Lavatera

Before and after.

A neighbour from hell, I wonder?

I know the erection of my garden fence left a lot to be desired but there was a reason behind it.

About 3 year ago I had new neighbours move in who appear to have no respect for animals or the environment they live in. They also have about 60 Canaries stuck in cages in a shed. A pair of budgies who live indoors but are put out in the sun during the day, 6 hens that live their whole life in a shed no bigger than a coal bunker, and 5 dogs who are never taken out for walks plus homing pigeons who are let out to fly above the tree tops. Their garden is regimented and is over-run with pot plants and garden ornaments, an acquired taste that wouldn’t suit everybody, whereas I like my garden to be a welcoming place for all the wildlife. There is always something happening in my garden.

I love Lavatera, a quite striking shrub which has made my garden look very colourful, and that is the problem. The woman next door doesn’t like it, she refers to it as a bloody nuisance. Soon after, my Lavatera’s startd dying, until I had none. I bought new ones, and soon they died too.  A friend of mine I didn’t see regularly, told me some time later, he had been passing when he see her apparently spraying my plants, with what he didn’t know. There was no way I could confront her, as I didn’t have any real evidence except dead shrubs.

So this spring I decided to put another fence up as I only had a chain link fence there. It didn’t help they dug up a hedge that had been between us, and had been there at least 60 years, so I needed something sturdier and to hide what I was actually growing in my garden. That fence will help without me spending too much.

I will be putting extra security in, but for now it will have to do. So it will be down the nursery soon for some more Lavatera, and this time I hope it is allowed to grow..