Wednesday 19 August 2009

Cultivating My Garden

This is my "garden" such as it is. A strip of earth behind the front wall of the block of flats. According to the terms of my lease I am "Not to dig up, or cut down, any trees, shrubs or bushes or timber (if any), except with the landlord's prior consent." and "To cut the grass (if any) of the premises with an appropriate garden mower as necessary from time to time to keep the grass in, or bring about, a neat and tidy condition. Furthermore, to keep the patio areas (if any), paths, garden areas, lawns, flower beds, shrubs or bushes and borders (if any) as tidy, weed free and cultivated, as at commencement of the tenancy." So presumably if the garden is initially untidy, overgrown with weeds and uncultivated it should be left that way!

Whether any of the plants in the garden are weeds or were intentionally planted is difficult to say, apart from a few daffodils that came up earlier in the year. Do the millet or wheat-like plants count as "grass"? At what height does a plant become a tree? How tidy is tidy? The terms are evidently just a legal form of words designed to cover every eventuality. It is also unclear how far I as occupier of a ground-floor flat have responsibility for the "garden". No-one else does anything, so it is left to me by default.

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