As popular gardening becomes more and
more limited in its outlook it's rare to come across anyone daring to
go against the flow. Gardening is directed by its fashions, with
knowledge and practice of horticultural disciplines giving way to
image-rich celebrities, heavily filtered 'vintage' Instagram
nostalgia and pithy comments about vegetables and bees. Gardening is
no longer about people making their own choices; gardeners are pushed
and pulled by marketing campaigns and media stories into thinking
that the only way to garden is to buy this product or that, and that
anything that doesn't make out that it single-handedly saves the
world is of no value.
It's a wonder that some plants manage
to hold on against this relentless current. Modern gardening culture
teaches us that ponds are dangerous to kids who are certain to drown
in them (except for wildlife ponds of course, which must be
surrounded by long grass and strictly wild plants but are otherwise
OK), that native plants are always better for wildlife than
non-native (even though there's increasing evidence that this isn't
true), and that any plant that grows quickly is a thug that will
destroy your whole garden.
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| You just don't see Euphorbia 'Fens Ruby' any more |
For
the hardcore enthusiasts being fashionable isn't important, the issue
really comes when new gardeners are pushed into particular styles of
gardening because they aren't allowed by the garden influencers to be
different. Open any of the glossy garden magazines and you will see
the same formula time and time again; big [expensive] house with a
garden filled with drifts of fashionable perennials, a few from a
shortlist of popular/commonly found shrubs, and decorative pieces
from their pet sculptor. It's not that these gardens aren't nice,
they just become rather repetitive. Editors would argue that they are
simply giving people what they want, while in truth they're helping
to strangle the ingenuity and individuality out of horticulture.
Whole areas of horticulture are sidelined not because they are
unpopular per se,
but because they never see the light of day. The result? Gardeners
are being denied inspiration to make their own way in the world
because they aren't being exposed to new and different ideas.
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| How often do you see carnivorous plants in garden magazines? |
As
a nation of gardeners it seems few gardeners actually relish doing
any gardening. 'Gardening' has become something of a dirty word;
while so many gardeners enjoy gardens it seems that the whole act
of gardening has become something to avoid. There are exceptions,
notably with those who grow their own food, but on the whole
gardening has gone through a period of labour saving gadgets and
techniques and has now ended up as 'labour avoidance'. You can, for a
price, buy a robot lawnmower that will mow your lawn for you, and the
plants available to most gardeners have been chosen for performance
with as little maintenance as it's possible to get away with. No
wonder then that formerly common skills like pruning are becoming
rare! The modern world makes more demands on us than at any time in
the past, yet we're only able to be so busy because we don't spend
our time on 'chores' like gardening; ironic then that so many people
claim that gardening is restful, relaxing and spiritual rewarding...
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| Conifers are about as unfashionable as you can get...! |
You can read the full review of le Jardin de Berchigranges here: http://thinkingardens.co.uk/reviews/berchigranges-garden-reviewed-by-noel-kingsbury/
Seems to me that the concept of a garden style is all too often a straitjacket. As soon as you adopt a style you are expected to follow the rules that someone else has attached to it. To ignore established style and do your own thing is to invite scorn and derision. Since new styles probably start as individuals doing their own thing until it becomes a style, it needs every encouragement, but gets none.
ReplyDeleteAs for the craft of gardening, or rather, multiple crafts of gardening, is part of the problem that so few younger people have a garden of any size. The oldies who do are largely just maintaining what they have, or getting you to do it for them.
I'm inclined to agree; certain names have come to dominate particular styles of gardening, and it's hard to shake off their influence. Christopher Lloyd was an advocate of 'going against the flow', creating Dixter at a time when pastels were king, but ironically if you create your own 'Dixter' by doing your own thing you're expected to follow Lloyd's rules.
DeleteI think the issue of the craft of gardening is only partly down to smaller gardens; I think the fact that gardening craft seldom ever gets into the gardening media means that new gardeners simply aren't being made aware. Any coverage is done using the experts in their fields who, due to the fact that their crafts are dying out, are young at 80! The coverage isn't there, but what coverage is ever given shows a few old people keeping old traditions alive, and possibly that young people are needed to bolster up something that's dying- there's never any suggestion that new gardeners might actually come to enjoy some of these old crafts for their own interest. Couple this with the fact that gardening now seems increasingly about having maximum effect without actually *doing* anything...!
I completely agree :) I enjoy the actual process of gardening as well as the results. I don't want my garden to be the same as everyone else's or no maintenance!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting, and very true. Even those people who employ a gardener to do the work for them seem to want a 'quick fix' much of the time. My most satisfying work is in a garden of 1/4 acre where I have the privilege of spending a day a week - enough time to do everything properly, and in a considered (sometimes even meditative) way. Most people don't see the value in time as well as craft and skill. Indeed, arguably the more skilled you are the longer some jobs will take you, because you are thorough and careful. If it takes me all morning to prune something properly, then it's wonderful to be able to do so without apology.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your post. Gardening, like everything else, seems to go through cycles of fashion, and as you note, certain styles, practices, even plants, are sometimes 'in' and then very much 'ouit'. As someone who gardens for a living, I also can relate to the divde between the glossy world of design, and the reality of maintenance, planting, pruning, etc. It seems many designers seem to be lacking in practical knowledge of plants and horticulture, resulting in very limited planting palates and over-planting, or 'wrong plant/wrong place' syndromes. Certainly there is much more room tor creativity and also avoiding any sort of horticultural snobbism. Gardening has so much to offer, and horticulture and garden desgn have such a rich and lovely history, and future, one hopes : )
ReplyDeleteIsn't this two arguments boiled into one? The first about garden fashion and how dictatorial it may be, the second about whether people are keen on gardening and developing gardens skills or not.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure about the first but then these days I don't read garden magazines. But I would guess there are still giant veggies and chrysanthemums in some mags, and Piet Oudolf in the others.. How many people could ever be truly original and (ahem) groundbreaking? And failing that people are either influenced by what they think gardens ought to look like (like Dad's) or what they see in magazines. What else?
As for whether people might enjoy horticultural practice for its own sake, as opposed to finding easier ways to manage the patch outside which most people with a house in the uk get landed with, - that's an interesting idea. I notice it's what the posh gardeners like Ursula Buchan are unselfconsciously into and is clearly what they think a garden is for. So you're not alone. (see http://new.spectator.co.uk/2015/11/top-tips-for-gardeners-from-stroking-seedlings-to-stacking-logs/)
I kind of think you've not quite got to the heart of your own concerns here?
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