It all started with a hydrangea for me. I loved the pillowy pink blooms that, as the months went on, went from showy fists of flowers to ghostly orbs in winter. I carried that poor plant, in its pot, from rented flat to houseshare, communal back garden to a small space on a doorstep. Eventually, when the only place I could afford to rent had no outdoor space, it lived out its last days in a friend’s garden. It’s long been compost.
For many in unstable living conditions this is the reality of gardening, if you are fortunate enough to have any outdoor space at all. One in five households in England and Wales now rent – double that of two decades ago. With no-fault evictions on the rise, and many being priced out of areas to rent in entirely, the idea of a garden being a space in which to grow long-term, watching saplings turn into trees, feels like a pipe dream.
