Painting over rotten wood

So there's been another article in the mainstream media telling us about the rising interest of young people in gardening. Good. Very good!

You can read the article from the British newspaper 'The Telegraph' here: www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/plants/11534912/How-hip-young-gardeners-are-bringing-horticulture-to-the-kids.html

I do take issue with a couple of things... Firstly, the statement that “89% of 16- to 24-year-olds say they have a garden or grow plants" sounds a little suspect to me. When you take a moment for the statement to sink in you actually see that there are two things here, that the age group says that it grows plants, or that they have a garden. Most 16 year olds in the UK will still live at home with their parents, and will continue to do so until they leave for university; they will likely have access to their parent's garden, but might not actually be gardeners themselves. Within this group there will also be those who do gardening, but as a chore like mowing the lawn rather than as a pleasurable activity. I think Jack Shilley and his 'Young Horts' movement have a long way to go yet before they can achieve statistics like this. I don't think dubious statistics really help the cause either, and can paint a misleading picture of how things are... after all, if 89% of 16-24 year olds are already into horticulture why should the 'Young Horts' movement spend their time trying to change perceptions?!

The other issue I have with these stories is media driven ageism. I believe very strongly that the future of horticulture won't come from luring young people into a horticultural web, but will come from proactively working to make our industry more user friendly for everyone, regardless of age.

I'm not in any way suggesting that we dumb down by making sure that every plant is completely hardy, really easy and is sold by its common name because we think botanical names are too hard. I think we need to work to encourage people to enjoy gardening as an activity by making access to advice and information easier, by encouraging horticultural retail staff to be proactive in their approach to advising customers (and encouraging horticultural businesses to make sure their staff actually know what they're talking about!), and simply doing whatever we can to help new gardeners understand and explore horticulture openly.

Horticulture has an image problem, but we don't make that any better by focusing on a particular age group while leaving issues unresolved. We need to encourage new people, regardless of age, to pick up their trowels and join in, both as amateur and professional gardeners.

There's no point painting over rotten wood!