Are there more female gardeners than male ?

philippasmith2

I noticed a comment the other day on a Garden forum which suggested that this forum was run by women who liked to gossip over the garden fence.
No mention was made re experience, knowledge etc. being offered by any particular gender so I took it to be a mysoginist grump.
Did get me wondering tho what the ratio was when it comes down to gardening ?  I've always loved gardening but my OH isn't really bothered one way or another ( always happy to scoff the edibles I grow tho ! )

Dovefromabove

philippasmith2 said:

I noticed a comment the other day on a Garden forum which suggested that this forum was run by women who liked to gossip over the garden fence.
No mention was made re experience, knowledge etc. being offered by any particular gender so I took it to be a mysoginist grump.
...

Some forums seem to attract folk who like fantasising about bossy older women ... hey ho ... I’m glad they’ve found a place where they feel at home 🤣 

tuikowhai34

Down this way there are probably more men who tend the vegetable garden - maybe more women on the floral bits of the garden.

Biglad

3 women and one biglad in our household. There's only one with the remotest interest in the garden

josusa47

I don't know about this, but I do remember an old lady I used to visit telling me she was happy about her granddaughter's new boyfriend because he was a gardener, and a man can't be bad who likes gardening.

pansyface

For people of my generation, it was generally the mother who stayed at home and the father who went out to work. My mother was the gardener because she was there all the time. My father liked gardening, and I’m sure he would have liked to do more, but he had to keep bread on the table.

She taught both my brother and me to garden and we are both keen gardeners.

philippasmith2

Dovefromabove said:

Some forums seem to attract folk who like fantasising about bossy older women ... hey ho ... I’m glad they’ve found a place where they feel at home 🤣 

I imagine we are talking about the same party

It just piqued my interest and I could well be wrong but historically ............was it men who led the major landscaping and women who were more into filling said landscaping with appropriate planting ?  Grand plans by one and actually bringing the plan to fruition by another ? Not something I've particularly thought about before.

No idea whether there are more female than male using this forum but quite a few refer to their OH's (of either gender ) as having little or no interest/input other than stating "I like this" or "I don't like/want that ".  By the same token, many work happily together and divide the gardening tasks each to their abilities and expertise.

I doubt it really matters - not enough to cause controversy at any rate.  I'm just tired of digging brambles and stuff

Dovefromabove

Pigs and goats 🐖 🐐   

 @philippasmith2 ... that’s what I used when I had a lot of brambles to deal with ... but not an option for everyone, I’ll concede that 😉 

philippasmith2

pansyface said:

For people of my generation, it was generally the mother who stayed at home and the father who went out to work. My mother was the gardener because she was there all the time. My father liked gardening, and I’m sure he would have liked to do more, but he had to keep bread on the table.

She taught both my brother and me to garden and we are both keen gardeners.

I think we are of a similar age but both my parents worked fulltime.  I think my father had more interest in "making a garden" .  As children, my sisters and I had to "weed" for our pocket money but only 2 of us grew up to be remotely interested in gardening.
If you were lucky enough to obtain council housing in earlier times, they always seemed to have larger garden plots which enabled people to have a decent veg plot as well as a more decorative garden. The reverse seems to be true these days.

philippasmith2

Biglad said:

3 women and one biglad in our household. There's only one with the remotest interest in the garden

I'll take it that's you

Lizzie27

I'm hoping we can add a couple more female ones soon. My 9yr old granddaughter was given 2 tomato plants by their NDN this year, she looked after them very well and was overjoyed when they fruited. Now DIL's interested in growing more veg, especially herbs as she loves cooking. Grandma's encouragement has paid off!