BOSKETTO DURRELL GARDEN MAKE-OVER

Visited the Garden at noon. Still no gardening staff to be seen anywhere. I could have removed a few statues without anyone noticing.

Playground: As usual, the Playground was the only section occupied by visitors and I was reminded of the lack of comfortable seating for parents and Ya-Yas and other child-minders.

There are curved benches elsewhere in the Garden but the Playground - where child-minders sit for the longest time - have just the most basic benches with slatted metal seats on ugly cement plinths.

Rubbish Bins: There is a proliferation of ugly rubbish bins attached to trees and lamp posts. I suggest that these be limited to two - one on each side of the entrance gates, north and south - and make them BIG containers which can be lifted out and emptied. Have them housed in some sort of trellised or netted metal structure.

Polite notice Why not have polite notices here and there saying something like, "Please Place Your Rubbish in the Containers provided at each end of the garden"

Patchy Grass. On either side of the entrance is a stretch of grass - the left-hand side is green and healthy looking, the right side is patchy and mostly bare.

There are also several brick-bordered beds measuring approximately 1 x 2 metres and which are bare and weedy.

First thing visitors see: These bare beds are almost the first thing visitors see on entering the Bosketto. It is also a disgrace to have a rubbish bin right in the entrance.

Exposed Toilets: The WCs are completely exposed to public view and the doors usually wide open all the time.

As I have pointed out before, there is an attractive wood trellis covering the back and one side but to no good purpose.

While the actual entrances to both lavatories are completely exposed.

No Staff: I have been visiting the Garden regularly 2 or 3 times a week since February 8 and only twice [Feb 16 and 17] have I seen any gardening staff.

The only person I have seen who might be a regular fixture was at 7pm on February 28 when a staff member came out of the hut at the south gate to lock up.

Trimming Strimmings: Further evidence that the garden is not adequately staffed can be seen in the fact that branches and trimmings are still lying around a week later, obstructing the walkways and looking a mess.

Suggestions and plants from my own garden: I have made several practical and cost-saving suggestions and provided plants from my own garden. During my visits, I could have cut down trees, stolen benches, and dug out what I regard as 'offending plants' - apart from the outside staff who came to strim the hedges and sea side path, there has been no one around whose job seemed to be to notice or care.

Xenofontas Stratigos: In an earlier report I have already unfavourably compared the Bosketto Garden to the Xenofontas Stratigos strip in the port/marina area.

I have been told that the reason for the superiority of the port landscaping is that they have enough money. This is not true: it is not a question of money but because the port area gardens are:

It is a pleasure to drive past the Xenofontas plantings and they certainly don't suffer from the sadly uncaring and uncared-for atmosphere of the Bosketto.

// posted by Corfucius @ 01:23