YOU MAY be used to seeing your neighbour mowing the lawn or hanging out the washing - but what about taking a bath?
Coming hot on the heels of alfresco living rooms and kitchens comes outdoor baths and showers, which are gaining popularity in gardens across the country.
People are immersing themselves in baths or enjoying showers installed on patios and even in the middle of lawns. Relaxing in the bath outdoors, surrounded by greenery and birdsong is thought to bring health benefits, leading to the term ‘spa-den’ - turning your garden into a wellbeing retreat.
I just hope my neighbours don’t turn their veg plots into a spa-den. I don’t mind seeing them pottering about in shorts on hot summer days, with their hoes and trowels, but I’d rather they kept their bathroom routine inside the house.
Why can’t people enjoy their gardens for what they are? They should be bring a different experience to the one we get inside our homes, yet people seem to want to replicate it with outside living rooms, kitchens and now bathrooms.
When I was growing up, on hot summer days, families brought out a few deckchairs and maybe a sun lounger. Some people, like my parents, had a garden bench and carried out the coffee table when we ate outside.
Now, gardens are home to sofas larger than those in living rooms and with far more cushions. In place of rusty grills barbecues dragged out of the garage every summer come state-of-the-art outdoor kitchens with range cookers and special pizza ovens.
So it’s no surprise that the next step is to bring the bathroom outside too. But why? Jacuzzis and hot tubs are commonplace, and have been for some time, so the desire for an actual bath in the garden seems ridiculous.
It’s not just a hot soak - outdoor ice baths, in particular, are catching on. Ever practical, my first thought would be ‘Where would you store all the ice?’ I struggle to find space for anything in my chest freezer as it is.
And I am assuming bathers do so in the buff. It’s to be hoped that nobody in the street pops round to borrow a cup of sugar while you’re having a garden soak or showering beside the flowerbeds.
I enjoy a bath as much as the next person, but I’ll take mine inside, thank you. Likewise with cooking and lounging about on the settee. To me, inside and outside should be different and offer contrasting experiences.
I anticipate the next big thing will be a return to the outside lavatory. My nana had one in her back yard in Normanby near Middlesbrough. During the night she would use a ceramic chamber pot kept under her bed but otherwise went outside to the loo in a small brick outhouse.
Let’s face it, during a busy day we all love to close the bathroom door and relax on the loo for ten minutes. Alfresco toilets, where you could sit in the sun, or shade - behind the garage or under a car port, maybe - with the T&A, could be just the thing.
I’m forgetting the bedroom - why not fetch that outdoors too? It wouldn’t be too difficult to heft a mattress or two on to the lawn, along with some bedding.
After dining in your outdoor kitchen and winding down in your outside bath, sleeping under the stars in your garden bed would be magical. And with your outside toilet you could have an en-suite.
I’ve convinced myself now - this outdoor living malarkey is not such a bad idea after all.
