GardenLend – rescuing neglected gardens

To kick-start the GardenLend House (and Garden) Swap forum I am adding my request for a mutual exchange to a ground floor flat with private garden access, in exchange for our 2nd floor flat with balcony.   We have registered with the first two exchange sites below, having set up the third due to our exasperation in being unable to find somewhere with a garden through more conventional means:

Homeswapper.co.uk details

HouseExchange.org.uk details

find.gardenlend.co.uk details

Our details

Property type:

Flat

Room details:

One bedroom

Features:

Balcony
Central Heating
Double Glazing

Landlord:

Wandle HA

Additional details:

This is a great flat with a long hallway with a good sized living room and bedroom, a smallish kitchen, a separate toilet and a bathroom all leading off. There’s additional storage space in the loft. The flat is located in a quiet cul de sac off Martin Way. It’s a stone’s throw from South Merton station, bus stops for Sutton and Wimbledon, and local shops (including a Post Office). It’s a 10 minute walk to central Morden (Morden Northern Line Underground Station) with its supermarkets, banks, bars and restaurants, and a 10 minute bus journey to Wimbledon with its huge shopping facilities. Rent is £87(including maintenance)per week (from 02.04.07). There’s a well – maintained communal garden and recycling bins are provided. It’s a good location with quiet neighbours in a pleasant area of Wimbledon. A bit shabby chic at the moment, the entire block is being refurbished externally next year, with significant improvements proposed such as secure storage areas for each flat (for bicycles etc.), extended bin facilities and enhancements to the balconies. We love it here but we need a garden.

Requirements:

The swapper is seeking a one bedroom bungalow, house, flat or maisonette, almost anywhere in the UK.

Additional requirements:

Private garden for own use. Ground floor or semi-basement. Close to shops, Post Office and public transport (bus / tube / train.) Within easy reach of river or canal preferred.

Contact details:

Email address: ian@GardenLend.co.uk
Mobile phone: 07985 980 669
Daytime phone: 0208 286 9116
Evening phone: 0208 286 9116

(All maps are accurate within 100 metres)

Photographs:

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Since most of our attempts to find:

1. People wishing to have others working on their gardens
2. People wishing to work on others’ gardens
3. A garden for ourselves

have met with only moderate success (none at all in no. 3), I set down to think about what we were missing.

Then I had a flash of inspiration – if people did not want the intrusion of strange gardeners nor the prospect of unpaid toil in the vineyards of another, why not just swap the domiciles and attached gardens?

This boiled down to keeping the houses and gardens as they were and – instead – swapping the residents.

Such a solution would work out for all concerned. People would have the garden they wanted without interlopers or the risk of exploitation.  Oh, did I mention? we might also find someone who would want to swap their ground floor flat and garden with our 2nd floor flat and balcony.

We have been trying to swap to a flat with a garden for some years, having tried our local council, housing association and various housing exchange websites.  The one shortfall in all these organisations is that they do not take garden or greenspace requirements into account when allocating or exchanging properties.

All I would need do would be to set up such a site where provision and meeting of garden requirements was paramount.  Like in so many other endeavours, if one feature – such as a garden – is of over-riding concern, then others – such as location – are more flexible.

Sublime genius!  Now only to put it into action.

There need to be 3 categories:

Domicile with Garden offered
- in exchange for domicile without a garden;
Domicile with Garden wanted;
- in exchange for domicile without a garden;
Domicile with Mismatched Gardens
- in exchange for domicile with a differing garden;

And lo! a new forum subject area and three subsidiaries were brought into being:

• House (and Garden) Swap along with its message boards:

• • Domicile with Garden offered

  • Domicile with Garden wanted

  • Domicile with Mismatched Gardens

These forums are designed to allow people wanting to swap a domicile with a garden for a domicile with either no garden or with a differing garden or green space to contact each other and to start the process of exchange.

You will need to contact your landlord and / or solicitor to actually set about the legal process of exchange.  GardenLend is only acting as a conduit for exchange of initial information; all else is the visitor’s responsibility.

There! All done.  Now all we need is for people to register and post their requirements in the appropriate forums or to reply to messages posted.

By the way, we have a lovely flat in sunny SW20 and are looking for a garden flat almost anywhere in the country, preferably with ready access to a river or canal.

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