The Garden
Summer 2004
As
Green Cottage is located adjacent to the
Pimhole scrap merchants, it made sense to make large garden pots from old
discarded tyres which had been littering the dirt track down to the yards.
A completely free resource, disposal of used tyres is a huge problem in the
UK. A plentiful supply is available to anyone in East Bury who wishes to grow
vegetables in their back yard but may not be able to afford enough large pots
to give a worthwhile yield. The pots are large and hold moisture well in dry
weather, and in fact the breakers yard opposite the Pimhole Road entrance
to Openshaw Park is using their old tyres as plant pots, which improves the
look of their yard enormously.
A
huge variety of vegetables and herbs are grown in the 'green cottage garden'.
The South-facing back garden lends itself ideally to growing, although the
North-facing garden is also lush. Another of the cottages on Andrew Street
has successfully grown runnerbeans on its North-facing front wall.
Water conservation is a very important aspect of town gardening, and Green Cottage boasts a water-butt which was purchased at a discounted price via a scheme run by Bury MBC, which also provided a discounted composter. The scheme is called 'Get Composting'. A mini-greenhouse is used for germination in the spring and for growing more exotic fruits such as chillis in the summer. These mini-greenhouses cost very little, and are available from most discount home and garden shops.
Garden
furniture made of wood, although it has to be treated with a preservative
every year, is still a preferred option. Furniture made of plastic or metal
or a mixture of the two consumes a large amount of energy in its manufacture.
The sawdust from making furniture from wood can be recycled and turned into
wood
pellets, which can then be used in home heating appliances.
In
the sun-trap South-facing walled back garden of Green
Cottage, there is even room for a grape vine! Solar marker lights
are also used in the garden, which are available at very little cost from
most discount shops.
