why BIGGER and not SMALLER?

Why is everybody obsessed with having a big garden, or making it look big, a big house or make it look big, a big etc etc...

If you have a big bottom fashion wants you to make it look small, if you are tall to make you look short, if you are short to make you look long, etc...

Well I am not into all that...

 

Just to add one more reason to this listed by Armandii:

When you take someone who is technically a townie (me) but did the vast majority of their growing up in wide open spaces (me again), you get a bit of a dilemma. On one hand, they want to live near their friends and relatives, in town, where everyone and everything is nearby, but on the other hand, being used to wide open spaces its very easy to feel closed in and cooped up.

I'm not claustrophobic, but I do get a condition I call 'city fever'. Some call it 'cabin fever'. Whatever you call it, it means the same thing. You get stressed and feel generally horrid if everything is too close all the time. By making a garden seem bigger than it is, you can (hopefully) give the illusion of 'breathing space'.

 

not really sure why, but I'm one who likes big (my 1st house was on a 6 acre smallholding) ... I like a big house with plenty space, I like a big garden ... I have always owned big cars, I have an old big hifi with big speakers ... I still use an old (big as a brick) Nokia mobile phone (I have big fingers so cannot use these tiny phones) ... and am working hard to have a bigger bank balance

 

I live in a small terraced house with an equally small garden. It drives me nuts. Although quite deep (and therefore a bit of a tardis) the house is only fifteen feet wide, so you are never very far from your neighbours. The living space is divided into two tiny rooms which are bisected by the stairs so that you can't change the layout without major building work. There is nowhere to loll around after a hard week at work. And there are very few places to store things, so you end up drowning in stuff unless you are very, very ruthless. Also, you can never choose the piece of furniture or appliance you'd really like to have; you have to have the one which fits. And the garden is no good at all for someone who can't stop collecting plants.

So, all in all, I'd like a generously proportioned house next time. It doesn't have to be a mansion, just somewhere which doesn't make you feel caged. And if it could have a largish plot with room for a decent greenhouse, a vege patch and a nice shed, I'd be in heaven.

 

PS I'm all for fashion which minimises and maximises in all the right places.

 

I suffer from that here miraflores. We live in a small house in comparison to our neighbours and ooo all those "lovely" women at the school gates who insist on telling me how much their house is worth! :D

But we like small, small is good! Small is paid for, cleanable, easy, ingenious, and full of things we like and no more. And my garden likewise. I sometimes think I would like a bigger garden because I think it would be more of a challenge, may be even more of a personal calling but we put our tiny house up for sale once and I couldn't do it! I love my little garden spaces and how I make them different every year and try new things.

 

Unfortunately, when our local authority decided that my road would be the ideal place in which to dump problems, I came to the conclusion that society is inherently snobbish and there is not much point in trying to fight it. When I turned up at meetings, it was obvious that officials were deeply surprised that I could read a page of text without mouthing the words as I went along. People at the bottom of the pile - and I suppose that's more or less where my road sits in the scheme of things - are extremely vulnerable. Everyone else thinks it's OK to dump on them. Personally I'm a bit tired of arguing against this sort of thing. It's just too big a stress on top of everything else. I look forward to joining the curtain twitchers (actually, these days they're probably plantation shutter twitchers) of Arriviste Avenue as soon as possible. I just need that lottery win.

 

I have always fancied buying a narrow boat and living on the water and having the countryside as my garden.So small is good as long as the fences are very far apart and not boxing me in.
I drive a Landrover cause I like simple things I can fix myself not because its big but because I can throw lots of stuff in the back and tow a tin snail.
Wallet very small cause it dont ever need to be big!
We keep hens & bantams because small and perfectly formed is good!

 

Some friends of ours have just finished renovating a house boat. They say the great thing about it is that if you don't like your neighbours, it's really easy to move away. :D

 

For many years I had an 'average' sized garden. First in town then in the country. Always having to choose plants that wouldn't get too big. I love trees but again had to pick slow growing small varieties.:(
I always hankered after a large garden. Now I have plenty of land I can choose what ever I like, including the really big trees knowing they will have plenty of space to grow their proper shape and size, without having to hack bits off to keep them small.
If you have a small garden then you have to be selective with the variety and amount of plants you keep. For someone who likes to collect lots of different ones (ARMANDII ) it will be depressing to be so restricting.
As for 'my garden is bigger than yours' bragging. That seems to be a British trait. All my neighbours here have lots of land, it's no big thing. No interest in designer labels either. It's so refreshing!

I must say large gardens have their own problems. Much more work involved, more money needed, no books or magazine articles advising how to design large gardens! Have you seen an article called 'How to make your garden look smaller?' or 'how to landscape 7 acres.'

 

For me, it's just down to individual preference really.
Like clueless, I grew up in a rural setting with wide open spaces and a large garden. I'm lucky enough to have a large suburban garden now which doesn't overlook other houses, which is just the way I like it.
For me, having a large garden isn't a question of status or possession, it's just what I'm used to. Having a decent sized garden doesn't in any way make me better or cleverer than someone with a small patch, or even no garden at all; to think otherwise would be the height of arrogance in my opinion.
Some people are perfectly content to live in a 'luxury' apartment surrounded by steel and glass, with no garden whatsoever. While this would probably drive me to the edge of insanity in no time at all, if it makes them happy, that's fine by me. Just leaves more land available for the rest of us doesn't it?
Miraflores, I say good for you for not buying into the 'bigger is better, must have' philosophy which is far too prevalent today.
Too many people allow themselves to be seduced and influenced by the relentless tide of advertising which is fired at them from every available outlet, all aimed at brainwashing them into believing they can only be content with bigger and more expensive products. Gardens and houses probably tap into a rich vein for the forces of rampant consumerism here.
Rant over, think I need to go and lie down (in my large garden) now. :D

 

I think that's the point, Mandy. France is a big country and land is not at such a premium as it is on a small, congested island.

 

My garden is quite small, just enough room for a shed, greenhouse, hen run, small lawn & a patio, and no veg (unless grown in window boxes).

But I've got a big plot for everything I want to grow 5 mins walk away and countryside full of all sorts of stuff to gather again only 5 mins away.

 

Exactly, which is partly why we moved away from it.