This handsome owl is the unofficial mascot of the Millstream Project in Englishcombe Village, just outside Bath. I stumbled across it by accident one day and now drag all of my visitors there, crossing fields and streams and taking a few unnecessary detours thanks to my appalling sense of direction.
The area has been renovated and planted by the local community with help from the Duchy of Cornwall, which seems to own a lot of the land around Bath. It has brooks babbling through it, over 400 new trees and is teeming with wildlife and interesting plants. There’s a den for kids and a barbecue that anyone can use. It’s a lovely place to wander around or sit in (on some extremely nice handmade benches that were an eBay bargain). The organisers have a 21-year plan for the site, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it evolves.
It’s not often that you come across a street in London that has a real community feel, but Elmsdale Road in Walthamstow is one of them. The street opens its gardens once a year for charity, and neighbours and strangers do the rounds of the houses, admiring the gardens and eating cake.
The houses on the street all have very long, thin gardens, and unusually, many of them are only divided by chainlink fences. I take that as a sign that everyone gets on, and don’t feel the need to barricade themselves in as so many people do these days.
My two favourite gardens (apart from Mel’s, of course, which I’ve featured before) were divided into sections so you couldn’t see the whole garden at once. They both had formal layouts but loose, informal planting and were stuffed to the gills with plants and trees. When I finally get my garden (I’m now looking in earnest, so watch this space) this is the look I’ll be going for.