Who’d have thought it?
The young are said to be taking up gardening in their droves, spending their time in front of the potting station instead of their Play Stations. The Mail reports that a survey carried out by Lloyds Bank Insurance reveals that people in their twenties like nothing more than pottering in their gardens.
Not just a women’s pastime
About six months ago I was talking with a friend (no names mentioned) whom I’d occasionally swap plants with. She happened to mention that her husband (also my friend) didn’t get involved with the gardening because he thought plants were a feminine thing.
I was quite taken aback that thoughts like this could still be out there. Having been working in horticulture all of my working life I’d have expected to hear a comment like this ten to twenty years ago, but not today.
My friend is in his mid-fifties and ex-military – now he’ll know who I’m talking about if he happens to read my blog (which I know he does from time to time:) – and has been brought up in a very male dominated and macho world.
I guess it’s the same for cooking. Years ago it was considered a women’s job to cook. Many men worked as chefs but very few would, it seemed, admit to cooking at home.
Now look at the cooking programmes on TV which feature men?
I can only hope that this revolution can continue into the horticulture world. What I also hope is that TV doesn’t just concentrate on garden design and show gardens.
Sure, Chelsea makes good television but it’s not the kind of gardening world I, or 99% of my peers, work in.
I’m an unashamed fan of The Victorian Kitchen Garden. Listening to the tones of presenter Peter Thoday and head gardener Harry Dodson made this garden project unmissable. That’s the challenge for the next gardening show.
Isn’t it exciting….it’s now our time:)
After starting my garden maintenance and landscaping business in 1984 and running it for 21 years I decided I needed a change of direction (probably a mid life crisis, no seriously! :-0) Together with my family, wife Donna, Son Henry and Daughter Fleur (not forgetting Hector the Black Labrador) I moved to France in search of an old farmhouse to renovate. In the interim period whilst waiting for the contract to go through I started writing a blog. Initially just to keep a diary for family and friends to keep up with our progress if they wished but then it occurred to me that there isn’t a real time watcher of the landscape industry in the UK. I didn’t want to waste my experience and experiences so I decided I could put all of this Juice to good use so I started Landscape Juice.
Source: Landscape Juice – Is Gardening the New Play Station? – Philip Voice
