Please close the gate......

NOW that the growing season is upon us I wonder if it would be a good time to mention something that has been bothering me for ages.

Garden ‘make over’ programmes, as seen on television, bear very little relation to gardening as I know it.

What is it that I feel most ‘ordinary gardeners’ like myself want from the experts on the little box? For starters, it would be nice now and again to be told how to safely go about installing a garden power point, how to plumb a frost-proof outdoor tap, or be enlightened on which types of modern fencing panels are now available to the gardener.

I would also like better information on the newest chemicals for eliminating weeds on drives and paths (these have grown and strengthened all winter), and how to reduce maintenance as my age increases. I find myself more and more in the garden trying to maintain and manage a living order that threatens at every turn to run out of control. I would dearly love to see the latest styles in quality garden gates. In my book, if you want the garden to look attractive and cared for you really have to start at the beginning — and this means at the front gate.

A good solid gate has many practical benefits. It deters unwelcome visitors, serves to mark the boundaries of your property, and prevent litter and rubbish being blown in from the roadway.

Many of the gates I encounter are either badly hung (and therefore remain permanently open) whilst others cry out for painting and repair.

Even worse than these are those mean-looking steel gates, the type that used to come as ‘standard’ with middle-class houses during the eighties and nineties, and which never drew admiration, or had the ability to perform the function for which they were intended.

The ideal is a gate with character and functionality, one which could turn the entrance to any home and garden into something really special.

Purpose and setting may determine the size and height of a garden gate, but its style and the materials used must blend with the surroundings.

I love the appearance and texture of wooden gates. While they will require more in the line of annual maintenance they will always look smart.

And those who have invested in decent gates will probably give thanks for the investment, and further, see a set of gates as a worthwhile garden features.

Those owners, too, will perhaps acknowledge that all too often an attractive garden can be spoiled by badly designed poorly constructed and maintained garden gates.

The change to more decorative garden gates is in line with the need to maintain property value in times of a worsening economy and I believe that when it comes to maintenance and replacement, gardeners are now prepared to spend that little bit more on quality materials and expert workmanship.