A quiet and tranquil spot at Bryan's Ground, home of Hortus
I read with interest James’ post over at Federal Twist lamenting the general attitude in the US, and particularly its media, to gardening as a hobby. I was really interested in this post as it followed in the same thoughts as a post I had written a few weeks ago about the British media, and in particular the BBC.
James posed the question “is gardening a hobby or is it something more” and this has got me to thinking about my own attitude to gardening and what indeed is a hobby? The dictionary definition of hobby is “an activity or interest participated in for relaxation or pleasure, and typically done in one’s leisure time”. I think the majority of gardeners would see that as a fair description of their view of gardening. But, and it’s a big but, there are some of us who see it as something far bigger, far more consuming, something that dominates our lives and influences many of our decisions, something we are passionate about. Well I do and maybe I’m the only one but I don’t think so!
As far as I can see the media, both in the UK and other countries, classes gardening as a hobby and categories it along with other hobbies such as cooking. It is seen as something creative like sewing or knitting and therefore much of the media representation takes the form of instructions on how to or reviews of how others have done it. There is little appreciation that gardening and horticulture is a much wider ranging subject.
I am passionate about horticulture, about creating my garden, about raising plants, about viewing other people’s creations. I read, almost exclusively, gardening books and magazines, I write two blogs about gardening. It is all-consuming for me and some of my friends are as bad! However, I believe that we are in the minority. I believe that most gardeners are weekend gardeners who are simply not interested in our gardening culture, in cutting edge design, in the complexities of plant breeding. No they want to know how to get the green area outside their house looking nice. Which is fine, don’t get me wrong but some of us want more.
So how do we move things on? How do we get interesting, thought-provoking writing about gardening in magazines instead of formulaic garden review after garden review? How do we get gardening television and radio programmes that are more than providing instructions on what to do in your garden this weekend? We have to do it ourselves. No obviously we don’t have the budgets to produce our own magazines, although Hortus is an excellent example of this approach, or our own television programmes but we can start to push for better and the best place to start is at our own front doors so to speak – with our blogs.
I have been writing my blog about gardening for nearly three years and I have to admit that I have got lazy. I churn out the same stuff over and over, posts that it would be fair to say are banal and boring. But it has become more and more apparent to me that my changing tastes and my growing interest is reflected in the blogs I read. I don’t read the blogs any more which post picture after picture of plants and I don’t tend to read the blogs that post every day or every other day nor the ones that post about what they have done in the garden this week. I’m not criticising these blogs, every blogger blogs for their only personal reason but I find myself drawn more to the blogs that have something new to say, that write honest critical reviews about gardens, that write interesting posts about plants I have never heard of, that show me techniques or planting styles I hadn’t encountered before.
If we want to improve the approach our media takes to gardening then we need to improve our own approach to writing about it, and I include myself in this. You have only to look at how the media has changed its attitude to vegetable growing and in particular allotments from an image of elderly men in cloth caps to yummy mummies and more interesting and unusual edibles to see that if there is a general demand for better or different sooner or later the media will just have to go with it or sink in the backlash.
As you say, perhaps it’s up to us to create what we seek. Gardening does dominate my life, as you has said it does yours. Happy we’ve reconnected.
Helen
I see gardening as being as much a part of a civilised life as the enjoyment of good literature, fine food, excellent music, etc etc. At its best, that is what gardening has always been about, ever since the ancient Sumerians looked at each other and said: “You know what Gilgamesh’s brand new bare stone palace needs…”
I think it’s wonderful how gardening has become so many different things to so many different people in the modern world, including a suitable subject for a bit of pop-sociology from the pop-sociologists.
I live in Portland, Oregon and I am happy to say that it is very much a city of gardeners. As you probably already know, it is a region with many gardeners, with some of the best nurseries in the the United States. This makes my turn on this subject rather limited since I have never wanted to live anywhere else, but I really wanted to say something. Your post was thought provoking and will have me thinking for the next few days.
I think that we rarely refer to gardening as a hobby anymore, but instead, it is now included in a long list of activities for life-stylists. I often actually tell people I lead the garden lifestyle and they know exactly what I mean. I just thought that I would throw that out there because it shows that some group of us apparently has some kind of disdain for the word “hobby” over here.
Lastly, I agree with the mundane nature of the ongoing documentation of many garden blogs, but in some way, it just points to the ridiculousness of it all. I too take it all very seriously, and I am glad that you wrote this entry. I look forward to seeing what you yourself make of it in the future.
Agree with you Helen,I am now avoiding blogs which I feel don’t offer anything different.
I know gardening is changing by the questions the public asks me.The media need to be careful in how they approach aspects of horticulture.I feel they may be getting it wrong.
I am giving this post 5 out of 5 picks, the first time I have done this. The blogosphere is so vast, after a while we gravitate to people who share our ideas and values. The trouble with this is: we tend to preach to the converted. Another thing I have been thinking about it is the lack of knowledge about the world of gardening blogs by the gardening community and the media. I see my blogging as the other side of the coin to my gardening: different forms of expression. The problem with most mainstream gardening media is that they are beholden to their advertisers – who do not profit from our ideas. I’m excited – let’s talk more about this. (Can’t the world before dinner). cheers, catmint
James – yes glad we have connected, hope we can meet up when you pop over the pond
Jamie – I agree that gardening being part of civilised life just as much as art, literature etc unfortunately the media seems to pigeonhole it
Ann – a gardening lifestyle sounds wonderful. If I said I lived a gardening lifestyle to someone here in the UK they would look at me as though I was mad. Maybe I will move to Portland!
Michelle – glad you agree though I think we have similar views quite a bit
Catmint – thank you so much for the 5 picks and I am so glad that we have connected on this. Dont feel such a lone voice now
Would you share a handful of blogs you enjoy – that meet your new criteria? I see lots of familiars on your blogroll. Which are the outstanding ones?
Hi Elephant’s Eye
Your question is a hard one to answer as I follow so many blogs, but the ones I am really enjoying at the moment are: Federal Twist, Edith Hope, Clay and Limestone, Hazeltress and Garden Amateur, though next month it might be something else.
Dear Helen – cheered up by your snow dome effect leading into this extremely thought provoking piece which I shall go to bed pondering. You are right, gardening tends to have a dumbed-down image. I remember being asked ‘are you really a gardener?’ as if I had admitted to the lowest trade imaginable. Hobby smacks of dabbling – it is up to us to be more rigorous and cerebral. Apt on the media – perhaps it is time for a new magazine that slots in between Hortus and the glossy lifestyle ones.
Well, it’s certainly a passion for me. And, I sometimes wonder if just speaking passionately and blogging passionately gets lots of other people on the bandwagon. I see my neighbors planting tons more flowers and ripping up their lawns. Perhaps my relentless chatter had something to do with that.
Well said! Though I would add that I wouldn’t mind if gardening magazines published ‘garden review after garden review’ if they were insightful and in depth, instead of flattering (I’m being polite) puff pieces! I’m also not a great fan of the ‘yummy mummy’ approach to allotments as that often just seems to be about fashion and consumption, and reflects the media’s fixation with beautiful people. Bring back the elderly men in cloth caps I say!!
very interesting…
I have come to believe that gardeners on the whole are not the people we should be attempting to engage with gardens. Gardeners are very preoccupied with acquiring plants or growing vegs, less, it seems, with appreciating or creating gardens for their own sake.
I listen to music and read novels but I don’t write music or novels. There are people out there in the world who would love gardens if only they came to appreciate what they can offer. For that we need serious garden reviews in the review sections of the press and intelligent discussion of gardens outside the ‘gardening’ pages.
I think blogs may also be helping move us in this direction by being more reflective and abrasive about the gardens they visit than the mainstream garden media would ever dare to be.
I hope for change and believe http://www.thinkingardens.co.uk is a solid move in that direction. People who are looking for good garden writing may find it hits the spot.
XXXXXX Anne
Hi Helen, This is a really thought provoking post. I am very new to the world of blogging and even reading garden blogs, but quickly found a number of blogs that give me as much pleasure to read and excitement as the latest issue of the all-too-few good gardening magazines dropping on the doormat… yours, of course, is one of them! Sara
A most thought provoking follow up post to your original post on the media Helen. Your consuming passion and excitement for all things plants and gardens comes through in your blog which is why I enjoy reading it. I think that this relatively new branch of the media is the least exclusive and offers the best prospects for the future. I am not sure whether it is my age but I am somewhat cynical, as to whether there will be much in the way of change as far as tv coverage etc. goes but we must live in hope
I have always thought blogs are an effective way to reach niche audiences – which sadly I think serious garden reviews and unusual plant profiles fall into. However, I also have a handful of blogs I read just because I love the ‘voice’ they have and because I know they will make me smile.
But yes, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if blogs began to be the trail blazers in terms of more interesting garden coverage – yours amongst them.
Hi Dawn – I also have a handful of blogs that I look forward to posting as I enjoy their writing style and as you say their ‘voice’ . My post was aimed primarily at people who moan about the media (myself included) to say that if you want things to change then you (and I) need to show through your blog what exactly it is you want – if you see what I mean. However, this doesnt mean that I only want to read ‘serious and dry’ blogs far from it – humour helps in the delivery.
A very interesting and thought provoking post that I thoroughly enjoyed reading!
Curious thing about what you said about the use of the word hobby when it comes to gardening. I’m one of those people who refer to gardening as my main hobby, solely on the basis that I have a non plant related, full time profession and source of income. But in fact, this ‘hobby’ occupies most of my waking hours outside of work, a major outlet of my daily physical exertions, spend a big chunk of my income on it, a central basis of general way of thinking. Heck, I even plan our holidays based on it. Not bad for just a ‘hobby’ eh!
But it’s true that we lot are still a relative minority, most generally conceived gardeners are the weekend gardener types. There is so much more to it indeed, lots of technicality, science, and art to it. The wonderful world of horticulture and lanscaping.
I know of a really knowlegeable plantsman, who’s been to different parts of the world collecting exotic plants from colder areas comparable to the climate in the UK. He has lots of interesting knowledge to share but his contract with publishers has been withdrawn due to the recession, as his subject matter is regarded as too niche. The same publishers that continue churning out summer bedding and container gardening sort of books which appeals more to ‘weekend gardeners’. But that’s where the money is.
But a slow change is definitely happening. There’s more resource books now than it has ever been, more choices on specialist subject matters in horticulture. It’ll only get better I think.
Ah yes, our blogging tastes definitely change as there is one thing constant in life, and that is change. I think by posting and talking about our lives we all have equally important things to say, though some things may not be as thought provoking as other things. Does that make sense? Perhaps the Federal Twist post was just more thought provoking? I think of gardening as a passion and even though I try to do it fulltime it is still something I would consider a hobby-an activity that interests me. Each of us has our own interests and they vary like our hair color. Perhaps gardening does not get so much attention because generally our food supply is safe, there is not usually scandal amongst gardeners, and while gardening can be dirty work it is surely a passion that does not usually infringe on the rights of others and therefore does not sell so many newspapers or magazines as something like Star or People?
Additionally, many of the well known professionals in the plant industry (at least in my small part of the world) folks like Don Shadows and Paul Cappiello-they generally are not going to blog because they are so busy breeding and growing plants that their focus is most definitely elsewhere. As well it should be. We that blog don’t get into the nuts and bolts because we usually don’t have the credentials and let’s face it, most readers don’t want all that information. That is the beauty of blogging-there is something for everyone out there and you need only look for it. So glad you found a thought provoking blogger to broach the subject of gardening as a hobby.
Really enjoyed reading your blog Helen. In my mind there is a gardening scale. At one end sits the complete novice, hooked on everything horticultural, eager to absorb as much insight from the usual gardening mags and tv personalities [gardening* as a hobby]. Perched on the other end are those who dedicate their lives to gardening, have usually gained a list of qualifications/experience and are actively involved in passing on traditions as well as pushing forward new ideas + practices [gardening as a profession].
I reckon the majority of people with the gardening bug are happy concentrating on developing their own gardens/plots, as you suggest, making it ‘nice’ to look at and hopefully a bit productive too; which is great.
The demand for TV programmes is dictated by the masses and for some reason a weird cultural phenomenon has taken over, the majority seem to get a kick out of reality TV. I remember looking at the BBC tv commissioning process a couple of year’s back and being horrified that more ideas for this kind of programme was being actively sought by them. Unfortunately it all comes down to numbers and money.
Personally, I feel that the advent of blogging and independent garden-related websites and articles, has provided a forum for those who are interested in challenging expectations and exploring new ideas. May they continue to flourish and draw attention [thinking of thinkingardens here]!
Right, need to start up the blogging, properly this time. So there’s no pressure!
* I use the term ‘gardening’ here to refer to both camps; horticulture and design.
I found your blog via Janet at Plantilisious and wanted to comment by saying for those of us who live and breathe anything with a cholroplast – that it was interesting to read your point of view – I could no more attempt weekend gardening than live without air – we all have our own reason for gardening – reconnection, food, life, love – thank you again!
Interesting. I would never say that gardening is my hobby. To me the very word suggests something trivial while gardening in particular occupies much of my waking thought and is fundamental to my life. It’s part of the fabric of my life, as my family is. I have found a number of blogs which I read regularly. Some, like yours, blog mainly about gardening. Others are more like mine and blog about all sorts, including gardening. Both types of blog engage me far more than much that is published in the media. They are immediate, passionate, personal, often erudite or knowledgeable. A lot of what is written in the gardening media is formulaic (looking after your lawn, yawn). Blogs are never like that, at least not the ones I read!
As Sharon says it is down to numbers and money – the media is the way it is because they need to earn a profit and the majority of people ARE weekend gardeners (if they garden at all) and DO want to read about ‘How To… look after your lawn’ (despite the instructions for lawn care remaining the same year after year!) as well as read garden reviews.
I can’t say I agree with catmint who says mainstream gardening media is beholden to advertisers. I think this is a bit of a myth and a misconception (at least in my experience). Rather, mainstream media – like all other businesses – is being squeezed and squeezed. There is no money, time or any other resource.
I do agree with Anne – for any meaningful change in perception of gardening to happen engagement, conversation and discussion on gardens needs to occur outside of the enclosed ‘gardening’ world. I would also say that gardening/horticulture needs to be more ‘professional’ and attract better people into the industry, which I think it often fails to do (but this is a whole other discussion and a whole other can of worms). As it is, it is not seen as being a serious subject and it is widely viewed as ‘just’ a hobby.
Hello Helen, What a great read – yours and everyone who has posted thus far. For many of us a hobby is something we do for pleasure in our spare time. Obviously when it takes hold of our lives it has surpassed that name of ‘hobby’ and becomes something else.
In Canada we don’t have many, if any, garden shows anymore on television. The best show ended over 10 years ago; its host didn’t really do interviews but strolled through the garden of some regular Canadian gardener and let them do the talking. How I miss it. Our few magazines are fine, beautiful photos of course, but the same old stuff churned over, perhaps geared towards obtaining new subscribers rather than keeping the old. Their mandates do not include history and so my own suggestion of writing for them like in my blog Women and the Garden were turned down. Their loss and yet mine as well, as I would be interested in reading something other than coneflowers this, and holly bush that. Thank heavens for blogs. I can try them all and pick and read the ones that interest me.
Hi i am new here and i found that this post elicited a big discussion. The subject matter, however, i think, will be very apt in your part of the world. Here, it is very different. I will be following the progress of this debate, and the progress of your intentions. thank you. BTW, i am a horticulturist (postharvest horticulture) whose childhood was in a farm, but now in the big city doing something far from the soil, but still longs to be back to the farm, do butterfly farming and be happy! Maybe that happens when i dont need to earn my keep anymore, which horticulture in this country might not be able to do just yet.
Is gardening a hobby because most of us don’t make our main incomes from it? Is raising children a hobby? Is volunteering time to make the world a better place a hobby? And by contrast is toiling at polluting, soul-deadening, socially unjust workplaces the only things that considered the only worthwhile thing to do with our time? Give me gardening and any other worthy “hobby” any day!
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Very interesting post Helen. Talking as someone who turned her back on a well paid, stable IT job to re-train and work in what is my all consuming passion, the fact that gardening is often seen as it is does drive me to distraction sometimes. Not only in the ‘hobby’ respect that you discuss, but as a choice of career. I have sadly encountered people who think that gardening as a profession is for those who don’t necessarily need to make a decent living from it and that I just tootle about all day colouring in and pointing at things (I wish!). They see TV programs or read magazines where the designer does a couple of concept sketches, meets with the clients a few times and ta-da! a beautiful, adventurous (and usually expensive) garden appears. I’d like to see a lot more writings, programs on the nitty gritty of what working in all aspects of horticulture means to those who do it (and even by those who have benefited from it). I write a blog where I try to show a bit of what’s involved in the process of designing and getting a garden built, how I came to solve problems that are set by the clients, site conditions, contractors and the like. This, and the kind of blogs etc you mention that you choose to read can only help the image & perceptions of what being involved in gardening & horticulture – as a job or not – change for the better.
I am new to blogging and didn’t know about Blotanical before I started. My purpose in blogging was to communicate, in a magazine article-type style, substantial shade plant and garden information to my customers who subscribe to my blog . I put hours and hours of time into each post researching, photographing, writing, and editing. When I found your post, I was reading the current top picks on Blotanical and getting more and more discouraged because my style does not seem to fit with what people want. Although many of the posts are interesting, I hope I won’t insult anyone by saying that many are not substantial. However, I concluded as I read on Blotanical that that’s what people want so that’s fine. I hadn’t quite decided what to do about it. Your post has inspired me to continue the way I have been going and to focus on my primary audience and my own standards for success. Thank you so much. Carolyn
Interesting points raised.
How many of have actually tried submitting an article or idea to a magazine? Not necessarily succeeding in getting published but even just to be read. This might help editors see another side to gardening other than that with which they are familiar. The side you want. I’ve just been blogging for a few months and in that short span of time have come across blog posts that would have been worthy (in my mind) of actual publication that non-plant/garden enthusiasts would still be able to appreciate. In fact, I much prefer the blogosphere for interesting garden/horticulture reading than traditional media.
I find that if one is passionate about something and can discuss it with other people who are not like-minded without sounding obsessive or maniacal, one might actually make the other people reconsider or shift their thinking. None of my friends understood why I wanted to collect plants. Nor could most of them relate to my choosing watering and weeding over socializing. At least that’s the way it was in the beginning. I now have relatives, friends and colleagues who now have their own collection of plants that they care for as much as I do — media notwithstanding.
Is there a middle ground between hobby and way more than hobby? I’ll tell you straight out I don’t read or like blogs that post every day, that’s just all pics, that lists garden chorses etc. I’m like you in that regard. And yet the “hobbyist” in my is a voyeur, so sometimes a photo tour is nice, though not cerbral enough most of the time. I sound like a dick. I too am into design, maybe not breeding, but certainly into what plants work in my garden, how, where, their life cycles, what ife they bring into the garden. I’m into garden theory, criticism. But I also have other things going on, like writing and teaching and sleep and cookies. Anywho, it’s a debate, debates are fun, but they leand to rambling comments such as my own.
There is room for all sorts of approaches to gardens be it pursuit of a hobby or the 3-Dexploration of some deeply held philosophy. I think there should be live and let live. So let those who do photo blogs do them and those who want intellectual discussions have them. There are the vehicles, be it blogs, magazines, societies enough for a very broad church and that is healthy.
I appreciate your gentle evangelical approach. What I find completely obnoxious is the approach of those pretended aesthetes who write off ‘gardeners.’ Thanks for raising this subject!
Best
Robert
There are activities such as performing snow-boarding tricks, which I would certainly call a “hobby”, except a few clever young men, such as Shaun White, have figured out how to make millions and millions of dollars from it, and no one much calls it a “hobby” now.
So the world respects snow-boarding tricks, and shows them on TV and in magazines, even though they are of no particular use, save no lives, cure no cancers, stops no killing, but mostly because a few people have made millions from it.
Let a few clever young men figure out how to make millions and millions from gardening in a glamorous way, and it won’t be a “hobby” any more.
What the mainstream media shows is what makes money, and gardening is quite beyond that. Does that make gardening less than it is, or does it tell you what the media is all about? Sarah Palin’s book is selling more copies this year than the books of George Eliot or Leo Tolstoy, but does that make it a better book?
Hi Helen, I’m finally getting caught up with the last month of posts on your blog, and I agree with others that this one was particularly thought-provoking. It’s interesting to think about how to categorize gardeners; I think it’s probably a continuum from those who are professional horticulturalists to those for whom a garden is another home accessory. In between, might be those for whom gardening might be considered a hobby (they put in a lot of time, get a lot of pleasure, but the garden is not at the center of their lives) and those of us (I include myself in this category) for whom gardening might best be considered an avocation.
Happily, the gardening blogosphere is now so large that there seems to be plenty of room for many different styles of blogging. While the blogs that regularly tackle meaty issues in an intelligent way might not be the most popular, they still can find their niche and attract readers.
Thanks for writing this and provoking such an interesting discussion.
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aloha,
i agree with your critique and have actually posted less each month so i can deliver more interesting content…i too just get tired of seeing pretty pictures and tend to gravitate to posts with value and agree that theres alot of fantastic garden bloggers with amazing observations…thanks for doing this and englightening your audiences and happy gardening new year!