Either that or they just check that we will be putting up the Christmas lights this year. The cottage ,with it's irregular shape and low roof line lends itself to being lit up for Christmas with mainly simple white icicle lights and a string of coloured ones across the front porch. We also have a magnolia tree outside the front door which has white lights threaded through it all year round and has extra coloured ones added at Christmas. The swich on day is December 1st, and I love how happy it seems to make people during the dark days.
However , the 'back' garden is just for us (me!). It is accessed from the back door, not overlooked, and is where I keep my favourite plants, shrubs and ornaments. Only visitors ever get to see it, but it receives as much love as the front, on show, part. My little oasis! xxx

Not just gardens though.

The cars we drive, the clothes we wear, the kitchens, furniture, bathrooms we have.

The face we show to the world, our fingernails, our hair….

Much of it very shallow and in the great scheme of things, so unimportant.

I've never even thought about it before, but now I have, I can definitely say that I garden for me, not other people, and that my back garden is much more important to me.

I try to keep the front garden tidy, but no more. It just has never 'inspired' me.

My back garden, on the other hand, is where I have always gone along with whatever takes my fancy, so I have completely changed it many times.
I would love to add "and will continue to do so" to that last sentence, but unfortunately I have a bad back (caused by too much digging in clay when I had an allotment!) and am now having to accept that I can no longer do the work it takes to make big changes.
But the back garden will always be my priority, my "me" place.