Morton's Courtyard Garden Oxford

Oxford is of course an intensely green city. Parks, rivers and canals edge a green tideline up to the city centre edge, but inside this space colleges, quads and fellows gardens predominate, and these are private or limited access. But here are there are little patches of green, plants and sky open to the public; pub back gardens, churchyards, and little scraps of land behind (or sometimes above!) cafés.

This is Mortons Courtyard off Broad Street, just visible down a tiny passageway from the Street.



The planting is quite simple; a vigorous vine to green and shade, clumps of easy-growers mixing it up with weeds in stony corner beds, ferns on the walls. From time to time they put in a few more things, or hack back the vines a bit, but otherwise it's pretty much left to its own devices.



The gravel is somewhat invaded, and the remnants of bedding popped in to brighten things in early spring stick around, softening the space and making it feel lived in and relaxed.



We're only visiting of course; the pigeons are resident, and they will come and tamely beg crumbs, bumbling around by your feet. Just visible above you can see another garden, a roof garden this time. This is private, college or otherwise inaccessible, sadly; it looks interesting.